Photo: HAAS Alert
Car communications systems and a growing list of assistance systems mean modern vehicles can foresee dangerous situations and prepare accordingly. Soon, millions of Chrysler, Jeep, Ram, and Dodge drivers in the U.S. will experience this first-hand thanks to an over-the-air update that will allow the cars to warn when an emergency vehicle is nearby.
Cars got a lot smarter in the past years and this means they are more aware of their surroundings than their drivers are. This is troublesome for a lot of people, but with all the texting and the big screens in the cars, distraction has become a problem and a major factor in accident statistics. First-line responders are especially at risk, as the number of accidents involving emergency vehicles is on the rise. Sadly, 63 emergency responders were killed last year in these types of crashes in the U.S., according to the Emergency Responder Safety Institute.
To prevent these accidents from happening, Stellantis has implemented a feature that displays a warning message in the car dashboard when an emergency vehicle is approaching or the car drives towards one. The Emergency Vehicle Alert System (EVAS) will initially be available in North America to more than 4 million drivers of Chrysler, Jeep, Ram, and Dodge vehicles. Stellantis could roll it out across the 14 brands the automaker sells around the world, but the new system needs support from the emergency services, so it will be on a country-by-country basis.
In North America, EVAS will be implemented with the help of the HAAS Alert, which works with more than 1,000 emergency responder fleets in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. “The system knows the location of the first responder, and it knows where our vehicle is,” explains Mamatha Chamarthi, Stellantis head of software business and product management. Alerts are geofenced, so they only get to the drivers close to emergency vehicles and not to those on the opposite-direction side of divided highways.
The system was announced as a limited trial in September alongside another vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications system. Now, Stellantis thinks the system is prime-time ready. The Company will officially announce the new system during CES in the next days followed by the large-scale deployment by the end of the month.
To us, it sounds a lot like the one implemented in Michigan in cooperation with Waze two years ago. The Waze integration is better in our opinion, as it allows to warn drivers of all car makes and models, no matter how old the car is.
To prevent these accidents from happening, Stellantis has implemented a feature that displays a warning message in the car dashboard when an emergency vehicle is approaching or the car drives towards one. The Emergency Vehicle Alert System (EVAS) will initially be available in North America to more than 4 million drivers of Chrysler, Jeep, Ram, and Dodge vehicles. Stellantis could roll it out across the 14 brands the automaker sells around the world, but the new system needs support from the emergency services, so it will be on a country-by-country basis.
In North America, EVAS will be implemented with the help of the HAAS Alert, which works with more than 1,000 emergency responder fleets in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. “The system knows the location of the first responder, and it knows where our vehicle is,” explains Mamatha Chamarthi, Stellantis head of software business and product management. Alerts are geofenced, so they only get to the drivers close to emergency vehicles and not to those on the opposite-direction side of divided highways.
The system was announced as a limited trial in September alongside another vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications system. Now, Stellantis thinks the system is prime-time ready. The Company will officially announce the new system during CES in the next days followed by the large-scale deployment by the end of the month.
To us, it sounds a lot like the one implemented in Michigan in cooperation with Waze two years ago. The Waze integration is better in our opinion, as it allows to warn drivers of all car makes and models, no matter how old the car is.
NEWS: Millions of @StellantisNA vehicles including Jeeps and Rams will begin receiving in-dash @haasalert Safety Cloud alerts in 2022. https://t.co/5QlPwjuUE2 pic.twitter.com/eFU8HwMnMO HAAS Alert (@haasalert) January 1, 2022
Google News