The world has always looked for ways to make cars safer and to put safety measures in them to try to reduce accidents. There have been many countries that have realized that technology can be of great help. The EU has been among the first to take advantage of this approach with the implementation of eCall.
A solution that has been applied throughout the EU for some years. here you will learn what is eCall and some aspects related to its use.
What is eCall?
eCall is a emergency system used in cars throughout the EUdesigned to provide rapid emergency response in the event of a traffic accidentanywhere in the European territory. e-Call makes an emergency call for free to the number 112in case the car is involved in an accident.
It will send the location of your car to the emergency services, who will be able to contact the car and check if the driver is conscious or not. The goal of e-Call is to reduce the number of deaths that often occur from traffic accidents, injuries, and related property loss.
How does eCall work?
Basically, what e-Call does is make a call to the emergency services through number 112. This call can be made manually by the driver or the occupants of the car at the push of a button located in the passenger compartment of the car.
The call too can be performed automatically by the sensor system which are located throughout the car, detect that a serious accident has occurred. When the e-Call system makes the call and there is no audible response on the call back from the occupants in the car, the location and other data is sent to the operator.
This data that is sent includes:
- Exact location of the accident site.
- Activation mode: automatic or manual.
- Car identification number.
- A timestamp.
Why has the e-Call system been successful in Europe?
The success that e-Call has had in the EU is practically due to two elements that have been of the utmost importance:
- An enhanced public safety answering point (PSAP) infrastructure that interoperates across the EU.
- Have M2M devices, that is, machine-to-machine communication. These have been fitted to all cars.
When a car is involved in a serious road accident, the IVE or Equipment on board the car, automatically makes a call to 112 and provides an operator with the details it needs over wireless networks.
These details are called an MSD, or minimum data set. These data are the ones I mentioned before.
- The time of the incident.
- Reason that caused the activation.
- GPS location coordinates
- VIN number of the car.
Benefits of having e-Call
Thanks to e-Call, paramedics can arrive on time at the place where the accident occurred. This has achieved:
- Save around 2,500 lives in the EU each year.
- Serious injuries have been reduced by 10-15%.
- Some 26 billion euros have been saved each year.
