HeERO Newsletter - Issue 3

21 January 2014

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Introduction

At European level, the HeERO project is preparing, coordinating and carrying-out pre-deployment pilot projects of the EU-wide eCall (based on the common European emergency number 112). The consortium is currently testing and validating in real conditions the common European eCall standards defined and approved by the European Standardisation Bodies.

HeERO participating countries
HeERO participating countries

Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Romania and Sweden are committed to the same high-level objective: developing the local 112 eCall infrastructure needed in order to provide sustainable eCall service for European citizens and share their experiences with the other EU Members and Associated States. On 1st January 2013, 6 other countries, namely Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Luxembourg, Spain, and Turkey have joined the 9 first pilot sites.

The project is 50% funded by the European Union under the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme.

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Table of content

  • HeERO project: the show must go on!
  • Report on the second HeERO international conference
  • Update on eCall legislation at EU level
  • eCall implementation: what does it really mean for PSAPs?
  • HeERO Standards Task force update
  • eCall interoperability tests
  • Cooperation with ERA GLONASS
  • eCall outside Europe
  • HeERO project's deliverables
  • Glossary
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HeERO project: the show must go on!

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HeERO 1 ended in December 2013, commitments of all pilot sites to continue implement eCall. At the conclusion of the project, eight of the nine Pilot Sites have achieved all of their objectives.  Of that there are three Countries that are declared eCall ready.  These are Romania Croatia and Czech Republic.  Many of the Pilot sites are still awaiting final political decisions before full scale deployment, a number are now waiting the delivery of new PSAP equipment, however the HeERO project has been invaluable in identifying the necessary specifications required for these pilot sites to become fully operational.  

HeERO 2 continues for one year - "standard" eCall + new stuff e.g. HGV, P2W.  HeERO 2 started on the 1st January 2013, learning from the experience of HeERO 1 the six pilot sites have been able to swiftly move forward in preparing the sites for testing.  All six sites are now in the process of undertaking the first operational tests.  For HeERO 2 there are some additional areas of work being undertaken which were not undertaken in HeERO 1, these are:
• eCall Trucks including Dangerous Good
• Powered 2 Wheeled eCall
• Aftermarket devices
• Certification
• Adoption of a screening PSAP
o Government owned
o Under private contract
All of these additional work streams are progressing well.

HeERO associated partners update. Currently there are six associated sites who are undertaking the necessary work to achieve the upgrade of the PSAP at their own cost, these Countries are:
• Cyprus
• Hungary
• Iceland
• Ireland
• Israel
• Slovenia

In December 2013 Hungary was the first associate country to publish their findings on eCall deployment, which included impact assessments and lessons learned.
Slovenia is also undertaking testing at this time. Iceland are working toward the purchase of IVS so as to facilitate testing on their PSAP system. The remaining Countries continue to review the documentation.

The interest in eCall in a commercial context continues to increase.  To respond to this demand, the project coordinator has initiated a HeERO Market Place which is held every other month to provide technical assistance to the nineteen commercial associate partners
The interest for eCall has now spread Globally, with testing facilities now established in Japan, interest expressed from China as well as three countries in the Middle East.

HeERO Pilot Sites
HeERO Pilot Sites
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Report on the second HeERO international conference

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The second International HeERO Conference on eCall, which took place on 20-21 November 2013 in Bucharest (hosted by the Romanian Pilot Site), offered an exclusive insight on the recommendations for implementation of eCall at European level. You will find below a link towards the recommendations made by the HeERO consortium, the solutions found by pilot sites regarding specific challenges they faced and the results of the second eCall Test Fest.

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Update on eCall legislation at EU level

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IVS
Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL concerning type-approval requirements for the deployment of the eCall in-vehicle system and amending Directive 2007/46/EC.
It is currently being examined by the Parliament and the Council, with objective to get the text adopted by May 2014. An aggressive timetable has been set for the review process with the legislation to hopefully be examined during the Greek presidency January to June 2014.

