9-1-1: A World of What If
Last week’s Center for Automotive Research (CAR), Connected Vehicle Systems Alliance (COVESA), and LiDAR Saving Lives Public Safety Coalition (LSL)-sponsored panel at AutoTech Detroit was both enlightening and terrifying. ?Four of the speakers addressed the life-saving possibilities enabled by capitalizing on available technologies, while two of the panel members highlighted the fragmented landscape of regulatory oversight and a complex web of service providers potentially impeding progress.
The session was titled “Next-Generation 9-1-1 Connected Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) Roundtable.”? The objective of the session, as described by the organizers, was to
1.??????? Define comprehensive post-crash stakeholder-based value propositions?to drive the adoption of connected vehicle post-crash safety technologies.
2.??????? Accelerate the implementation of automotive vision-based post-crash safety technologies?like lidar, radar, and cameras to improve 9-1-1 public safety situational awareness and emergency response.
3.??????? Promote the adoption of automotive vision-based post-crash safety technologies among automotive OEMs, robotaxi companies, and commercial fleets?to enhance safety and efficiency.
Scott Craig, President of SBC Advisors, set the stage with a discussion of the role of in-vehicle and on-vehicle sensors for enabling some situational awareness post-crash for first responders.? Jon Boeing, founder of Conekt.ai, spoke about the role of carriers and connectivity and the expanding inclination and ability of auto makers to own their own connectivity platforms.
Steve Coker, senior vice president at SiriusXM Connected Vehicle, and Martin Lundh, product portfolio manager at WirelessCar, discussed the critical role of call centers and back-end systems for collecting, interpreting, and communicating crash scene data to responding agencies.? All of these inputs were useful but they only set the stage for the last two speakers.
Dave Sehnert, head of public safety partnerships at RapidSOS, described how its technology is used in 540M+ connected devices, covers 99% of the U.S. population, is used by 5,700 emergency call centers nationwide, is accessible to 21,000 first responder agencies and 1M+ responders, and accounts for 171M+ emergency response incidents annually.? RapidSOS positions itself at the nexus of emergency response with integrations with dozens of computer-aided dispatch programs, mapping solutions, recording applications, responder devices, and mobile data terminals.
RapidSOS’s work spans everything from wearables and home security systems to public transit, smartphone apps, and connected buildings.? RapidSOS provided a view into the complex eco-system behind emergency response while highlighting the extent of the challenge.? RapidSOS is available to all of these agencies but isn’t necessarily used by all of them in all circumstances.
Brian Tegtmeyer, national 9-1-1 program coordinator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration expanded on the theme of a complex eco-system with no centralized regulatory authority.? According to NHTSA 911 agencies across the U.S. dispatched emergency medical services to 1.5M incidents in 2022.? In 2021, 40% of individuals found at crash scenes were alive at the initial point of response, but? later died.
In 2021, 42,939 people died in traffic crashes in the U.S.? In 8,747 cases a vehicle occupant was completely or partially ejected; and 48,517 incidents required some kind of extrication; and 169,462 incidents involved seriously injured patients.
Given the magnitude and variety of the fatalities and injuries one might expect a national program to be introduced to centralize decision making and streamline response processes.? To convey the complexity of the 9-1-1 eco-system Tegtmeyer described how Route 95 running the length of the East coast of the U.S. spans 1,924 miles, 15 states, 199 9-1-1 jurisdictions, and saw 379 fatalities in 2020.
Tegtmeyer is an evangelist for the NHTSA’s Safe System approach to reducing highway crashes, injuries, and fatalities.? NHTSA supports the vision, the objective, of transmitting vital vehicle crash data via telemetry, but the agency has very limited authority to bring a nationwide solution to the market.
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As a result, NHTSA’s efforts are concentrated in grant programs designed to demonstrate the efficacy of emerging next-generation 9-1-1 solutions and educate eco-system partners to what is possible.? Tegtmeyer shared examples of the agency’s funding activities and outreach:
Members of the Connected Vehicle Systems Alliance and the LiDAR Saving Lives Public Safety Coalition have applied for some of these grants providing a glimmer of hope in an otherwise gloomy landscape populated by thousands of agencies, call centers, and first responders lacking a unified vision of crash response defined by universally agreed upon best practices.? This is why 9-1-1 is a world of what if.
Anyone who has been briefed on the challenges of advancing emergency crash response technology and systems will be immediately struck by the massive opportunity that exists to revolutionize the industry while simultaneously acknowledging the nearly insurmountable barriers to progress.? It seems imminently logical that cars should automatically transmit all available data from crash scenes directly to first responders.
It seems imminently logical that all available data resources should be coordinated and available to first responders before they arrive on scene – vehicle occupant identities, pre-existing medical conditions, vehicle specific extraction protocols, the condition and precise location of the vehicle, and the severity and nature of the crash.? In fact, next generation 9-1-1 technology ought to include satellite connectivity for a more reliable connection to support both data transfer and location.
In retrospect, the European project which produced the eCall mandate that took effect in 2018 is a spectacular achievement relative to the state of crash response in the U.S.? The European Union was able to coordinate the deployment of a standardized eCall system across thousands of agencies in more than 25 countries requiring the adoption of specific data protocols and even the network hardware to be used.
A similar project for the U.S. is nearly inconceivable.? The CAR panel members are producing admirable outcomes in seeking to save as many lives as possible, but they are working within a system that is optimized for failure.
The good news is that CAR, COVESA, LSL, NHTSA, and many other organizations and companies are daily, incrementally advancing the cause of enhancing emergency response.? The CAR panel was the first step in an ongoing process of outreach, education, and problem solving.? The journey has just begun.
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