eCall

eCall is a high priority area within the European Commission. In order to help stakeholders better understand the aspects and issues surrounding the Emergency Call (eCall) chain, it was decided to create a dedicated eCall Toolbox.

The use of in-vehicle emergency call (eCall) to deploy emergency assistance will save lives and reduce the social burden of road accidents by improving the notification of such accidents, speeding up the emergency service response and lowering the subsequent effects on fatalities, severity of injuries and traffic flows.

eCall is an emergency call either generated manually by vehicle occupants or automatically via activation of in-vehicle sensors when an accident occurs. When activated, the in-vehicle eCall system establishes a 112-voice connection directly with the relevant PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point), which is a public authority or a private eCall centre that operates under the regulation and/or authorisation of a public body. At the same time, a minimum set of data (MSD) – including key information about the accident such as time, location and vehicle description – is sent to the PSAP operator receiving the voice call. The minimum set of data may also contain the link to a potential Service Provider by including its IP address and phone number. If the user is subscribed to a Service Provider, additional information can be sent from the service provider to the PSAP as illustrated below.