eSafety Compendium

4.3 Digital Maps Working GroupDiscussions related to eCall deployment are carried out in the eSafety Forum Driving Group oneCall. The eCall Driving Group, which is co-chaired by Michael Nielsen (ERTICO – ITSEUROPE) and Wolfgang Reinhardt (ACEA) was established by the European Commission atthe end of 2002.The key players involved in the eCall Driving Group’s activities are members of four large“constituencies”:• Automotive industry• Mobile telecommunication industry• Public emergency authorities and associated or cooperating service organisations• Public social security organisations and private insurance companiesThe eCall Driving Group is developing an integrated strategy for pan-European emergencyservices. These services will build on the location-enhanced emergency services beingimplemented in the Member States on the basis of the recently adopted Recommendation on theimplementation of the E-112 emergency number.“eCall” stands for “In-vehicle Pan-European automatic emergency call system”. Generated eithermanually by vehicle occupants or automatically via activation of in-vehicle sensors, eCall gives theprecise coordinates of an accident’s location to the emergency services that are responsible forthe follow-up assistance.The eCall Driving Group was established to produce a framework architecture and a businessmodel for eCall, and to define the roles of both the public and private stakeholders. Theseinclude the Member States, the Commission, telecom operators, PSAP operators, vehiclemanufacturers, equipment suppliers, motorway operators, automobile clubs, insurance industry,service providers.The Driving Group produced a Memorandum of Understanding on the implementation of eCall.The aim of the MoU is to ensure that eCall will work in any EU Member State. The MoUcommits the stakeholders to implementing eCall on the basis of a common approved architectureand interface specifications, including the Minimum Set of Data (MSD). The EuropeanCommission, the automotive industry – represented by ACEA - and the multi-sector partnershipERTICO signed the MoU in August 2004. The MoU now has around 60 signatures. SevenMember States are now among the signatories. Greece, Italy, Lithuania and Slovenia signed it on18 October 2005 and Cyprus on 8 December 2005. Five additional Member States haveannounced that they will sign in the near future.Page 198 of 490