E-Call (A Call between Life and Death)

The European Union is promoting eCall to reduce the number of roadway fatalities by minimizing the response time when an accident has occurred. eCall is a combination of an In Vehicle System (IVS), a device with a GSM cell phone and GPS location capability, and a corresponding infrastructure of Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) Intelligent Vehicle Safety Systems use Information and Communications Technologies for providing solutions for improving road safety in particular in the pre-crash phase when the accident can still be avoided or at least its severity significantly reduced. With these systems, which can operate either autonomously on-board the vehicle, or be based on vehicle-to-vehicle or vehicle-to-infrastructure communication (co-operative systems), the number of accidents and their severity can be reduced. Location-enhanced emergency calls like in-vehicle e-call have their primary benefit to society of saving lives and in offering an increased sense of security. The article presents the system eCall and how does it works.