New EU cars to have emergency call technology from 2018

All new cars sold in the European Union from March 2018 will have to be equipped with technology to contact emergency services in the case of an accident, writes Trish Whelan.

The European Parliament's Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee voted 26-3 today in favour of draft EU roles to mandate eCall technology which would call the EU-wide 112 emergency number automatically if a car crashed.

The rules are likely to become law after a vote by the full European Parliament in April.

Some car manufacturers already have comparable systems in place which can summon emergency services after an incident.