NXP Semiconductors supports European Union to save annual 2.500 lives by cost-effective eCall

In the presence of Viviane Reding, Commissioner for the Information Society and Media, Marc de Jong, NXP Semiconductors executive vice president, business unit automotive and identification, today signed the eCall Memorandum of Understanding. Through his signature, NXP Semiconductors pledges its full support for eCall, the pan- European emergency call system.

In case of a serious accident, the eCall device in the car automatically calls the nearest emergency service. Even if no voice connection can be established, e.g. because all car occupants lost consciousness, a set of data is transmitted to the rescue service via the call. This data includes the exact geographic location of the accident scene. Knowing the precise whereabouts of the crash, the emergency services reaction time is reduced by 50% in rural and 40% in urban areas. Reduced reaction time translates into lives saved and less severe injuries. Studies suggest that 2,500 lives could be saved in the European Union annually and less severe injuries sustained in 15% of all accidents involving bodily harm if all European cars were equipped with eCall. eCall will become available as an option for all new cars as of September 2010.

‘With our competency in semiconductors and software solutions for cars, we strive to make driving safer, cleaner, more comfortable and enjoyable. Our Automotive Telematics On-board unit Platform 2.5G (ATOP) is the first single-component eCall IC, which can be used as a standalone solution, or can easily be integrated into other car-applications such as connectivity boxes, navigations systems, radios. With ATOP, the creation of highly integrated eCall boxes will be possible to bring about very cost-effective, easy-to-integrate Telematics products, supporting the initiative of the European Commission.,’ said Marc de Jong.

“I am pleased to see that technology providers do have solutions available today and that, together with the Member States and automotive industry, a strong momentum is kept to make eCall a reality in Europe”, said Commissioner Viviane Reding,

In 2003, eCall was launched by the Commission and interested stakeholders to encourage Member States as well as car manufacturers, mobile network operators, automotive suppliers and others to collaborate on an automatic accident alert system for cars.

Last year 41,500 fatalities were reported, accounting for 180 billion Euro of accident-related cost. The EU targets to reduce the annual number of road fatalities to 25,000 by 2010.
So far, one of the obstacles for the success in the car industry of Telematics functions has been the high cost of the Telematics hard and software. “With the high level of integration of ATOP we will be able to move these barriers and make eCall an affordable option for everyday cars,” Marc de Jong stated. “We will test our solutions in the coming months in real-life field trials.”

Besides Intelligent Traffic Systems’ (ITS) implementation, eCall will be one of the driving forces for broad Telematics deployment. ATOP is ideally suited to be applied in a broad range of car-to-infrastructure application scenarios as it is designed to support multiple services running in parallel, for example congestion avoidance and traffic management by Real-time Traffic and Traveller Information. NXP will assist the driver in planning his trip in the fastest and most economic way. This will help every driver save energy costs and hence cost of car operation. In parallel, this will reduce CO2 emissions and, overall, have a very positive impact on sustainable mobility thus supporting the EU’s initiative in this respect as well.

The NXP ATOP is the world first single component On Board Unit (OBU) which supports a wide range of applications, including ITS applications, stolen vehicle tracking, pay as you drive applications, last mile tracking (automotive black box) as well as the enabling of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).

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