March/April 2005

Vehicles involved in accidents anywhere in the European Union should be reporting the incident automatically to a local information point by 2009.

That's the timetable for the EU's eCall project, which aims to set up a "non-subscription" (in other words, free) service for all vehicles. It has wide-ranging support from bodies such as the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (which includes bus and truck manufacturers) and ERTICO, Europe's non profit-making intelligent transport systems organisation, and is sponsored by an organisation called the eSafety Forum.

Following the signing of a memorandum of understanding on the scheme last year, industry leaders and EU delegates met in February to discuss the detail of the scheme. Their action plan specifies the end of 2005 as the deadline for agreeing on eCall standardisation and specifications, 2006 for full-scale field tests, and 2009 as the year for introducing eCall technology in all new vehicles.

In the event of a vehicle crash, eCall will call the emergency services via a "Public Service Answering Point" (PSAP), and report the location of the incident, using telematics-based technology. An eCall may be triggered either automatically or manually by someone in the vehicle.

The eSafety Forum says accurate location information will drastically cut emergency response time, saving up to 2,000 lives a year and reducing the severity of the injuries.

Equipment manufacturers are already demonstrating ways of tackling the task. Motorola, for instance, is developing a system that can be activated automatically via sensors, and transmits information via a standard mobile communication network to the emergency call centre, which then alerts police and rescue services. Voice and data transmissions are handled in parallel.