eCall
 |
The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. Please help to establish notability by adding reliable, secondary sources about the topic. If notability cannot be established, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. (July 2011) |
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2011) |
eCall is a project intended to bring rapid assistance to motorists involved in a collision anywhere in the European Union. The projects aims to employ a hardware black box installed in vehicles that will automatically dial 112 in the event of a road accident, and wirelessly send airbag deployment and impact sensor information, as well as GPS coordinates to local emergency agencies. eCall builds on E112. The European Commission is aiming to have a fully functional eCall service to be in place throughout the EU by 2015.[1] According to some estimates, eCall could speed emergency response times by 40 percent in urban areas and by 50 percent in rural areas.[2]
Many companies are involved with telematics technology to use in different aspects of eCall including in-vehicle systems, wireless data delivery, and public safety answering point systems. Standardization of communication protocols and human language issues are some of the obstacles. Prototypes have been successfully tested with GPRS and in-band signalling over cellular networks. At the same time proprietary eCall solutions that rely on SMS exist already today from car makers such as BMW, PSA and Volvo Cars. Once in active deployment, other telematic services such as route advisories and traffic information are expected to explode.
The project is also supported by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), an interest group of European car, bus, and truck manufacturers, and ERTICO. Many of the stakeholder companies involved with telematics technology have membership in ERTICO or ACEA. An advantage of this membership is increased ability to influence developing eCall standards.
In North America, a similar service is available by GM via their OnStar service.
Contents |
[edit] Privacy concerns
As with all schemes to add mandatory wireless transceivers to cars there are privacy concerns to be addressed. Depending on the final implementation of the system it may be possible for the system to become activated without an actual crash taking place.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "EU adopts automobile emergency calling service eCall, Telecom Paper, 8 September 2011. Retrieved 16 November 2011.
- ^ "Commission takes first step towards rollout of eCall system", TRL (Transport Research Library, UK), 9 September 2011. Retrieved 16 November 2011.
[edit] External links
- eCall description from the eSafety initiative
- http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/doc/factsheets/049-ecall-en.pdf
- http://www.heero-pilot.eu eCall Deployment project co-funded by the EC
- http://www.eena.org European Emergency Number Association (EENA)
