eCall commitment in Europe gets boost

Date: 08 March 2007

ERTICO Partner Continental Automotive Systems reaffirms its commitment by signing eCall MoU.

ERTICO Partner Continental has announced that it is reaffirming its continued, active involvement in the development of a standards-based emergency call (eCall) system by signing the eCall Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). During The International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) “Fully Networked Car Event”, which is being held at the Geneva PALEXPO, 7-9 March 2007, Continental Automotive Systems is also presenting a paper and an eCall demonstration. The demonstration, which was developed in partnership with ERTICO Partner Airbiquity, Swissphone and a major international mobile network operator, explores how the companies could use existing technology to improve emergency response times in the event of an accident and help reduce traffic fatalities across Europe.

Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann, President of Continental Automotive Systems and Member of the Executive Board at Continental signed the eCall MoU and stated, “Continental believes that eCall is a critical European safety initiative. We are committed to working with ERTICO, the eSafetyAware! initiative and key stakeholders to help harmonise system requirements and develop an eCall solution that best serves the needs of the European market.”

“Continental is also presenting its paper and the jointly developed demo in direct response to the European Commission’s request that urges industry to renew its commitment to eCall,” said Kieran O’Sullivan, Senior Vice-President of the Telematics Business Unit and Member of the Continental Automotive Systems Management Board. “We applaud the Commission’s resolve to work with the member states and industry on a roll-out plan. Continental’s collaboration on the demo is sign of its continued involvement in uniting the telematics value chain to help accelerate adoption of eCall by the industry.”

eCall saves lives
The European Commission’s eCall initiative is a pan-European proposal that encourages Member States, public safety access points (PSAPs), automobile manufacturers, mobile network operators, service providers and automotive suppliers to collaborate to develop an in-vehicle automatic crash notification system. These in-vehicle emergency call systems provide a “wireless life-line” to emergency assistance in the critical seconds after a crash occurs. eCall is expected to save an estimated 2,500 lives and help reduce the 41,000 fatalities and 1.7 million injuries that happen on European roadways each year.

Currently, the (E112) eCall initiative sets forth the mandate that all vehicles introduced in the pan-European region after September 2010 will have the ability to transmit important accident data to authorities to help facilitate an emergency response.

However, efforts to bring eCall to fruition have stalled, prompting the European Commission to enact a two-tier approach that includes focusing on enhancing commitment of the Member States by mid-2007 and engaging industry by the end of 2007 to help speed deployment.

Continental Automotive Systems notes that its telematics and hands-free systems are included in more than 12 million cars worldwide and already help immediately route emergency assistance to the scene of accidents in Europe and North America. Continental stresses its commitment to the roll-out of eCall across Europe so its telematics systems can help save lives.

For further information, please contact Sue Frederick at sue.frederick@us.contiautomoitve.com, or Jim Gill at jim.gill@us.contiautomotive.com, or read the Continental press release.

Dr. Neumann signing the MoU