Samsara Inc. has launched a 360-degree AI camera designed for equipment used in construction, warehousing, mining and airport operations. The Samsara 360 Camera uses a dual-fisheye lens and is paired with Samsara Equipment, the company’s equipment-monitoring offering. Samsara says the package extends the kind of video safety and operational visibility already used on road fleets to machines such as excavators and forklifts.
These machines often have open cabs and work close to people and other equipment. Samsara argues that many of them have lacked a camera system built for those conditions, leaving incident investigations without ground-level footage and making liability disputes harder to resolve. The company also says the absence of video can allow unsafe practices to recur.
David Gal, Samsara’s vice president of product and engineering, said frontline workers operating forklifts, excavators and other ground equipment perform some of the riskiest work in physical operations. He said the machines often have open cabs, no windshield or roof and hazards on every side, and that the camera was built to withstand those conditions and provide surround visibility.
Conventional 360-degree setups for equipment typically require four cameras, four mounting points and a separate recorder, according to Samsara. The Samsara 360 Camera is designed to capture a full surround view from one mounting point. Managers can pan and zoom through recorded events to examine an incident from different angles. The device installs in a way similar to Samsara’s dash cameras and is built for harsh weather and rough operating conditions, the company says.
Much of the safety capability comes from Samsara AI, which the company says draws on nearly a decade of development in its AI Dash Cams. The system applies AI detections to equipment operations, flagging mobile phone use, camera obstruction, seat and lap belt use, and harsh impacts. Samsara says the models are trained on how equipment is actually operated.
From video to investigations and coaching
For managers, the camera is intended to make risk patterns easier to spot. Samsara says supervisors can see which operators, sites and equipment types are associated with repeated risky behavior. When an impact occurs, video is automatically routed to the Samsara Safety Inbox, giving investigators a record to work from rather than competing accounts.
The footage can also be used for coaching. Managers can review an operator’s own video with them, enforce zero-tolerance mobile phone policies and help speed OSHA investigations without adding headcount, Samsara says. The company adds that timestamped video can help with insurance claims and with establishing or clearing liability more quickly.
Equipment data on the same platform
Samsara Equipment adds monitoring and agent-based workflows alongside the camera. On the same platform used for road fleets, teams can track how long individual forklifts or excavators sit idle, schedule preventive maintenance based on engine hours rather than the calendar, and see how many forklifts actually run at peak periods before buying more. Samsara says its agents work with the equipment out of the box, allowing a fault code to open a work order automatically. The company also positions the combination as a way to avoid separate OEM portals for each equipment brand, keeping vehicles, equipment and operators on one platform.