Emergency Safety Solutions announced this morning that Tesla has signed a global agreement to add Hazard Enhanced Location Protocol (H.E.L.P.) to its vehicles, becoming the first automaker to implement the new technology to help prevent crashes into disabled vehicles.
According to Emergency Management Solutions, more than 15,000 people are killed or injured in the U.S. every year in crashes involving disabled vehicles on the side of the road. The company says a contributing factor to this is the emergency flashers on all vehicles, which was first implemented in 1951 and has not changed since.
The new technology helps to prevent these crashes in two ways. The first is by implementing a faster rate at which the turns signals flash, which has been proven to catch the attention of passing motorists better than the current rate which was implemented over 70 years ago.
The system also sends digital notifications to oncoming drivers through their onboard or mobile device’s navigation to warn them of an upcoming disabled vehicle on the side of the road.
Combined, the company expects these two technologies to greatly reduce the number of crashes into disabled vehicles.
“This is great news for significantly increasing roadside safety,” said Tom Metzger, CEO of ESS. “Tesla is a leader in bringing first-time innovation to passenger vehicles and is leading the way by implementing H.E.L.P. technology on potentially millions of Tesla vehicles worldwide. It’s a monumental step in the effort to overcome the troubling safety issue of crashes into disabled and vulnerable vehicles, which tragically injure or kill tens of thousands around the world each year.”
In a press release the company says Tesla will add the technology to “a range” of its vehicles through a free over-the-air (OTA) software update, without providing a date for when this will happen.
Here is a short video on how the technology works.
