SHARED USE OF WIRELESS COMMUNICATION CONNECTIONS AMONG A POLICE OF MOTOR VEHICLES

Abstract

Emergency communication is established between a vehicle and a public safety answering point (PSAP). The vehicle is equipped with a wireless peer-to-peer (P2P) transceiver that exchanges two-way messages with remote transceivers in distant vehicles, a telematics unit for a mobile phone system, and an emergency call trigger. Query messages are exchanged with the remote vehicles via the wireless P2P transceiver. A group list of specific remote vehicles that remain contactable via the P2P transceiver is compiled, along with a connection status of remote vehicles with the mobile phone system. If the emergency call trigger is activated and the telematics unit is unable to communicate with the mobile phone system, a remote vehicle from the group list that has an active connection to the mobile phone system is selected.A sequence of messages via the P2P transceiver forwards an emergency call to the PSAP via the selected remote vehicle.

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