Responder-to-Vehicle Digital Alert Overview
Responder-to-Vehicle (R2V) digital alerting is an emergency notification system from Safety Cloud® by HAAS Alert. Active emergency or roadside response vehicles equipped with Safety Cloud send R2V alerts straight to drivers through navigation apps or vehicle infotainment centers. These alerts notify drivers that there is an emergency vehicle or roadside worker nearby and they should slow down and move over.
What is Safety Cloud?
Safety Cloud reduces the risk of collision by delivering real-time electronic notifications to nearby and approaching vehicles. These alerts warn drivers of an emergency responder, work zone, or other hazard that is nearby. Safety Cloud alerts send messages to prompt drivers to slow down and move over.
Safety Cloud sends drivers digital alerts up to 30 seconds before coming into contact with a hazard in the road. These crucial moments allow drivers more time to take appropriate action. Studies show that it reduces the risk of collision by 90 percent compared to traditional lights.
Cars have become more soundproof and drivers have become more distracted. Because of that, analog alerting systems like lights and sirens are no longer enough to catch drivers' attention. First responders are at constant risk. Traffic deaths in the U.S are on the rise. Safety Cloud digital alerts were created to help prevent those avoidable tragedies.
Safety Cloud digital alerting helps to support Slow Down, Move Over laws, which prompts civilian drivers to take action when approaching an incident where roadside workers or emergency responders are stopped and working along the road. Every state adopted some form of regulations to support these laws between 2001- 2012. Technology like Safety Cloud supports these laws by sending lifesaving alerts to motorists in a way they cannot miss.
What is HAAS Alert?
HAAS Alert is a small business with a big mission. We’ve set out on a journey to reshape road safety around the world through cutting-edge mobility solutions. Our hope is a future with a connected, collision-free world where all roadway users get home safely.
The driving force behind this vision is our flagship product — Safety Cloud digital alerting. It’s an advanced collision prevention service that sends real-time digital alerts from emergency vehicles to drivers and connected cars. This is done through vehicle dashboards and infotainment systems, navigation applications, and smartphones. The goal of Safety Cloud is to aid drivers earlier in making safer, smarter driving decisions.
What is a digital alert?
A digital alert system sends an electronic notification to drivers. Digital alerts are made possible through vehicle-to-everything communication. At HAAS Alert, we leverage this technology to send notifications that protect all roadway users.
Your fleet can begin broadcasting R2V digital alerts by connecting a piece of hardware in your vehicles/assets. Or, you can potentially activate service through one of your existing telematics tools or fleet management solutions.
When you activate your emergency lights, R2V alerts are broadcasted to nearby drivers. They'll notify them to slow down and move over because your crew members are approaching or working alongside the road. At the end of the day, R2V digital alerts are there to ensure your crew members get home safely every day.
Safety Cloud features
Safety Cloud R2V service includes access to a situational awareness dashboard and a monthly Safety Cloud report. Here are the features you can expect:
Situational awareness dashboard
Use the situational awareness dashboard as your own customizable control center. You can see the location and alert status of all equipped vehicles and assets from any connected device. In the dashboard, you’ll be able to perform the following actions as well:
- Create up to 99 user accounts or share your dashboard with other responding fleets
- Nickname and group trucks, define alerting exclusion zones, and more
- Track trends for post-incident reporting and more leverage in liability situations
- Access your dashboard remotely from any internet-connected device
- Create lane closure alerts to alert drivers for other hazards when your vehicles are not on-scene (this includes roadway flooding, downed trees, or post-crash care)
Monthly Safety Cloud report
HAAS Alert emails you at the beginning of each month with a link to your personalized Safety Cloud report. This information provides historical data such as drivers alerted, events, calls, time-to-scene, and time-on-scene. You can monitor your performance and identify trends with verifiable, objective data. Vehicle data may also be exported at-will for one or more vehicles which can be used for analysis and validation.
What is vehicle-to-everything communication?
Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication refers to a vehicle's ability to communicate with its surroundings. That allows connected cars to send and receive data with things along their pathway on the road. V2X provides vehicles with the potential to share real-time data with drivers, pedestrians, responders, and everyone else that shares the road.
Most vehicles today come with some level of connectivity, which makes them capable of V2X communication. The capability is typically powered through cellular networks, or with advanced hardware like an HA-7 transponder. This enables connected vehicles to communicate with their surroundings without needing networks like Bluetooth.
Why does V2X communication matter?
Highway fatalities from car crashes are rising at an alarming rate. This includes a rise in casualties among first responders. NHTSA predicts that V2X will enhance safety measures and protect people on the road, with the potential to reduce crashes by 615,000 a year. This is possible because V2X helps cars to remain aware of their surrounding environment. This capability enables them to alert drivers in real-time to potential hazards and traffic conditions.
HAAS Alert is helping to drive V2X technology forward with Safety Cloud. Unfortunately, roadside workers and emergency personnel can no longer just rely on alerting tools like lightbars, sirens, and arrow boards. R2V alerts enable emergency personnel to enhance their traditional alerting tools and tack on an additional layer of protection with digital communication that notifies drivers of their presence.
V2X-powered technology like Safety Cloud enhances road safety. With R2V digital alerts, first responders, municipal fleets, and drivers can count on an improved level of safety on the road.
What is Responder-to-Responder digital alerting?
