Opel presents OnStar emergency services at Berlin eCall conference

Opel is demonstrating its ambition to become a leading player in automotive connectivity by taking an active role in this year’s “eCall Days Germany” (September 16-18), the biggest international conference in Germany on the European emergency call system for automobiles. Participants include political representatives of the European Commission, the automobile industry, component suppliers and other stakeholders. Opel plans to introduce the OnStar connected vehicle service across its passenger car range in selected European countries, beginning in 2015.
At “eCall Days Germany”, Catherine M. Bishop, manager of global emergency services outreach and strategy at OnStar, and Gerrit Riemer, director of future mobility at Opel, will deliver a presentation on how OnStar assists public safety; in particular, they will inform the conference about OnStar Automatic Crash Response (ACR).
With Automatic Crash Response, OnStar automatically connects the vehicle to a specially trained emergency advisor the moment it detects a crash. If the driver or a passenger requests help, or cannot answer, emergency responders are sent to the vehicle.
OnStar provides additional emergency assistance, as well as ACR. With Emergency Services, if a driver, passenger or even a bystander needs emergency help, they just press the emergency button inside the car. They will get priority connection to a specially trained advisor who can contact fire, police or emergency medical services and guide them to the car.
The “eCall Days” conference at the Representation of Lower Saxony at the Federal Government in Berlin gives an overview of the status of the introduction of eCall in Europe.
OnStar is the leading provider in the global automobile industry of connected safety and security solutions, value-added mobility services and advanced information technology. OnStar already connects around 7.0 million customers in the U.S.A., Canada, China and Mexico.
Advisors monitor the OnStar network 24/7, 365 days a year. On average, OnStar receives two calls every second, or 185,000 every day, and automatically responds to nearly 5,000 car crashes across the globe every month.
In addition to bringing OnStar to Europe, Opel will rollout 4G LTE with which the car becomes a powerful Wi-Fi hotspot for up to seven mobile devices.
Source: Opel