With the signing of a memorandum of understanding, Infineon Technologies has thrown its support behind eCall, a European Commission automotive safety initiative for automatically reporting car accidents. The European emergency call system is schedule to be a standard feature on all new automobiles for road use in EU countries starting September 2010.
An eCall system records data from key safety components in a car—the airbags, rollover sensors, etc.—via a CAN interface and in the event of an accident, transmits this data to an emergency call center along with location information supplied by a GPS navigation module. This enables an appropriate emergency response to the accident situation to be mounted without delay. The eCall system automatically converts the information into plain text for display on screens in the emergency call center, eliminating possible comprehension issues as well as problems stemming from inaccurate location information.
“With our competency in semiconductor solutions for automobiles as well as communications, I believe that Infineon is in an outstanding position to be ready to begin volume production for Europe’s eCall emergency call system according to plan, within the two-year timeframe,” said Wolfgang Ziebart, president and CEO of Infineon Technologies. “We’re already shipping initial samples to partners in the automotive industry for large-scale field testing.”
Infineon Technologies
www.infineon.com
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