Due to the increasing requirements of the European Union regarding the safety standards of motor vehicles, manufacturers of these are forced to provide the development and implementation of systems that increase safety and protection of passengers in vehicles. Initiative, such as eCall, is a necessary step towards ensuring road safety through assistance to individuals who need help from emergency services.
eCall is a system, used in cars, which allows you to automatically or manually initiate an emergency call in case of an accident. System sends a minimum set of data that contains information about geographic location of the accident, time of the accident, direction of vehicle's travel, identification of the vehicle and activation mode (automatic or manual). At the same time voice connection with a public safety answering point on the number 112 is established. Thus, an operator in a call center hears what is happening in the vehicle and can communicate with passengers in the vehicle. eCall service will have to operate in all countries of the European Union from 01.10.2017 onwards, while in Slovenia, it already operates since 01.12.2015. All new cars made after 01.04.2018 will be required to have a system installed as a standard. This service is also known as the pan-European eCall.
In addition to the pan-European eCall there is a similar service that is offered by private companies, under the condition that it operates in accordance with the standards. Also, companies that would like to offer their services in a particular country, must obtain this country's consent. In the event of such a service, accident data is normally transferred to private companies, and then forwarded to the national public safety answering points.
For operation of the service a public safety answering points must upgrade their equipment in order to receive and treat eCalls properly. eCalls must be treated in the same way as a conventional 112 calls, which means that it must have the same language options as a 112 call, and that procedures for cross-border routing and treating eCalls should be established.
For operation of the service it is also necessary to develop a device which is designed for installation in cars. We distinguish devices for serial installation in cars and devices for retrofit in cars. While the former have been addressed by car manufacturers in collaboration with companies that are involved in the production of such devices for years, while the latter have not recieved much attention.
The development of eCall was the subject of the project HeERO, which was carried out in two stages, namely HeERO 1 and HeERO 2. Some countries have participated only as associate members, which enabled them to benefit from the expertise gained from the project, but they were not entitled to funding from the European Commission.
The project HeERO was followed by project iHeERO, which represents its upgrade and will last until 31.12.2017. The main objective of the project is to prepare an introduction of eCall for motorcycles, trucks, buses and vehicles carrying dangerous cargo. The project iHeERO is also dealing with the so-called next generation eCall, which unlike the first generation eCall doesn't use circuit-switched network but packet-switched network. Such networks offer significantly faster data transfer, which will allow the transfer of enriched content such as videos from cameras on the dashboard, data from car's sensors, etc. Both generations of eCall will have to operate simultaneously for a certain period of time.
The main requirement for the operation of the eCall provided by the European Commission, has been protecting private information of passengers in the vehicle. This means that any kind of personal data processing by the in-vehicle system should be in accordance with rules regarding protection of personal data. In addition, manufacturers must ensure that these devices are not subject to tracing, except at the moment when eCall is initiated.
It is worth pointing out third party eCall service, where the in-vehicle device can be active all the time, if this is necessary for the provision of any additional services, which are usually offered by private companies. Of course, costumers must agree with that, if they want to use the mentioned additional services.
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