SOS button in cars

Herzlos

[Deleted User] said:

Herzlos said:

It's an EU thing, but not a UK thing. We'll probably follow along anyway.

However, how many cars do you think are build here for the domestic market only?

Realistically any car from an EU manufacturer or selling into the EU will add the feature and we'll get it anyway because it'll be cheaper than designing it out.

Hard to say. Some people seem to think that brexit can only be a success if we do the opposite of what the EU does, no matter how daft it is.

I think what happens is that if we can pass it off as our idea, we'll go along with it. If it's got EU or Europe in it's name then we reject it automatically

jimjames

EssexExile said:

That's what I like about the internet - a simple question and two diametrically opposed answers!

But when a question is vague and can have multiple correct answers it's hardly surprising. The question makes no mention of new cars for example.

Robbo66

castle96 said:

and what happened????

car started to dial a number so I hung up, must be honest am tempted to push it again to see if someone answers

born_again

YES. But only on cars type approved after a certain date (don't know) So there are many brand new cars that will not have them as they were type approved long before that date.

Grumpy_chap

So. I'd never really thought about the SoS button before, but driving home today my wife pressed the SoS button by mistake while were were on the M25.  Nothing happened - I just carried on driving until we got home, parked on the drive and unloaded as we normally would and that was that.

What should the SoS button actually do?

ontheroad1970

generally it should use a phone that is connected to  the the Entertainment system to call 999.  

Grumpy_chap

That didn't happen.
Perhaps we would have had to set the system up at some point and never did.
Seems a bit pointless really - hard to think of a situation that I could press the SoS button but not make a call, especially given the car has voice dialling.

user1977

Grumpy_chap said:

That didn't happen.
Perhaps we would have had to set the system up at some point and never did.
Seems a bit pointless really - hard to think of a situation that I could press the SoS button but not make a call, especially given the car has voice dialling.

Isn't it also meant to be triggered by the car "detecting" a crash? (presumably air bags going off) I have the facility in my (not particularly new) Focus, which is why it nags me to connect my phone via Bluetooth.

Grumpy_chap

My wife's Fiesta (that we were in) also nags to connect a phone and the phone was connected...

Goudy

My car has a "phone" built into the system. It doesn't need my own phone connected to operate the SOS system nor update things like maps.
According to the documents in my cars "app", this will run until 2050.

It works in one of two ways.
Automatically, in the event of an accident, it's tripped by the airbags or the seatbelt pretensioners firing.

Manually, by pressing and holding the button for at least 3 seconds.

The button glows either red, green or nothing depending if there's a network available or a fault with the system.

It contacts the emergency services local to where ever the car is and can also be used to inform them if you witness a serious accident, they can track the location of the car via the system.

As a bonus, this allows me to track my car via the cars app.

I presumed this is is all pretty standard these days, it's not like my car is flash, it's just a 2020 Clio.