Emergency Vehicle Safety System Reaches 1.8 Million Drivers

More than 1.8 million North American drivers are now benefiting from Stellantis’ connected tech that provides alerts when emergency vehicles are nearby.

The auto manufacturing giant confirmed that a vast number of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram vehicles in the United States and Canada have signed up for the EVAS (Emergency Vehicle Alert System) feature, which provides notifications of active fire trucks, ambulances or other hazards in the vicinity, as part of the Uconnect connected vehicle platform. EVAS is available free as part of the paid-for Uconnect Access service.

As a result of the success of EVAS, Stellantis is now evaluating a new system called HELP (Hazard Enhanced Learning Protocol) which would provide warnings to drivers approaching a vehicle that has unexpectedly had to stop. 

The principle behind EVAS was suggested in a program that encourages and rewards ideas from employees and the tech is now available on vehicles from 2018 onwards that are equipped with the Uconnect infotainment system. On many of the older vehicles, it is applied by an over-the-air update.

Alerts are displayed on screens in the vehicles and come via Chicago-based HAAS Alert’s Safety Cloud platform, a V2X [vehicle to everything] solution which receives and delivers notifications from a wide variety of vehicles. By being made aware of emergency vehicles that are nearby, the risk of collision is reduced for drivers of cars equipped with the tech.

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The mooted HELP system would work along a similar premise, delivering warnings to drivers approaching a disabled vehicle on the roadway or shoulder. When activated, HELP would send a notification of the vehicle’s exact location to HAAS Alert’s Safety Cloud, which in turn would transmit an alert to Uconnect-equipped vehicles. Drivers would have up to 20 seconds of advance warning, reducing the likelihood of a crash.

HELP could also be activated manually by the driver in other safety-critical situations, such as collisions or tire blowouts, and also offers the potential to automatically flash the hazard lights in a pattern optimized to catch the attention of oncoming traffic.

The progress Stellantis is making in V2X was hailed by the group’s chief software officer, Yves Bonnefont, who said: “The widespread deployment of EVAS in North America demonstrates how Stellantis is harnessing the power of V2X connectivity and in-vehicle technology to make mobility safer for our customers.

“We’re proud to be the first global automaker to make V2X digital alerting a standard safety feature for our connected customers, and we are continuously looking to expand its capabilities.”