OXFORD, United Kingdom-In an effort to reduce by half the number of road fatalities by 2010, the European Commission has called for cell-phone operators to investigate how they can provide automatic location information to emergency services when a vehicle is involved in an accident.
The commission, which has labeled the initiative eCall to become part of its overall eSafety project, is looking for the wireless industry to create “an intelligent integrated road safety system” that would take into account the driver, the vehicle and the environment around the vehicle.
“We are of the opinion that substantial achievements can be made through the extended use of information and communications technologies to improve the safety of vehicles and reduce the number of accidents attributed to driver error,” said Erkki Liikanen, European commissioner responsible for enterprise and the information society.
While mobile location technology has long been promoted by its developers, few if any services have been deployed by operators. The U.S. E911 initiative, which would appear to be the source of the eCall idea, is late being deployed and mired in technological squabbles over accuracy and reliability of emergency calls.
