ALLIANCE PROMOTES AUTOMATIC AUTO CRASH NOTIFICATION TO CONGRESS
Congress can help new automatic auto crash notification (ACN) technology increase vehicle safety by encouraging research grants and by keeping effort free of regulation, ComCARE Alliance said Thurs. While Capitol Hill understands value of telematics -- application of voice and wireless technology to in-vehicle services -- “there is no government initiative to install telematics in automobiles,” ATX Technologies Pres. Steven Millstein said at media breakfast that started all-day “technology demonstration” in Rayburn Bldg. “Despite the lack of a mandate from Congress, safety is on the minds of the automakers, which are voluntarily rolling out automatic crash notification technology,” he said. Congress needs to understand importance of ACN and “allow it to flourish without any intervention,” he said. ComCARE is coalition of medical, 911, law enforcement and public safety groups; wireless carriers; automotive companies; telematics suppliers. Group said it seeks $5-10 million in federal grants to support R&D efforts for ACN technologies and protocols.
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ACN uses wireless voice and GPS location to immediately alert private emergency call center when passenger presses car’s “Mayday button” or air bag deploys. In emergency, call center dispatcher establishes voice link to vehicle and if real emergency exists informs appropriate emergency dispatcher of vehicle’s location determined by GPS so care can be sent. ComCARE predicts 5 million vehicles will use technology by end of 2002 from about 1.5 million today. ATX Technologies provides ACN services to Ford, Nissan, Mercedes. German automaker will be first to deploy ACN in all 2002 models, Millstein said. OnStar provides ACN services to Acura, Audi, GM, Lexas, Subaru. Both telematic service providers demonstrated technology. AAA also is preparing telematic service center, ComCARE said.
Despite need to educate members of Congress as well as medical community and general public, major barrier to ACN is “miseducation,” ComCARE spokesman David Aylward said: “This technology is often seen as Big Brother tracking you. But with the lack of government appropriations, [ACN] providers need to be profitable.” ATX and OnStar are building relationships with customers, “not selling location information so that McDonald’s can sell you hamburgers as you drive by.” Issue of privacy “always becomes a negative in this discussion,” he said. Another barrier to widespread use of ACN is lack of infrastructure, Aylward said. Pieces of puzzle exist: In U.S., cellular networks cover most major travel routes and serve 118 million wireless subscribers, while 6,500 public safety answering points (PSAPs) answer 911 calls and more than 60,000 jurisdictional entities serve emergency calls. “Today we are unable to automatically locate wireless 911 callers” and there’s no system linking components with technology to share information in real time with appropriate responders, he said. ACN is in less than 1% of vehicles but number is increasing. “Ford told us they can provide the most sophisticated information available but it is of little use if we can’t get it the emergency crews or ER doctors,” Aylward said.
Currently no accurate printed or electronic directory exists with information for contacting all federal, state and local emergency response agencies in U.S., ComCARE said. Goal of alliance is to create nonproprietary electronic emergency access directory (EPAD) providing such information to qualified public and private emergency providers in nation. Specifically, EPAD would: (1) Contain up-to-date phone and fax numbers, addresses, e-mail, URLs, jurisdictional boundary information and “information sheet” for all emergency response and related agencies such as hospitals, law enforcement, transportation, emergency management agencies, telephone carriers, telematics service providers. (2) Specify type of information automatically provided to qualified parties on need-to-know basis as authorized by state or local officials. (3) Establish process to collect, update and connect by telecom technology all existing emergency contact data. (4) Maintain information on secure network servers with security consistent with best commercial and govt. practices, including use of firewalls to protect database from hackers.
With EPAD system providing real-time information link among telematic service providers, PSAPs, emergency and law enforcement agencies and medical personnel, 2nd generation ACN technology will be able to provide much more information, Millstein said. “The system will tell emergency agencies exactly where the air bag went off, how many passengers were in the car, whether the car rolled, the delta velocity or force of the crash and the number of cars involved.” Detailed telemetry provided to emergency room in real time will allow personnel to predict severity of injuries and quickly decide whether ambulance or medivac helicopter response is more appropriate, he said. ComCARE seeks funding for study to compare injuries predicted by computer model from advanced ACN data with actual crash injuries, Aylward said.