European Commission makes last call for voluntary eCall implementation
21 Aug 2009
BRUSSELS, Aug 21, The European Commission has made a final call to the European governments to speed up voluntary implementation of the new in-car communication technology "eCall".
Triggered automatically, if the passanger cannot do so, eCall could save up to 2,500 lives per year in all EU countries when fully deployed and reduce severity of injuries by 10 to 15%.
Currently, the deployment of eCall is voluntary and is not being used in any EU country. The Commission warns, in a policy document, that if no significant progress is made in rolling out the system by the end of 2009 it could propose regulatory measures to make it mandatory.
Although the technology is ready and common EU-wide standards have been agreed by industry, six EU countries (Denmark, France, Ireland, Latvia, Malta and the UK) are still not ready to commit, due to cost related concerns.
The Commission has presented a policy document with a strategy for introducing an affordable in-car emergency call system in all new vehicles across Europe by 2014, starting next year.
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