Watching the driver with AI

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Hello reader,

I visited an R&D center in Bengaluru last month, and the ride there felt mundane – until I stepped into the company cab. A black camera was mounted near the vehicle’s windshield, pointed inward. It was hard to ignore.

Wondering if I was being recorded, I felt uneasy. When I asked, the driver assured me that the camera doesn’t capture passengers. Instead, it focuses on the driver, alerting him when he speeds beyond city limits.

The monitoring device is built by Netradyne, a startup that uses AI cameras to keep track of drivers’ behavior and coach them in commercial fleets.

The company’s flagship system combines inward- and outward-facing cameras. One of its executives, Vinay Rai, says the device blurs passengers and pedestrians, keeps its focus on the driver, and switches off inward monitoring the moment the vehicle stops. Footage is then overwritten unless there’s a safety event.

The pitch isn’t surveillance but intervention. By flagging risky habits early, such as driver distraction or fatigue, Netradyne says it can help fleets reduce accidents, along with the costs that follow, from insurance claims and legal liability to downtime and repairs.

In today’s premium, we take a closer look at the startup, how its tech works, how credible its claims are, and whether AI cameras can meaningfully change how fleets manage safety.

Samreen Ahmad, journalist

Top Story

Bad road habits meet their AI reckoning

A vehicle with a Netradyne device mounted on its rearview mirror / Image credit: Netradyne

In 2019, distracted driving cost the US economy US$98.2 billion. That gap between everyday risky behavior and its eventual consequences is where Netradyne is building its business.

The startup says customers see a 70% to 80% reduction in accident rates within 12 months of deploying its flagship device. It also notes that its systems have analyzed more than 30 billion driving miles, with over 1 billion miles monitored every month.

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