Each year, there are about 42,000 fatalities from motor vehicle traffic collisions in the United States. In such cases, more lives are saved when emergency personnel are able to determine in advance the probable nature and severity of the injuries, take with them the right resources for treating those particular injuries, and more quickly locate and reach the scene of the crash.
Currently, more and more vehicles are being equipped with telematics systems, incorporating ACN capabilities. Such systems are capable of detecting when the host vehicle is involved in a collision. As a few examples of this capability, the data processing means and sensors of a vehicular telematics system can detect: the number of passengers in the vehicle; the deployment of an airbag; velocity of the vehicle just before impact; excessive rate of reduction in velocity (termed delta-v in the industry); direction of the collision; and inversion of the vehicle.
A vehicular telematics system is equipped with cellular telephone capabilities. Consequently, upon detecting one or more such events, it is capable of automatically dialing a telephone number, and summoning aid for the vehicle's occupants, despite the fact that the occupants may be incoherent or unconscious. Obviously, such a system has enormous potential for reducing the loss of life and human tissue/organs resulting from vehicular collisions.
Such vehicular telematics systems are also equipped with geographic locational devices, typically incorporating Global Positioning System (GPS) technology and capabilities. Consequently, when a vehicular collision is detected by its telematics system, considerable information is available that can be critically helpful to emergency responders, including such items as: the location of the vehicle; the number of passengers in the vehicle; whether or not airbags were deployed; velocity of the vehicle just before impact; delta-v during the actual collision, indicating G-forces exerted on the occupants; the direction of the collision (front, side, rear, etc.); and whether or not the vehicle is inverted.
All such items give a valuable preview of the resources that will be needed when emergency responders arrive on the scene . . . and, most importantly, where that scene is located.
Presently, the initial call for assistance when there has been a collision is typically directed to a Telematics Service Provider, and the vehicle's telematics system data is uploaded to that Telematics Service Provider. It is paramount to the conduction of a Telematics Service Provider's business that it be capable of receiving and processing the data uploaded from a vehicle's telematics system. Consequently, Telematics Service Providers are invariably equipped to do so.
If, in accordance with predefined protocols, the Telematics Service Provider's call taker determines that a 9-1-1 condition exists, the call taker attempts to conference the call with (the Telematics Service Provider's determination of) the vehicle's Local PSAP. Typically, it does so via 10-digit phone number over the standard nationwide PTN. There are many things about this process that are worrisome to the 9-1-1 community.
Here are some examples. Typically, Telematics Service Providers are very regionalized. Generally, only one or two of a Telematics Service Provider's Call Centers service the entire nation. Consequently, the initial call to a Telematics Service Provider for emergency assistance must link up across the nation's long distance network. Problems may be encountered in doing so. During busy periods, a call may not go through, but may be routed to a message center. When attempting to conference with a vehicle's Local PSAP, the Telematics Service Provider's information may not identify the correct PSAP or its phone number, and the call may be misdirected. Assuming the conferencing call is correctly directed, such a call comes into the PSAP on an administrative line, not on a 9-1-1 line. As a consequence, it is queued up behind 9-1-1 calls currently being processed. During a busy 9-1-1 call period, administrative calls may not be answered for quite some time . . . perhaps not at all.
Consequently, it is preferred that such calls be made directly into the local 9-1-1 network, bypassing the Telematics Service Provider and directly dialing 9-1-1 from the vehicle, thereby eliminating all such potential problems about which the 9-1-1 community is concerned.
However, dialing directly into the 9-1-1 network also presents problems. Special equipment, telecommunications lines, and software are required to receive and process data uploaded from a vehicle's telematics system via current methods. PSAPs are not so equipped. Consequently, when such a call is received and the vehicle's telematics system uploads its data, the PSAP call taker is unable to receive and process it. Worse, if the vehicle's occupants are unconscious or incoherent, the call taker will answer a silent line.
As has been discussed, it is of critical importance that a call taker be able to receive/obtain ACN data describing collision conditions. However, it is also of considerable importance for the call taker to be able to do so while maintaining voice contact with the occupants of the vehicle. Voice contact can be invaluable in evaluating the severity of injury to the vehicle's occupants; it assures the injured that help is on the way; and it assists the call taker in predetermining resources that may be needed by responders upon arrival at the scene of the accident . . . even a lack of response from the occupants is meaningful information. It is a prime requisite of the 9-1-1 sector that voice contact be maintained with a distressed caller until help arrives.
It is also of importance that a call taker be able to execute certain control command functions over the remote crashed vehicle. A couple of examples include: unlock the vehicle's doors; and shut off the ignition. Such remote command functions can prevent escalating complications from creating problems that could have been totally avoided.
It is essential to the Nation's 9-1-1 system that the system be ubiquitously compatible. What works when 9-1-1 is dialed in Pennsylvania must also work when 9-1-1 is dialed in California . . . or Michigan, etc. There are more than 6,500 PSAPs in the United States. Equipping all of the nation's PSAPs to be capable of receiving and processing uploaded ACN data would be prohibitively expensive, and it seems unlikely it will happen.
Consequently, we continue to live with a system and methods our emergency responders consider potentially problematic.