Over 20 years later, Lytx continues to evolve alongside the industry it serves

After 20 years, Lytx, has found itself evolving much in the same way that fleets and society at large have. Founded in 1998 as DriveCam, the company has transitioned into a data business providing insights unthinkable just a few years ago. .

Gary Johnson, director of risk and compliance management for the San Diego-based company, said that Lytx is able to tap into over 10 billion miles of new data every 10 days to help its clients become better informed.

“Our clients have gotten more sophisticated, and it’s what can we do with that data,” he told FreightWaves during a meeting at the National Private Truck Council’s (NPTC) 2019 Annual Education Management Conference and Exhibition, on Sunday at the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Lytx now has over 520,000 connected devices globally, protecting more than one million drivers, but it hasn’t accomplished these numbers by being stagnant.

“We’ve learned that you have to be flexible to give [customers what they want],” he said.

In 2001, the company released an event recorder. By 2005, that data was being reviewed and analyzed for clients, and by 2008, software that identified risky patterns was available. In 2015, the company launched its AcitveVision service that identified distracted and drowsy driving situations as well as unplanned lane departures. Optional live streaming and on-demand continual video were launched in 2017.

Johnson said much has changed in the industry during his time, including the fact that drivers are no longer scared of having cameras installed in their vehicles.

“When we do a trial, [companies] now have people volunteering to do the trial,” he said.

All the data that Lytx is compiling has not only been used to help fleets better train drivers, but also to identify trends, such as the Top 10 roads for cell phone use in the U.S. The list includes roads in Memphis, Tennessee and Los Angeles, California, as areas with the highest observed cell phone use, and the areas of Long Beach, California, New York City, and Berkeley, Illinois, as the risky areas.

The company now offers solutions for visibility with its Lytx Video Platform; safety with its Risk Detection Service and Driver Safety Program; and efficiency with its Fleet Tracking Service. Its solutions feature machine vision and artificial intelligence gleaned from over 100 billion miles of data to improve its systems.

“Where we innovate … it’s on that continued path to autonomous,” Johnson said. “It’s the data that is what feeds [autonomous].”

Of course, Lytx is perhaps most known for its video safety solution, which continually records video and archives it in a searchable database. Video has exonerated thousands of fleets and drivers involved in incidents and saved fleets hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements in recent years.

It’s Risk Detection Service provides dashboard and insight reports to help track and monitor risk and utilizes machine vision and AI to categorize and present that risk across the fleet. Adding the Driver Safety program adds in coaching elements to improve that risk profile.

“We know what happened and can train that out,” Johnson said, adding that the cameras have led to fewer terminations of drivers because fleets can correct poor driving behaviors before they lead to issues, and when there is an incident that isn’t the driver’s fault, the video affirmation can save the driver’s job.

Over its first 20 years, Lytx evolved from a camera-based safety company to a data-based safety company. It’s next 20 years is bound to be filled with more data, and even more innovate solutions ahead.