Fleets using Safety Cloud R2V alerts can add on Responder-to-Responder (R2R) alerts for additional safety and protection on the road. R2R alerts notify emergency responders when other Safety Cloud-equipped emergency vehicles are in active response mode and on the path to approach the same intersection. LEDs are placed on either side of the vehicle to give the commanding officer and driver a clear view of the advanced warning. The extra warning provided by these lights can help prevent a collision with another responding unit in the area.
How does R2V digital alerting work?
Safety Cloud integrates with your vehicle/apparatus, arrow boards, or other assets on the road. You need to activate Safety Cloud service to start broadcasting R2V alerts. Safety Cloud integrates with your vehicle/apparatus, arrow boards, or other assets on the road. You can connect to Safety Cloud either through select telematics and connectivity platforms. Or, you can activate through an easy-to-install device that works on any vehicle, apparatus, or device.
When you activate your emergency flashing lights, Safety Cloud automatically begins broadcasting R2V alerts directly to vehicle infotainment systems and navigation applications.
R2V will send either type of the following alerts:
- Moving alerts: When your emergency vehicle's warning lights are activated and you're en-route to an incident, R2V digital alerting notifies drivers in your path that you're approaching. Let's say you're an emergency medical services worker responding to a medical emergency. Once you're en-route and activate your vehicle’s emergency lights, Safety Cloud will begin broadcasting R2V alerts. This will provide them with ample time to clear the roadway for you.
- Stationary alerts: These go out when your emergency lights are on and you're on scene doing roadside work or responding to an incident. Once you're stationary for 30 seconds, Safety Cloud broadcasts alerts to approaching drivers to warn them of your presence. Let's say you're a construction worker doing maintenance work on the side of the road. When you turn on your equipped arrow board, approaching drivers will be notified of your presence. Then, they can move lanes before they reach your job site,
How do I equip my fleet with R2V digital alerts?
In order to send out R2V digital alerts, your fleet needs to have Safety Cloud service enabled. From there, HAAS Alert offers the three following options to to set up Safety Cloud service so you can begin to broadcast R2V alerts:
Preinstalled and prepaid on new apparatus
Safety Cloud comes preinstalled and prepaid on select vehicles and apparatus. When you select this option, your vehicle will include digital alerting capabilities without any additional installation needed. Contact HAAS Alert or your dealer to learn more.
HA-7 transponder: integration with existing warning lights
The HAAS Alert HA-7 transponder is a piece of hardware that can be installed on any alerting vehicle. It doesn’t matter the make, model, or age — the transponder will seamlessly integrate. The HA-7 connects directly to your vehicle and synchronizes with your on-vehicle warning lights. Whenever you activate your emergency lights, your vehicle will automatically begin to broadcast digital alerts.
HA-D integration: activate on leading telematics platforms
Safety Cloud also integrates easily with leading fleet management and telematics solutions. If your fleet has a preferred wireless platform, telematics hardware, or other select fleet management solutions, take a look at our Integrations page to see if it's listed there.
The partners listed on that page integrate seamlessly with Safety Cloud service. So if you already use the service provided by one of our partners, that means you'll be able to activate Safety Cloud without any additional hardware. You’ll be able to use your existing platform as you normally do — you’ll just be able to start broadcasting R2V alerts as part of that service.
How do drivers receive R2V digital alerts?
Civilian motorists can currently see R2V digital alerts in two ways.
Navigation apps
Those who use the free navigation app Waze will receive both moving and stationary alerts. When an emergency vehicle is moving or stopped in their proximity, the Waze map will show the driver an emergency vehicle icon. Then, it displays a message that tells drivers an emergency vehicle is nearby, along with how far away it is. When a driver sees this alert, they can tap "There" to confirm the vehicle is nearby. But if the alert is not needed anymore, drivers have the option to select "Not There" on the screen.
In-vehicle infotainment centers
Those who driver 2024 and newer Volkswagen vehicles will recieve Safety Cloud digital alerts. Drivers of compatible Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram vehicles (models 2018 and newer) also receive R2V digital alerts. This is possible through Stellantis' Emergency Vehicle Alert System. When an emergency vehicle is nearby, drivers get an audible and visual alert directly from their vehicle's infotainment center. Drivers will hear two dings. Simultaneously, a caution message with the appropriate hazard message will appear on their infotainment center's screen. Drivers can tap "Dismiss," once they've seen the alert. Or, they can click "Not There" if the alert is not needed anymore.
Benefits of R2V digital alerting
Safety Cloud goes beyond collision risk reduction to include the following benefits:
- Operational efficiency: Use the Safety Cloud dashboard to dig into historical data and incident statistics so you can enhance safety initiatives.
- Streamlined traffic flow: R2V alerts notify drivers about nearby lane closures in the area. That way, they can move lanes without congesting traffic.
- Expedited emergency operations: When a driver knows you're nearby, they can clear the path for your vehicle. That will help to reduce your crew's response time.
- Safer on-scene environment: First responders are in danger simply by working along the road. In fact, responding on the road is a bigger risk to firefighters than entering a burning building. But when nearby drivers are informed that your crew members are on scene, they'll be able to give responders the space they need to safely do their jobs.
- Move Over Law compliance: A visual and auditory alert like Safety Cloud catches drivers' attention early. That way, they can quickly slow down and move over.
- Peace of mind: Responding on the road is scary. But with R2V digital alerts, your crew can have peace of mind that drivers are being notified of your presence.
R2V digital alerts for every fleet
Ready to see what R2V alerts from Safety Cloud can do for your fleet? Take a look at our segment-specific pages! We offer benefits, features, and content for every type of fleet. It doesn't matter if you're a road work crew or emergency response fleet — when you’re on the road, Safety Cloud has your back.
