I remember a couple of years ago, driving in the US, when my car was t-boned by another driver who'd failed to notice his traffic lights were on red.
As the car was spinning (fortunately not turning over) around I remember being showered in glass and the car casually informing me that passenger side airbags had been deployed and emergency services had been contacted and were on their way
A bizarre thing living in an affluent area of the Chicago Northshore is seeing children (aged 16) driving their parents massive Cadilac SUVs that cost more than my first flat in the UK
As I understand it, excessive speed is still the biggest factor in both causing crashes and determining their severity. So the best use of this technology is surely to use the onboard GPS to force cars to stick to the posted speed limit and/or log vehicle speed so this data can be used to inform an accident investigation
I guess AML doesn't help if the problem isn't in the same place as your phone. E.g. you have run down a mountain to call for help?? Seems pretty small set of circumstances though.
There's a similar system called Advanced Mobile Location (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Mobile_Location), first developed in the UK but a European standard since 2019, which sends your location (via SMS or an HTTP call) to the emergency services when you dial 999/112/911/etc. It should be available on any reasonably modern smartphone as part of the operating system. And yet we've seen campaigns from the emergency services to inform people about What3Words, which while very clever is a strictly inferior solution in an emergency situation (uses more battery, requires you to have an app installed, has problems with homophones...). I don't get it.
David Kernohan has already written what I thought first. The reason, I suggest, why GPS being used to enforce speed limits is politically unlikely to happen is that it's the last thing that drivers want. Pity about the people on foot and cyclists, those damaged by their lawlessness, sorry, neoliberalism. Much better to prevent injuries happening in the first place than just to improve the speed of emergency action afterwards. James Mackay
I have no expertise in emergency services but will quickly defer to those who do. But I wonder if your surprise at its lack of use is rooted in a Holywood idea of what happens when the emergency services attend a scene. I suspect it is very rare that a few seconds make a big difference. In my limited sample, ambulance crews genenrally seem to be pretty relaxed, walking as they get out of the ambulance not full speed sprinting and bellowing instructuons to their galmorous colleagues. So I suspect, in reality the extra 30 seconds saved by knowing in advance what model of car it is would be less valuable than, you know, investing that money in more staff.
Completely anecdotal - but I know of two car owners who's cars have triggered the eCall feature whilst they're driving along. It clearly works because the police soon find them, but I do wonder how many false reports are coming through, making this automated joined up system not so appealing. Both cars were VW brands, which is a known issue: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/may/01/vw-audi-and-skoda-owners-angry-over-fault-in-sos-warning-system
Do you know what other countries in Europe are doing? Do any of them have fully joined up systems?
I remember a couple of years ago, driving in the US, when my car was t-boned by another driver who'd failed to notice his traffic lights were on red.
As the car was spinning (fortunately not turning over) around I remember being showered in glass and the car casually informing me that passenger side airbags had been deployed and emergency services had been contacted and were on their way
A bizarre thing living in an affluent area of the Chicago Northshore is seeing children (aged 16) driving their parents massive Cadilac SUVs that cost more than my first flat in the UK
As I understand it, excessive speed is still the biggest factor in both causing crashes and determining their severity. So the best use of this technology is surely to use the onboard GPS to force cars to stick to the posted speed limit and/or log vehicle speed so this data can be used to inform an accident investigation
I guess AML doesn't help if the problem isn't in the same place as your phone. E.g. you have run down a mountain to call for help?? Seems pretty small set of circumstances though.
There's a similar system called Advanced Mobile Location (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Mobile_Location), first developed in the UK but a European standard since 2019, which sends your location (via SMS or an HTTP call) to the emergency services when you dial 999/112/911/etc. It should be available on any reasonably modern smartphone as part of the operating system. And yet we've seen campaigns from the emergency services to inform people about What3Words, which while very clever is a strictly inferior solution in an emergency situation (uses more battery, requires you to have an app installed, has problems with homophones...). I don't get it.
David Kernohan has already written what I thought first. The reason, I suggest, why GPS being used to enforce speed limits is politically unlikely to happen is that it's the last thing that drivers want. Pity about the people on foot and cyclists, those damaged by their lawlessness, sorry, neoliberalism. Much better to prevent injuries happening in the first place than just to improve the speed of emergency action afterwards. James Mackay
Great post. Thanks.
I have no expertise in emergency services but will quickly defer to those who do. But I wonder if your surprise at its lack of use is rooted in a Holywood idea of what happens when the emergency services attend a scene. I suspect it is very rare that a few seconds make a big difference. In my limited sample, ambulance crews genenrally seem to be pretty relaxed, walking as they get out of the ambulance not full speed sprinting and bellowing instructuons to their galmorous colleagues. So I suspect, in reality the extra 30 seconds saved by knowing in advance what model of car it is would be less valuable than, you know, investing that money in more staff.
Completely anecdotal - but I know of two car owners who's cars have triggered the eCall feature whilst they're driving along. It clearly works because the police soon find them, but I do wonder how many false reports are coming through, making this automated joined up system not so appealing. Both cars were VW brands, which is a known issue: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/may/01/vw-audi-and-skoda-owners-angry-over-fault-in-sos-warning-system
Do you know what other countries in Europe are doing? Do any of them have fully joined up systems?
Fascinating read, James. Never even thought of this.
Fascinating