Full text available here


MNO
There is no European regulation on the implementation of eCall Discriminator (eCall Flag).  Commission Recommendation C (2011) 6269 adopted on 08/09/2011.

Full text available here


PSAP
Proposal for a DECISION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on the deployment of the interoperable EU-wide eCall.
It is currently being examined by the Parliament and the Council, with objective to get the text adopted by May 2014.

Full text available here

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eCall implementation: what does it really mean for PSAPs?

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Most PSAPs still don't really know what eCall implementation concretely means for them. The presentation available for download below provides a flavour of the changes it implies in the PSAPs and regarding the PSAPs organisation at national level.

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HeERO Standardisation Task force

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The standardisation task force has met physically 3 times in 2013 to progress on the contributions to the standardisation. Following HeERO evaluation results, as well as eCall trials carried out by vendors, the standardisation task force has proposed change requests to the CEN TC278 - WG15, responsible for the eCall standards.

The HeERO standardisation task force has also supported CEN during the change request review process, leading to a decision on  revising 3 published CEN ENs: EN15722, EN16062 and EN16072. The revision of the EN was aimed at improving the performance of the Pan European eCall services as well as improving the clarity of the requirements in the standards. However the changes will ensure backward compatibility of the eCall devices compliant to the published ENs.

The revised ENs are now ready for WG approval at the next WG15 meeting, which will be held 23 and 24 January at ERTICO - ITS Europe in Brussels.

For more information on the Standardisation TF, please contact François Fischer ().

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eCall interoperability tests

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The second edition of the eCall Testfest event was held from 9 to 13 September 2013 at Essen in Germany. This interoperability test event, organised by ERTICO - ITS Europe and ETSI was successfully hosted by CETECOM, the German accredited test lab for mobile communication. The event was also supported by the HEERO standardisation task force as well as the European Commission. 21 IVS suppliers, 3 PSAP vendors, 2 test tool vendors and 4 HeERO live PSAP participated in the test sessions, showing a huge growth of participation compared to the first event in 2012. More than 2000 tests were executed during 348 pairing sessions between IVS and PSAP.

2 test tool vendors and 4 HeERO live PSAP participated in the test sessions, showing a huge growth of participation compared to the first event in 2012. More than 2000 tests were executed during 348 pairing sessions between IVS and PSAP.

This event helped participant to exchange their views about the implementation of the eCall standards. Feedbacks from the suppliers have been handled to the standardisation organisation by the HeERO standardisation task force, thus contributing to improve the readability of the standards.

For more information on the eCall interoperability tests, please contact François Fischer ()

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Cooperation with ERA GLONASS

Following 9 months of negotiations there is now a formal agreement with GLONASS Union for the ERA GLONASS system.  The result of this agreement is that there will be formal interoperability testing taking place in the later part of 2013 into 2014.

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eCall outside Europe

Currently there are Pan European eCall testing facilities in Japan, which have now been operational for a year.  This was achieved following work by the HeERO Coordination team and ERTICO. Discussions are currently ongoing to look at Pan European eCall in China, Qatar United Arab Emirates

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HeERO project's deliverables

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Glossary

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  • ERA-GLONASS: Russian automated emergency response system, similar to eCall
  • EUCARIS: EUropean CAR and driving license Information System
  • GIS: Geographic Information System
  • HeERO: Harmonised ecall EuROpean pilot
  • HGV: Heavy Goods Vehicle
  • IVS: In-Vehicle System
  • KPI: Key Performance Indicator
  • MSD: Minimum Set of Data
  • PSAP: Public Safety Answering Point
  • TMC: Traffic Management Center
  • VIN: Vehicle Identification Number
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Any question?

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Project coordinator
Andy Rooke
ERTICO

+32 2 400 07 80

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Dissemination Manager
Jerome Paris
EENA

+32 2 644 06 08

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Disclaimer
Possible inaccuracies of information are under the responsibility of the project team. The text reflects solely the views of its authors. The European Commission is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

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