Commission backed e-safety initiative launches new emergency call system
High-level representatives from the automotive and telecommunications industries, the European Commission and other public authorities met in Brussels on 14 November to decide on how best to improve European road safety. As part of the Commission backed e-safety initiative, the group met to discuss the final report of the e-safety working group, which makes 28 recommendations on how to improve road safety through the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). At the meeting PSA Peugeot-Citroën President, Jean-Martin Folz, announced an industry initiative to equip all new vehicles with an emergency system called e-call. Under this system, if an accident occurs, an emergency call is made automatically or manually, and is routed to the public service answering point. At the same time a voice call is also established. EU Commissioner for Enterprise and the Information Society, Erkki Liikanen, warmly welcomed the initiative, saying: 'I think that e-call will be a good example of what the public and private industry can achieve by working together, and what can be achieved by combining regulation and voluntary measures.' The next step of the e-safety initiative will be the preparation of a Commission communication on ICTs for intelligent vehicles. As the Commissioner explained: 'The forthcoming Communication will highlight our approach to try and improve the competitiveness of one of our main industrial sectors and contribute simultaneously to improving road safety for the benefit of all Europeans.' At the meeting, Mr Liikanen also announced a Commission proposal to establish an e-safety forum. 'We now have a common understanding with industry on the establishment of the e-safety forum. The goal of the forum will be [...] to promote the development of open platforms, open system architectures and standard software, communications, service and human-machine interfaces to accelerate the development, deployment, and use of intelligent integrated road safety systems,' he said.