Android Hardware Requirements for Event Detection

The Android ecosystem has a wide range of devices with varying hardware and sensor specifications. Zendrive SDK requires specific sensors to generate driving insights for various driving events. This page lists all the sensors required to detect each event type.

Sensor Requirements for Events

The Zendrive SDK queries the following sensors/hardware from the Android OS as inputs to the following event detection algorithms:

Event Type	GPS	Accelerometer	Magnetometer	Gyroscope	Proximity Sensor
Collision Detection		Must have	Must have	Good to have
Automatic Trip Detection
Aggressive Acceleration		Must have	Good to have	Good to have
Hard Braking		Must have	Good to have	Good to have
Hard Turns		Must have	Must have	Must have
Phone Handling		Must have	Good to have	Must have	Good to have
Overspeeding		Must have	Good to have
Mount Detection		Must have	Good to have	Must have
Transit Detection
Bicycle Detection		Must have	Good to have	Must have

Verification Process

If you wish to build driving behavior features into your Android application, you can use the following methods to inform your users about device compatibility.

Method 1: SDK Signatures

Zendrive SDK has the following built-in functions which can inform the host application about events that are supported by the device after the SDK has been initialized.

• getEventSupportForDevice() will return a map with boolean values for each Zendrive event type indicating whether it is supported or not.

• isAccidentDetectionSupported() will return true if Zendrive collision detection is supported on this device.

The host application UI can decide what needs to be displayed to the end user based on events supported by their device.

Method 2: Google Play Filter

Google Play Console has the option to allow download of an application only if it meets the minimum hardware requirements specified using certain filters set within the Application’s Manifest.

This will allow the user to download the host application from Google store only if their device meets the minimum hardware requirements.

Avoid this approach if you want your users to use other features that are not dependent on Zendrive SDK.

For example, with Collision Detection:

• Good to have: Accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer (compass)

  • android.hardware.sensor.accelerometer

  • android.hardware.sensor.compass

  • android.hardware.sensor.gyroscope

• Must have: Accelerometer and magnetometer (compass)

  • android.hardware.sensor.accelerometer

  • android.hardware.sensor.compass

  • android.hardware.sensor.gravity

Similar filters can be used for other event types based on the information provided in the table above. Based on devices tracked by the Google Play Store, we have compiled a reference list of devices supported and unsupported for Collisions and for Events and Scores.

'Supported' indicates that the listed devices carry a specification that indicates support. This is different from 'certified' devices which Zendrive tests on a regular basis. See Phone Compatibility Ratings for more information.