Making the most of eCall data
eCall is a connected vehicle system mandatory on all new UK cars and vans since 2018, which connects vehicle occupants to the 999 services and also gives a rich source of real time collision data from airbag activations (eg vehicle location) that is currently underused.
With support from the 999 and roads community, experts are exploring how to exploit this rich vein ( there were 5,000 ecalls connected to the emergency services in July 2022) for road safety research, real time traffic operations and management - and how it might support the new Road Safety Investigation Branch, and also raise awareness of the value of the little red button.
Andy Graham, VESOS
Andy Graham of VESOS is one of the country’s leading experts in connected vehicles. He has worked on eCall since 2006, assessing eCall impacts and rollout as eCall has become mandatory – so ensuring mass fitment in about 20% of UK vehicles– and as new use cases such as smart motorways have developed that can exploit the real time data on collisions it is now providing at scale.
Since then he assisted National Highways with their eCall publicity, and helped the RAC Foundation explore data sources such as eCall for their successful Road Safety Investigation Branch study.
Andy is a Fellow of the IET and CIHT, and a Trustee of the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund.