AI-Powered Safety: Smoking

Motive’s Smoking AI Detection helps identify when a driver is holding or smoking a cigarette while operating a commercial vehicle. It helps fleets enforce high-risk policies with consistency and efficiency to augment smoking policy enforcement.

Overview

Smoking AI is designed to enhance fleet safety by:

  • Reduces driver distraction. Smoking often requires a driver's hand off the wheel and eyes off the road.
  • Reduces fire risk. Improperly discarded smoking materials can lead to vehicle fires.
  • Helps fleet compliance. Some companies and regions enforce no-smoking policies in commercial vehicles.
  • Maintains vehicle cleanliness and resale value. Cigarette smoke damages interiors, leaving lasting odors and residue.

Smoking AI detection logic

The system uses frame-by-frame image analysis with AI models trained on smoking gestures and visual indicators. 

  • A standard cigarette (short, white/brown stick)
  • Cigarette-like object in a driver's hand
  • Cigarette-like object in a driver's mouth

Note: The current model does not detect or analyze the following:

  • Vape devices 
  • Whether the cigarette is lit
  • Whether smoke is present

Smoking AI Model Thresholds Logic

Smoking AI events & alerts (future) are detected based on the following threshold settings:

  • The vehicle is moving at 5 mph or above
  • A cigarette is present in a driver’s hand or mouth for 5 seconds or more

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Does my device support Smoking AI? 

The Smoking AI feature is available to all customers with AIDC-54 driver-facing AI Dashcams. To ensure compatibility:

  • Check the Device Compatibility List in the Help Center.
  • Ensure your AI Dashcam and Vehicle Gateway firmware is up to date.
  • Contact your fleet administrator or customer support for assistance
Note: Smoking AI is available but turned off by default. Admins must enable it at the Company or Vehicle level

Enabling Smoking AI 

Settings options can be found in the new Unsafe Behavior Detection and Event Intelligence page of the Fleet Dashboard.

  1. Navigate to the Admin section on the Fleet Dashboard.

2. Click Safety.

3. Click Unsafe Behavior Detection and Event Intelligence.

3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and open the Smoking section by selecting Edit. Use the toggle to turn on Smoking events.image-20251112-193117.png

4. Click Save to confirm and apply any changes that have been made.

Note: Admin can turn Smoking AI on at the Company level to apply it fleet-wide, or enable it only for selected vehicles

Viewing Smoking AI

1. In Safety, click Events.
2. Use the Behavior filter on the report to search for Smoking events.

How is Severity calculated for Smoking? 

Smoking severity will always be marked as High. Smoking is either strictly prohibited or allowed, so all smoking events are High severity by default.

This simplifies enforcement for fleets and enables automatic coaching, especially given the elevated risk when smoking occurs on high-speed roads.
 

LOW: Not applicableMED: Not applicableHIGH: All events

 


 

Notification of Smoking AI

There are several ways Drivers can be notified of a Smoking event:

  • Via Fleet Dashboard: Drivers can view a list of all Safety events, and they can also view Smoking notifications on the Fleet Dashboard.

  • Via Motive Driver App: Drivers get automatic notifications in the Motive Driver App for high-severity Smoking events if auto-coaching is enabled.

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  • Coachable & reviewable image-based event
  • Mobile Pro Tip for Smoking Detection

Creating alerts and notifications when a Smoking event occurs

Email notifications for Smoking can be created from the Alerts section in the Fleet Dashboard.

1. From the Platform dropdown, click Alerts.

2. Click Create Alerts.

 

Smoking AI Limitations

The current version of the Smoking AI detection system is designed to identify smoking behaviors based on hand gestures and the presence of cigarette-like objects, even when the cigarette is unlit. Please note that vaping detection is not supported at this time.

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