Skip to main content

FIA welcomes adoption of eCall legislation

The European Parliament has voted to adopt the eCall type-approval legislation, mandating emergency call technology as a standard feature in all new vehicles from 2018. Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) Region I has welcomed the outcome, while also regretting the three-year delay in implementation. Thierry Willemarck, president of FIA Region I, said: “Road safety has triumphed today. eCall has finally passed through all the necessary steps and will become mandatory in 2018. However, I hope
April 29, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
The European Parliament has voted to adopt the eCall type-approval legislation, mandating emergency call technology as a standard feature in all new vehicles from 2018. Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) Region I has welcomed the outcome, while also regretting the three-year delay in implementation.

Thierry Willemarck, president of 8054 FIA Region I, said: “Road safety has triumphed today. eCall has finally passed through all the necessary steps and will become mandatory in 2018. However, I hope that this can serve as an example to the European Institutions in the lives lost while the negotiations continued. When there is a proven case for lives saved, technologies must be swiftly implemented. However, we are pleased to see that there is a possibility to empower consumers through the 1690 European Commission’s mandate to examine open, secure standardised platforms that could be a great step forward for future connected car services in an open and competitive market.”

Following a decade of negotiation, the final eCall legislation is a balanced outcome that includes a mandate to the Commission to consider interoperable, standardised, and secure and open‐access network for the eCall communication. This has the potential to ensure that users widely benefit from new connectivity features of their vehicles thanks to eCall. It can also ensure that consumers eventually make the best use of their personal data for additional connected car services.

In a positive step for the protection of consumer data, the legislation stipulates that eCall data gathered by emergency centres or their service partners must not be transferred to third parties without the explicit consent of the person concerned. Manufacturers will also have to ensure that the eCall technology design permits full and permanent deletion of data gathered.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • HERMES Study provides guidance for forward ITS thinking in Finland
    August 25, 2016
    Having authored HERMES, a major study for the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communication, Josef Czako talks to ITS International about his findings and lessons for other authorities. When CEOs of major automakers are predicting more change in the next five years than in the past 50, what is the role of national authorities considering the benefits of innovations in ITS?
  • Autonomous vehicles, smart cities: moving beyond the hype
    February 21, 2018
    There is a lot of excited chatter about autonomous vehicles – but 2getthere’s Robbert Lohmann suggests we might need to take a step back and look realistically at what is achievable. You might be surprised that the chief commercial officer of a company delivering autonomous vehicles would begin an article with the suggestion that we need to get past the hype. And yet I do; because we have to, and urgently so. The hype prevents the development of autonomous vehicles that address actual transit needs. And
  • Centralised traffic control, managing changing traffic demands
    January 23, 2012
    Paul van Koningsbruggen and Dave Marples of Technolution BV describe, using a national example from the Netherlands, how smart add-ons to traffic control centres combine to increase cross-centre capabilities and cost-efficiency. Increasingly, traffic management is becoming the natural partner of the civil engineer, improving flows over existing infrastructure to deliver an alternative to laying more blacktop. As in any emerging market, the first steps towards mature traffic management have not necessarily r
  • Need for simpler urban tolling solutions
    January 10, 2013
    A common assumption, even amongst informed observers, is that there’s but a handful of urban charging schemes in operation around the world and scant prospect of that changing any time soon. Larger city-sized schemes such as Singapore, London and Stockholm come readily to mind but if we take a wider view and also consider urban access control and Low Emission Zones (LEZs) then the picture changes rather radically. There is a notable concentration of such schemes in Europe but worldwide the number is comfort