Council Member Joseph Borelli (R – South Shore), Chair of the New York City Council’s Committee on Fire & Emergency Management, is exploring options for piloting this technology in New York City in order to study its effectiveness in reducing accidents involving first responder vehicles, decreasing response times to emergencies, and reducing gridlock when there is a vehicle collision or traffic incident.
Start-up tech companies like HAAS Alert, a data-as-a-service company that works with insurance, smart cities, automotive, map data car manufacturers, and other partners across the industry, to bring additional information to drivers and to engineer methods to sync data between vehicles and minimize dangerous interactions on the road. Notifications would cover fire, EMS, police, telecom, municipal, and utility fleet vehicles and will alert drivers in the smart in-road network if those designated vehicles are approaching.
In addition to reducing first responder vehicle collisions, major goals of the proposed pilot program in New York City are a reduction in general road congestion and a reduction in gridlock traffic around vehicle collisions, traffic incidents, and emergencies.
Currently, most for-hire and fleet vehicles in New York City use GPS software programs like Waze, a GPS navigation software program for mobile devices and vehicles which boasts over 50 million users, to navigate the most efficient routes, and utilizing this existing network of users to implement vehicle-to-vehicle notifications.
“As more of our devices become interconnected, the opportunities to utilize that connectivity to mitigate hazards and create efficiencies becomes closer to a reality,” said Council Member Joseph Borelli, Chair of the Fire & Emergency Management Committee. “There are real-world applications for this technology right now, and I’m particularly excited about how this network might look in five or ten years as the number of smart vehicles and devices continue to grow dramatically. I think this will be a useful tool for New York City’s first responders and I’m calling for a pilot program so that we can determine its efficacy.”
“HAAS Alert is very excited to work with New York’s public safety community to protect first responders from one of the most dangerous parts of their job: high-speed traffic accidents. Our technology allows first responder vehicles to push out digital alerts to smartphones and connected cars, allowing drivers to clear the way before an emergency vehicle approaches,” said Cory Hohs, Founder and CEO of HAAS Alert.
To view a copy of the letter sent to FDNY Commissioner Nigro, please click here.