Samsara Wearable takes safety outside the cab
SAN DIEGO—Samsara is making safety truly mobile with the Samsara Wearable, the focal point of the company’s new Work Safety tools. While the past few years of advancements in AI technology for dashcams, ADAS, and predictive maintenance are keeping drivers safer than ever while on the road, the job doesn’t end there. Loading and unloading late at night, often in remote areas, is no walk in the park either.
The Wearable is a line of defense that moves with your people—in or out of the cab.
The fleet management and safety company’s annual Beyond conference kicked off June 24 with a keynote led by Sanjit Biswas, Samsara CEO and co-founder. Biswas listed off numerous new AI enhancements to the telematics platform, including AI Multicam and Weather Intelligence, before concluding with Samsara Wearable, a physical product similar in size to the company’s Asset Tag, which was announced last year in Chicago at Beyond '24.
“Your teams work in all different kinds of environments, in extreme weather, sometimes late at night, and often by themselves, and if something happens out there, you want to be able to get them help," Biswas told the audience. "You want to be able to get them help quickly.”
Part of the company’s new Worker Safety tool rollout, the wearable device can be clipped to a belt or vest and features a panic button front and center, so it’s easy to locate and use. Other components include a speaker and microphone.
Built for rugged, real-world use, the product can work in conditions ranging from -40 degrees F to 140 degrees F and weighs only 80g. The device’s battery also lasts for over a year, meaning your drivers don’t need to remember to recharge it.
“You can just set it and forget it until you need it," Biswas explained.
This is made possible because instead of sending a signal through the cellular network, which Biswas noted “takes a lot of energy,” it sends a signal to the Samsara network. This means that it can bounce off of any nearby truck connected to the Samsara platform or phone running the Samsara app in order to send a signal to the cloud, utilizing the entire Samsara customer network of millions of devices and vehicles.
According to Chase Ayers, field sales engineer for Samsara, the device's Bluetooth capabilities work up to about 1,000 ft.
Biswas then demonstrated the product’s functionality, pressing the panic button a leaving a quick audio message: “Help, I’m giving a keynote in front of thousands of people, and I forgot my lines!”
The alert then populates in the main Samsara platform, which would be monitored by a manager. The alert includes a plethora of information, like the driver's information, audio message, a written transcript, timestamp, location information, and vehicle livestream. The manager could then dispatch a nearby employee to the location of the incident to check on the driver, dispatch 911, or do whatever is necessary to help take care of the situation.
The device also includes fall detection, which can send out an alert in the event of a slip or fall, which Biswas joked that he would not be demonstrating onstage. In the event of a false positive, workers have a three second window to cancel the alert before the SOS message is automatically sent.
Communication is not limited to one-way, however, and fleet managers are also able to reach out to their drivers through the built-in speaker in the case of severe weather, for example.
After the keynote, the company passed out the devices to everyone exiting the ballroom, providing a firsthand look at just how compact and convenient it is.
Univar Solutions, a global chemical distribution company, has been a Samsara customer for over four years and is testing the Wearables in their fleet operations. Rob McRae, VP of transportation for the company, spoke on the peace of mind that accompanies implementing the device for drivers in their tank farm and rail car operations in specific, where 40-degree, snowy conditions in Alberta, Canada are not uncommon.
When the "next operator is 150 ft. away at the pumping station, and you're alone up there in the dark unloading, if you slip or you fall, it might be minutes [before help arrives]," he explained, "and minutes in that kind of environment is too long."
Having the wearable device ensures instant communication and alert that something has happened in the event of an emergency, especially in situations where the driver may not have another device on them.
When on the road, "you may not have access to your tablet. You may have left your cell phone inside the cab of that vehicle," he added, mentioning incidents in the past where employees have been injured.
"Thankfully, in both of those instances the employees recovered fully, but minutes matter," he emphasized, "and it would have been an extra layer of security and safety for those employees."
Dustin Vock, director of transportation with Univar, said to think of it as just another piece of PPE, and potentially "one of the most valuable as it continues to make its way to market."
Home Depot has also been testing the product with their workers, and Kathleen Eaton, VP of safety and building service at the company, discussed the importance of keeping worker safety in mind in unpredictable environments.
"When I think about uncontrolled environments, I think about incremental risk," she explained, "and I think about the technology that the Wearable is providing the same way that I think about why I send my husband the link for my rideshare when I'm going from the airport to a hotel at midnight."
Even if everything goes alright, there may be a comfort for both managers and drivers knowing that should they need it, there is a backup plan that may be able to get them help more quickly in the event of an emergency.
"There's a psychological safety associated with somebody knowing where I am and when I should be there," Eaton continued.
