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A harsh event is a driving incident detected when a vehicle’s accelerometer exceeds a set G-force threshold. Slamming on the brakes hard enough to reach 0.4G triggers a harsh braking event. Accelerating hard out of a junction, cornering too fast, or going over a pothole at speed can all register as harsh events depending on the thresholds set.
Fleet managers configure thresholds based on their vehicle type and fleet policy. Lower thresholds produce more events but also more false positives (urban stop-start traffic). Higher thresholds only catch genuinely dangerous behaviour.
- Harsh braking – linked to rear-end collision risk and brake wear
- Harsh acceleration – linked to fuel waste and drivetrain wear
- Cornering – linked to rollover risk on vans and HGVs, tyre wear
- Impact / collision – higher G threshold used for crash detection and evidence capture
- Per-driver scoring – events logged with driver ID, location, and severity for coaching