AI for good: Positive safety and sustainability outcomes

It seems like there has never been as much attention on artificial intelligence (AI) as there has in recent weeks. The story of Geoffrey Hinton announcing his resignation from Google was big news. And this sparked a flurry of articles about AI and its capabilities. At Greater Than we’re passionate about using AI for good and are proud to raise awareness of the power of AI in reducing driver impact on the roads.

The power of AI for good

AI has been recognized for its ability to do things humans haven’t yet managed to do. At least not as effectively or efficiently. Yet, for years, this type of machine learning has been used for positive outcomes. AI has been used to detect cancer, for example. It has even been used to help protect wildlife.

At Greater Than, we have been training our AI since 2004, using data from over 106 countries and 1,600 cities, to predict driver crash probability and climate impact. Because the AI is trained with damage data, saved CO2 emissions and fuel consumption, we’re able to analyze trips in real-time and predict actual real-world outcomes. By providing our customers with new insights into crash probability and climate impact, we empower them with knowledge that has the potential to reduce crashes and reduce driver impact on the planet.

Road safety is a global challenge

Globally, road traffic crashes cause nearly 1.3 million preventable deaths and an estimated 50 million injuries each year. As things stand, road crashes are set to cause a further estimated 13 million deaths and 500 million injuries during the next decade. They will also hinder sustainable development, particularly in low-and middle-income countries.

Recognizing the scale of the problem, governments from around the world declared — through UN General Assembly Resolution 74/299 — a Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021–2030 with the ambitious target to reduce road deaths and injuries by at least 50% during that period.

AI for good can contribute to road safety goals

AI can play a significant role in road safety efforts. Using only GPS data, AI can analyze driving in real-time to predict crash probability and climate impact. What makes this AI for good? With crash probability and climate impact insights, anyone involved in driver risk management – including fleets, telematics providers and insurance companies – benefit from:

• Rapid identification of 15% high-risk drivers who cause 50% of crashes
• Rapid identification of 85% lowest-risk drivers
• The ability to implement risk reduction tools targeted at the right drivers
• Data-driven insights to facilitate gamification and feedback to inspire safer behaviors
• Overview of risk, regardless of vehicle type or location
• Accurate insights to enable personalized insurance offers – which in turn, incentivize and reward safer driving

AI supports sustainability efforts and ESG reporting

In another example of using AI for good, it is a powerful tool in helping organizations contribute to the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Also, to meet new and upcoming Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting requirements.

AI can quantify climate impact by measuring CO2 savings in grams or percentage, or EV battery savings. Because it identifies the correlation between driver attitude and energy consumption, AI empowers drivers to take responsibility for their own climate impact. For a committed driver, this has the effect of reducing energy consumption by an average of 20%.

Such climate impact insights also help organizations with at-work drivers to identify those in need of eco training. By providing organizations with greater control over their climate impact, this is a powerful tool in the ESG toolkit.

To see an example of how AI is used to promote safe and sustainable mobility on a global scale check out the FIA SDC, which we launched in partnership with the FIA as the world’s only challenge in smart driving.

AI for good provides a competitive edge

More and more organizations are recognizing that, to remain competitive, they need to embrace technology, including AI. There are growing demands on companies to be customer-centric, to be aware of new ESG legislation, to reduce operating costs – to name just a few. Crash probability and climate impact intelligence can help companies meet many of the most pressing demands, including:

• Developing mobile-first, usage-based motor insurance solutions that incentivize safe, sustainable driving
• Demonstrating commitment to ESG, including driver safety and sustainability
• Providing intelligence to driver risk management companies, service providers and insurers to manage and mitigate driving risk and reduce associated costs

It’s easy to start using AI for good

Any organization that uses GPS data is in the ideal position to start using AI for good. At Greater Than we’re proud to make the benefits of AI easily accessible to our customers. All that’s required is 1km of GPS data, which can be shared with us via a simple API connection.

Once a company connects to our platform, our AI processes and analyzes every trip against billions of previous real-world trips. This identifies patterns in driving behavior and provides insight into crash probability and climate impact. The analyzed data can be pushed to a company’s existing fleet management system, a driver app, SDK or visualized via one of Greater Than’s add-on solutions.

Contact Greater Than or book a meeting to learn more about how your organization can benefit from AI for good.