At the Samsara Beyond 2025 conference in San Diego, Samsara unveiled a transformative suite of AI-powered products aimed at revolutionising fleet management for managers, drivers, and frontline workers across industries such as transport, logistics and food.
Sanjit Biswas. Image: Fleetpoint
Hosted by Samsara CEO & Co-Founder, Sanjit Biswas; Samsara Chief Product Officer and Kiren Sekar they presented innovations that harness artificial intelligence to enhance safety, efficiency, and customer experience, marking a bold step into the “Age of Intelligence.”
Samsara’s keynote framed AI as the third wave of technological change, following computing (25 years to reach a billion users) and smartphones (8 years), with AI achieving this milestone in just 2 years. This rapid adoption underscores its potential to provide infinite safety experts, predictive maintenance, and optimised operations, tackling challenges like weather hazards (causing one in five road accidents) and maintenance-related violations. The Samsara team also announced a whole raft of product updates and announcements.
New Product Announcements
- AI-Enhanced Driver Vehicle Inspection Reports (DVIRs)
Samsara introduced an advanced DVIR system within its mobile app, using AI to ensure vehicle safety and streamline driver workflows. Key features include:
- Location Verification: Drivers must be near the vehicle to start a DVIR, preventing remote submissions.
- Photo Validation: AI confirms that photos are current and show the correct vehicle parts (e.g., rejecting outdated images or photos of the rear when the front is required).
- Voice-to-Text Reporting: Drivers can dictate notes (e.g., “Front left tyre needs replacement”), which AI transcribes in real-time, reducing manual effort and improving report quality.
- Impact: With over 250 million DVIRs completed annually on Samsara’s platform, this addresses the 60% of DOT violations tied to maintenance, ensuring vehicles are roadworthy and minimising downtime.
- End-to-End Maintenance Management
Samsara launched a comprehensive maintenance solution within its platform, reducing reliance on outdated third-party systems. Highlights include:
- Unified Dashboard: Fleet managers can view maintenance status, including defect reports, photos, and AI-interpreted fault codes, which clarify high-priority issues, risks, and troubleshooting steps.
- Work Order Creation: Managers can generate work orders with one click, incorporating AI-suggested repairs (e.g., fixing a tyre alongside an upcoming oil change to reduce downtime).
- Invoice Processing: AI analyses third-party invoices, instantly categorising line items into parts, labour, and service tasks, saving hours of manual data entry.
- Cost Insights: Provides analytics on labour, parts, and fuel costs, enabling optimisation across regions and vehicle types.
- Enterprise Route Planning and Optimisation
Optimised Route Planning
Samsara’s route planning tool uses AI to optimise delivery routes, cutting costs and boosting punctuality. Key features include:
- Data Integration: Imports orders via API or CSV, including customer details, delivery windows, item weights, and driver skill requirements (e.g., lift gate operation).
- Smart Optimisation: Factors in vehicle types (e.g., refrigerated vs. non-refrigerated lorries), road restrictions, traffic, and stop times. A demo showed 75 deliveries completed with six vehicles instead of eight, avoiding overtime and covering under 350 miles.
- Flexibility: Supports manual adjustments and real-time updates for adaptability.
- Impact: Mohawk Industries reduced annual mileage by 4 million miles and saved $8 million through optimised routing.
- Turn-by-Turn Commercial Navigation
Samsara integrated commercial-grade navigation into its Driver App, overcoming limitations of consumer apps like Google Maps. Features include:
- Vehicle-Specific Routing: Accounts for lorry size, weight, height, and hazardous material restrictions to avoid unsafe routes (e.g., low bridges or residential roads).
- Real-Time Data: Includes live traffic and weather updates for safer, more efficient navigation.
- In-App Experience: Offers a driver-friendly interface with spoken turn-by-turn directions, keeping focus on the road.
- Availability: Set to launch in summer 2025, enhancing driver safety and efficiency.
- Weather Intelligence
Weather Alert
Samsara’s Weather Intelligence solution integrates real-time weather data to improve safety and planning:
- NWS Alerts: Incorporates National Weather Service alerts into the dashboard, identifying affected drivers and assets (e.g., 67 drivers in a Texas flood watch).
- Dash Cam Integration: Provides live footage from fleet dash cams, showing ground-level weather conditions.
- StreetSense Network: Uses anonymised data from millions of Samsara-connected vehicles for near-real-time weather insights (e.g., road conditions 20 seconds ago), with privacy controls.
- In-Cab Alerts: AI generates concise, human-like audio warnings via dash cams, keeping drivers informed without app checks.
- AI Multi-Cam for 360-Degree Visibility
Samsara introduced the AI Multi-Cam, a 360-degree camera system to boost driver safety:
- Comprehensive Coverage: Small, unobtrusive cameras provide HD video around the vehicle, with a real-time cab monitor.
- AI-Powered Alerts: Detects pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles, alerting drivers to potential collisions (e.g., a cyclist during a turn).
- Applications: Supports industries like waste management (navigating residential streets) and school buses (monitoring children).
- Availability: Shipping starts in summer 2025, compatible with existing Samsara cameras.
- Worker Safety and Wearable Device
To protect frontline workers, Samsara launched the Worker Safety solution, including a new wearable:
- Samsara Wearable: A compact device with a panic button, speaker, and display, built for durability with a battery lasting weeks (using nearby Samsara-connected vehicles or apps for connectivity).
- Features: Supports SOS alerts, audio messages, and fall detection, with GPS for precise location data (e.g., 75 feet from a vehicle).
- Dashboard Integration: Shows SOS events with transcripts, locations, and live-stream options for rapid response.
- Mobile App Alternative: Offers similar functionality via the Driver App, including wellness check-ins for lone workers in high-risk settings like oil and gas or late-night deliveries.
- Availability: Available in summer 2025, with Home Depot exploring its use for lone workers.
- AI-Powered Safety Insights and Coaching
In-Cab Alerts
Samsara enhanced its safety platform with AI-driven insights and coaching:
- Behavioural Analysis: AI assesses dash cam footage to identify defensive driving (e.g., braking to avoid a pedestrian) or risky behaviours (e.g., mobile use), adjusting safety scores.
- Safety Dashboard: Flags high-risk drivers based on event severity, context (e.g., weather, time), and coaching history, while recognising top performers (e.g., 40 hours of focused driving).
- Gamified Driver App: A redesigned app with streaks, progress bars, and short coaching videos (e.g., a 5-second clip on texting risks) makes safety engaging. University saw a 29-point safety score increase weeks after coaching.
- Driver Recognition: Offers digital rewards (e.g., gift cards) to boost retention, with recognised employees 45% less likely to leave.
- Happy Robot Partnership for Voice-Based AI
Samsara partnered with Happy Robot to integrate voice-based AI for communications:
- Automated Interactions: Manages delivery updates, driver onboarding, and payment collections, automating over 80 million weekly interactions for clients like DHL.
- Personalised Service: AI agents handle human-like conversations, navigating phone trees and providing updates (e.g., sending tracking links or rerouting drivers).
- Impact: Saves time, increases driver show-up rates, and enhances customer experience by handling high-volume communications.
Availability
Most products, including navigation, Weather Intelligence, Worker Safety, and AI Multi-Cam, launch in summer 2025. DVIR enhancements, maintenance management, route optimisation, and safety insights are available now, with Mohawk and Home Depot providing beta feedback.
For more details, visit Samsara’s website.
