Samsara Inc. has introduced the Samsara 360 Camera, a dual-fisheye-lens, 360-degree AI camera, together with Samsara Equipment, a monitoring offering for machines used in physical operations. The company positions the pair as a way to extend the AI safety and operational visibility it already sells for road fleets to excavators, forklifts and other equipment working in construction, warehouses, mines and airports.
Samsara says such machines typically run with open cabs, without a windshield or roof, often within feet of coworkers and other equipment, and that until now they have not had a camera system built for the job. Without footage from the ground, the company argues, incident investigations stall, liability is disputed and the same unsafe behaviours can be repeated.
"The frontline workers operating forklifts, excavators, and ground equipment do some of the riskiest work in physical operations," said David Gal, vice president of product and engineering at Samsara. He said the machines have open cabs and hazards on every side, and that the camera was built to work in those conditions and see all the way around the operator, so customers can protect workers on the warehouse floor, the job site and the ramp as they do on the road.
One mount instead of four
Samsara says conventional 360-degree equipment systems require four cameras, four mounts and a separate recorder. The 360 Camera captures a full 360-degree view from a single mount point, and managers can pan and zoom through any recorded event to watch it from every angle. It installs like the company's dash cameras and is built to withstand harsh weather and rough operating conditions.
What the AI flags
The camera runs on Samsara AI, which the company says draws on nearly a decade of development of its AI dash cams. According to Samsara, teams can:
- See every angle of risk, with AI detections that flag mobile phone use, camera obstruction, seat and lap belt use and harsh impacts, trained on how equipment is actually operated;
- Understand where risks are occurring, by identifying the operators, sites and equipment types that show repeat risky behaviour, with every impact automatically pulling video into the Samsara Safety Inbox so investigations close on evidence rather than competing accounts;
- Act before it happens again, by coaching operators on their own footage, enforcing zero-tolerance mobile phone policies and speeding up OSHA investigations without adding headcount, with timestamped video supporting insurance claims and helping establish or clear liability.
Equipment monitoring on the same platform
Samsara for Equipment combines with 360 Camera monitoring and Samsara agents on the platform the company already provides for road fleets. Teams can see how long a forklift or excavator sits idling, schedule preventive maintenance on actual engine hours rather than the calendar, and see how many forklifts run at peak before buying more. Samsara says its agents work with the equipment out of the box, so a fault code can open a work order automatically, and that every vehicle, piece of equipment and operator sits on one platform instead of a separate OEM portal for each equipment brand.
The announcement did not include pricing or availability information, and the safety and operational outcomes described are the company's own claims rather than independently verified results.