eCall, the Europe Union programme designed to improve emergency response times to vehicle accidents will go live next year with all new cars sold in Ireland from the start of April having a facility to automatically call the emergency services.

In the event of a serious impact the system will transmit to ECAS, Ireland’s emergency call handling service, giving the car’s exact location, the direction of travel and the time of the accident. This means in a case where the driver is unconscious or unable to make an emergency call, rescue services can still be dispatched. The system also creates a voice connection between the car and the emergency operator. There will also be an in-car emergency button that can be activated by the driver, passengers or anyone first on the scene of the accident. The EU believes that eCall can cut emergency response times by up to 60%, which could mean thousands of lives saved. 

The new system has been developed so that when not activated it does not allow vehicle tracking. This was a major concern in the early stages of development as critics said the system could raise serious privacy concerns, in connection to who had access to data. 
Ireland’s emergency call response system is currently being updated to cope with the arrival of eCall.