Crash analytics: eCall capability for faster emergency response
Intelematics has extensive experience operating eCall services for over 850,000 connected vehicles in Australia across five automotive Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) brands. eCall is a life-saving technology aimed at reducing emergency response times, enabling autonomous contact with emergency services.
An Australian research project is needed to quantify the benefit of eCall adoption. This project aims to retrospectively assess the benefits of eCall adoption in Australia from 2018. It will create a prototype based on vehicle data sources which predicts crash severity by linking vehicle sensor data captured during a crash with resultant trauma-related data.
The project will also make recommendations regarding the key crash-related datasets that automotive OEMs should share with emergency services to improve road user safety.
Participants
Project background
Intelematics forecasts that over 65% of new cars sold in Australia will have connected vehicle technology (hence with ability to deploy eCall/ SOS) by 2026.
Australian governments advocate for technological advancements and the uptake of safer vehicles as part of their commitment to improving road safety – eCall is such a vehicle feature. eCall is a life-saving technology aimed at reducing emergency response times, enabling autonomous contact with emergency services, and improving appropriate response.
The technology is valuable in both regional and urban settings, but, in particular, responding during the “Golden Hour” can play a critical role in regional settings, which have a longer response time. Based on findings from the Mobility & Transport Road Safety Report conducted by the European Commission (EC) and based on an extrapolation of European data, it is predicted that eCall could reduce road fatalities by 200/year and 2,500 injuries/year if widely available in Australia.
However, a research project is required locally in Australia to quantify and substantiate these European figures. Part of the research required is to demonstrate (hypothetically) road user lives saved and reduced trauma under the assumption that Australia introduced mandatory eCall legislation similar to the European market in 2018.
In addition, the project will assess the increased availability of relevant crash-related data and the anticipated positive impact on saving road user lives. The hypothesis is that saving lives is a function of both faster and more informed emergency response and that eCall and eCall enhancements play a significant role in this area.
Research is also required to assess the value of live eCall and crash-related data and additional available datasets to predict the severity of a crash and the severity of injuries sustained in order to improve Emergency response. As such, this research activity will help to accelerate regulatory and commercial activity in support of road user safety through data-driven and non-infrastructure-based means.
This project aims to:
- Evaluate: The value of eCall (lives saved/ reduced trauma/ other value) in Australia based on an assumed introduction in 2018 as per the European model.
- Inform: Ability of eCall to deliver a faster and more informed emergency response across various parts of the crash and crash response lifecycle.
- Implement: Ability of additional real-time crash data to improve emergency response and provide situational awareness to emergency services (post-crash).
Project objectives
The project objectives are to:
- Assess historical crash data, trauma data, and data related to emergency response against available eCall data and functionality to retrospectively assess the value of eCall adoption in Australia from an assumed starting point (e.g. 2018).
- Create a prototype based on multiple vehicle-based data sources (including dashcam) which predicts crash severity and injury by linking actual and known future vehicle sensor data captured during the crash with resultant trauma-related data.
- Make recommendations related to crash-related datasets that automotive OEMs should make available to various entities to support improved road user safety and advise on potential triage recommendations for first responders based on advanced eCall data and voice information.
Please note …
This page will be a living record of this project. As it matures, hits milestones, etc., we’ll continue to add information, links, images, interviews and more. Watch this space!
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