- Improving Customer Relationships
- How RoadMedic Can Help with Autonomous Emergency Takeovers?
- What is the Future of RoadMedic?
Enhanced telematics data connected to public safety systems can help save lives, relieve crash repair anxiety and make automotive brands heroes. Lawrence E. Williams, CEO and Founder, Roadside Telematics Corporation talks with Auto Futures about RoadMedic, a fast way to send data and video to agencies that help vehicles after a crash in the US.
Williams started his crusade to improve crash responses after losing family members to collisions in which emergency help was delayed. The company launched RoadMedic E9-1-1 with automatic location identification and additional victim medical data in 2002. He continues to improve and accelerate telematics data delivery.
“When you’re in a crash – you’re thinking ‘I want to live and the response should be fast, efficient and effective,’” says Williams.
Current telematics crash notifications can take five to eight minutes with best-case scenarios. Typically, the call centre is contacted where a call taker accesses the situation and tries to contact the customer. The call then goes to a dispatcher to look up and connect to the correct 911 public safety agency. The 911 call taker then contacts the 911 dispatcher who contacts first responders.
“In the US there is no real-time system for crash notification. We are combining automatic crash detection with public safety. It was a monumental task to create the technology and to work with all the partners needed,” he says.
“We partnered with automakers, OEM partners, technology, public and other partners to link in-car data to connect to 911 in real-time. It is a collaborative process to get us there for the entire ecosystem. There was an enormous hill to climb to overcome systems stratification. We had to provide harmonization strategies across companies and regulations. I am proud to say our team did it.”
The company has accumulated over seventy-five partners.
RoadMedic offers a patented system to connect the crash computer or the black box in the car in real-time to 911 computer-aided dispatch centres after a car crash.
“We have developed a very efficient path to the ecosystem for Next Generation 911(NG911) data delivery,” says Williams.
The system sends automaker-sponsored data during roadside emergencies to Next Generation 911. It connects to over six-thousand emergency communication centres and over eighteen thousand public safety responder agencies and a quarter of a million mobile police car terminals in the US.
The data includes onboard data and off-board data.
The onboard data can include airbag deployment, location and vehicle crash sensor information that can show crash severity, the direction of impact, multiple impacts or rollovers.
First responders are helped with off-board information such as vehicle ownership details, personal medical information, stolen vehicle/crime status, emergency contacts, and insurance information. First responders also receive safety information and vehicle extraction schematics for the vehicle, explains Williams.
Improving Customer Relationships
“A collision is the lowest point of a car ownership experience and the highest part of brand defection,” says Williams, who previously worked at automakers and auto retailers.
A crash can be a pivotal point in a relationship between the brand or the dealership. Crash data can also be shared with automakers and dealerships.
“We can make it a seamless, holistic process to empower the customer through the post-crash experience. The goal is a seamless trusted experience with the dealership to avoid the stress of dealing with car collisions,” says Williams.
The dealership becomes an advocate for post-crash customer experience. RoadMedic works with automakers to set up procedures and the roadmap for the post-crash customer experience depending on the automaker and the car dealerships, he says.
How RoadMedic Can Help with Autonomous Emergency Takeovers?
Williams could not reveal what automakers are working on RoadMedic because he is bound by strict non-disclosure agreements. However, the company is publicly partnering with Merlin Mobility.
Williams says this summer, RoadMedic and Merlin Mobility are launching the first connected camera-based emergency takeover technology for autonomous emergency takeover situations.
Merlin Copilot works with windscreen mounted cameras. It detects an incapacitated driver at the wheel. Then autonomously drives the vehicle to the side of the road. It parks the vehicle and connects to Next Generation 911 to request help.
What is the Future of RoadMedic?
In the fall, RoadMedic plans to integrate data, text images, video and multimedia from vehicles’ cameras, lidar and radar with real-time RoadMedic Next Generation 9-1-1 for enhanced situational awareness.
“In case of a crash, RoadMedic will stream real-time video from inside and outside the car instantly. It gives 911 public safety eyes to see what is happening, live,” says Williams.
Safety for all those involved in crashes is improved, notes Williams.
“RoadMedic not only sends details about the subscriber’s car – public safety agencies can see other vehicles. They can see pedestrians, buildings, obstacles, fires, floods or climate conditions.
“We are helping not only the car owner but helping surrounding communities while building brand awareness,” he concludes.
Keyword: Heroic, Fast, Life-Saving Data Delivery – Roadside Telematics’ CEO Lawrence E. Williams