eCall and vehicle-to-vehicle
Even tough Europe has the safest roads in the world, hundreds of thousands are killed in road related accidents and millions are injured. According to EU Road Safety European roads remain the safest in the world: in 2016, the EU counted 50 road fatalities per one million inhabitants, against 174 deaths per million globally.
In 2016, countries with the lowest fatality rate per million inhabitants were Sweden (27), the UK (28) and the Netherlands (33). On the other hand, those with the weakest road safety records were Bulgaria (99), Romania (97), Latvia (80) and Poland (79).
The European Commission has since 2013 been working on an automatically 112 emergency call system, eCall that dials Europe’s single emergency number 112 in the event of a road accident including the location of the vehicle. The eCall will be activated as soon as a sensor in the vehicle detect a crash, and it will then call the European 112 and send data regarding time of accident, position and direction of travel. An eCall can also be triggered manually.
eCall will not monitor motorists moves and it will not assist the driver or the car to avoid accidents but since time many times is critical in the event of an accident, it could save many peoples lifes.
EU has created a general framework for improved road safety with legislation and recommendations and As of March 2018, all new vehicle types will have to be fitted with the eCall.
Next big step in road safety will be Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication’s ability to wirelessly exchange information about the speed and position of surrounding vehicles. This promises in helping to avoid crashes, ease traffic congestion, and improve the environment. But the greatest benefits can only be achieved when all vehicles can communicate with each other. Hopefully we will see this starting up after the year 2020.
Have you heard about this EU-wide eCall or V2V?
Would you like to have this in your vehicle?
Until next time,
The Apis IP-Solutions Team