HAAS Alert's Safety Cloud® solution is now part of Mercedes-Benz's Emergency Vehicle Alert Beta testing initiative.

Magnus Östberg, chief software officer at Mercedes, says the car maker’s US-based technology 'Car-to-X' programme is exploring how to improve a driver’s ability to react to emergency services vehicles.

“How often have you been driving along and heard an emergency vehicle siren but can’t quite pinpoint where it’s coming from? Or, how many times have you turned a corner and unexpectedly encountered a roadside incident with emergency medical crews? These unnerving experiences can lead to unsafe situations as drivers fail to see or anticipate emergency vehicles until it’s too late,” wrote Östberg on LinkedIn.

Mercedes has teamed up with Vehicle to Everything (V2X) safety expert Haas Alert, whose Safety Cloud platform provides warnings to drivers: as soon as participating emergency vehicles activate their warning lights, a signal is received by the Mercedes Car-to-X cloud platform.

Depending on the number of incidents nearby, the system monitors an area around the vehicle between 3km and 9km. As soon as a nearby emergency vehicle is detected, it appears on the navigation screen and the optional head-up display. As the driver approaches the emergency vehicle, visual and acoustic alerts provide additional warning to aid in safe navigation.

Originally published on ITS International by David Arminas