ESafety

eSafety (= electronic safety) is a joint initiative of the European Commission and many industrial and other stakeholders having an interest in road safety. The initiative's aim is to increase road safety by deploying and developing safety systems based on modern information and communication technologies (ICT). In particular, eSafety wants to make a contribution to the European Union's policy goal, as stated in the so-called transport white paper [WHITE PAPER 'European Transport policy for 2010 : time to decide' [http://ec.europa.eu/transport/white_paper/index_en.htm] ] , to halve the death toll on the Union's roads to 25,000 by 2010.

'eSafety' systems

Among all the ICT-based safety systems [For a non-exhaustive list of such systems see [http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/intelligentcar/technologies/index_en.htm] ] , eCall plays a prominent role due to the simplicity of its concept. In the event of a serious car accident, the eCall device automatically calls the nearest emergency service even if all vehicle occupants are unconscious. In a data channel established by the call, the system transmits, among other information, the geographical location of the crash site. This knowledge enables rescue teams to arrive much quicker at the accident scene, resulting in fewer fatalities and less severe injuries.

Other 'eSafety' systems include advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), such as adaptive cruise control, which adapts the speed of a car to the velocity of the vehicle ahead (some devices even in stop-go conditions), or lane keeping and lane change assistants. Important for accident avoidance are collision warning systems, with or without automatic brake activation, devices improving the driver's vision at night or in bad wheather conditions, and the so-called driver drowsiness detection systems, which monitor the driver's alertness and give warning signals if the level of attention is too low.

eSafety systems are called autonomous if they are fully independent from information coming from sources outside the vehicle. Some of those, e.g. electronic stability control or the anti-lock braking system, have already been available in the market for quite some time. A new focus of scientific research and development are the so-called co-operative systems, where cars communicate with other cars or with the traffic infrastructure. This way a car can, for instance, warn all other vehicles on the same road section of an icy patch on a bridge, or an 'intelligent' traffic sign also transmits its information to a display in the vehicle's dashboard so that the driver still sees the information even if s/he cannot make out the sign any more.

History

The European Commission initiated the eSafety Initiative in 2002. Its starting point was the idea that modern information and communication technologies could make an important, novel contribution to road traffic safety and to the reduction in road fatalities. The Commission therefore convened all interested road safety stakeholders (e.g. road operators, the automotive industry, emergency services, telecom service providers) around the table to accelerate the deployment of these safety systems, and to get support for further scientific research on them. The contribution from these systems is however not intended to replace traditional road safety measures such as driver education or law enforcement. eSafety systems aim to complement those traditional measures.

From the Commission's viewpoint it was necessary to take this initiative at European level, as both passenger and freight road transport go far beyond national borders. In order to fully exploit the systems' benefits, it is therefore desirable that they function all over the European Union, and, if possible, beyond.

Newer developments

In February 2006, the eSafety Initiative became part of the Commission's new Intelligent Car Initiative. Among other goals, this re-organization aimed to better inter-link the expertise provided by the eSafety Forum with ICT transport research conducted under the 7. Framework programme, and to foster awareness-raising activities for these new safety systems. On the basis of this new structure, a group of eSafety Forum members came together in Autumn/Winter 2006/2007 to jointly enhance their safety-related communication towards drivers, consumers and decision-makers. This developed into the communication platform eSafetyAware! [eSafetyAware! web site [http://www.esafetyaware.eu/] ] , which then has been running the ChooseESC! [ChooseESC! web site [http://www.chooseesc.eu/] ] campaign since 8 May 2007.

References

External links

* [http://ec.europa.eu/esafety The European Commission's eSafety web site]
* [http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=2134 The Commission's eSafety fact sheet]

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