Telematics.

Have been around since the 1960's but have evolved vastly over the past few years.

Tachometers were a good start when it came down to monitoring driver behaviour, and as technology has grown and improved so has the data that can be retrieved.

GPS and vehicle sensors has without a doubt made this much simpler and expanded the features that Telematics can retrieve data from.

So much so that the information that can be stored or transmitted is endless.

Telematics on vehicles if it doesn't make too much sense to you, is like a black box on an aeroplane, or for those who know a new driver who is trying to get cheaper car insurance, it's similar to the black box a new driver may ask to have fitted in their car so that their insurance company can keep an eye on their driving behaviour to be able to assess that they are keeping up with good habits taught before they passed their test or are slipping into poor ones that may make them an insurance liability.
If you don't know what a black box is, then in it's simplest terms it's a data recording device.

Since 2016 virtually ALL new vehicles manufactured are now fitted as standard with a Telematic device.

This has multiple advantages but some may say disadvantages.

Firstly Telematics has the ability to send data to the manufacturer from every single journey that is carried out in the vehicle it is fitted to.
From the manufacturer point of view this data is like gold dust. They can take information about the condition of their vehicles, the wear and tear on parts and when they have been replaced or serviced. They know where the vehicle has travelled and how many miles it has covered, When a car has a fault, what the fault is, if the cars stalls causing electrical issues, the age of the vehicle oil, it's tyre pressures and many many more things.

Some of this data is offered to certain customers if the manufacturer has an app, so that the customer can use the app to check some of the more basic items as listed above, but can also be beneficial if a car is stolen, as it will let the customer know the vehicles current location. It can even allow a customer to lock or unlock their car from anywhere in the world should they choose to!


Freight companies and fleet companies are possibly one of the biggest users of this information, as it allows them to keep track of the vehicles, their employees and how the employee is driving their vehicles.

The companies using this data will be able to see whether their employees are speeding, sticking to a route, braking heavily, steering heavily, accelerating heavily, this in turn will allow them to offer driver training to help improve things such as fuel efficiency, and safe driving from their employees, thus
protecting their property and keeping other road users safer in the process.

What a lot of people are unaware of, is how Telematics can be used in the event of a RTI (Road Traffic Incident).

In the event of a fatality, the Police accident and investigations teams will analyse this data to recreate EXACTLY what happened at the scene.
Linked with drone footage, mapping systems of the road, road surface, weather conditions, time of day, density of traffic and many other forms of data, they can collate all this information to give an accurate assessment of what happened and who was the cause of the accident.

Telematics can store date on so many things with a car, it's like having a live person in the car who can walk away and say exactly what went on.

The speed of the car, The angle of the steering, the pressure on the brake, how long it took the driver to come off the accelerator and the time it took them to then press the brake. How hard they pressed the brake, how long the pressed it for, what angle the steering was at while they were braking, did they change the steering, did they come off the brake, sensors to detect where the impact happened first, whether the ABS kicked in and for how long. The list of date that can be retrieved is HUGE.

So if in a fatal collision with no witnesses, answers can still be achieved.

Therefore, ALL vehicles with Telematics means the driver for all intent and purposes is being watched on EVERY JOURNEY!

As the technology keeps growing, there will no doubt be the time when a phones app will be able to notify the owner of the vehicle that brake pads are wearing down, ball joints are close to failing, tracking is out, suspension needs replacing etc etc. This would be a huge boost to road safety, especially for driver who may not be mechanically minded and only rely on a once a year mot to advise them of issues with their car.


The end goal for Telematics is huge, and as a prediction and knowing that the facility to transfer data anywhere in the world from those vehicles is already there, if the government were interested in making a clear statement about road safety and ensuring drivers DO abide by the rules of the road, they would easily be capable of implementing this data into a super computer that literally would know who is where, when and what they are getting up to.

For those of you who understand how the technology of average speed cameras work, and that no human intervention is needed to send off fines for breaching the rules of them, Telematics could do the same facility as those cameras on every single road anywhere in the world, which would see the end of all speed cameras or average speed cameras anywhere. This is because they wouldn't need them.

ULEZ cameras being torn down, AI speed cameras being ripped down a day after they were installed, and people thinking it's funny.
Let's see what happens when if they do as I predict and utilise Telematics for Policing. 

Anyone who broke the speed limit on ANY road would automatically receive a fine through the post. Anyone driving an untaxed, uninsured or un-mot'd would instantly be detected and fines sent. It wouldn't take long for a serial speeder to lose their licence. BIG BROTHER potential?

That might sound extreme, but the technology IS there, it's just a case of whether they implement it.