SANDY — As the 2024-25 school year begins, the Canyons School District will be implementing a new GPS and artificial intelligence-based safe driving system.
The system, developed by Samsara, can detect if a driver is ill, injured or distracted and alert district authorities within seconds.
“Through Samsara, we can mechanically tell if there's something wrong with the bus. We know if the driver is distracted, if they're taking their eyes off the road, if they're on their cell phone, if they're braking suddenly or taking a sharp turn,” said Matthew Curtis, dispatch coordinator for the Canyons School District.
Over the past week, the district's drivers have been getting acquainted with the new AI technology that has been rolled out to all 189 buses. Each bus was already equipped with multiple cameras, but now the programs have been synced up, allowing the AI to begin building a profile of each driver.
As the 2024-25 school year begins, the Canyons School District will be implementing a new GPS and artificial intelligence-enabled safe driving system. (KSL TV)
“We have cameras on our drivers all the time, and the cameras are watching the driver, they see what the driver is doing and they start to recognise who the driver is,” Curtis said.
Currently, when drivers board a Canyons School District bus, they log into the program on a tablet mounted near the steering wheel. Over time, that will change.
“Eventually, as the year goes on, we'll be able to recognize the driver and automatically log them in when they get on the bus,” Curtis said.
Instant Notifications
Now that the program is up and running, any concerns about driving behavior are sent to multiple employees in the district's transportation department.
“The alert will be sent within two seconds of them picking up their phone,” Curtis said.
From there, any behaviors of concern are addressed with the driver, and over time, the district will use the data collected from the program to improve training.
“We train and recertify our drivers a lot, and now we know what we need to train them better on, so we can focus on how we can make the safest route to school,” Curtis said.
Also new this year, the district will be implementing Wayfinder, a GPS program that allows all bus routes to be pre-programmed, which the district says will be extremely helpful for new and substitute drivers to navigate routes more safely.
“Last year we had drivers drive with paper maps,” Curtis said.
The new GPS and AI-powered technology cost the district about $500,000, a necessary expense that Curtis sees as a way to improve safety for not only the students in his district, but also the bus drivers.
“Student safety is our number one goal and the most valuable commodity we can transport,” Curtis said. “If we know what our drivers are doing, we can transport students more safely.”
