You break down in the middle of nowhere, your phone’s battery is flat and you’re faced with a long trudge through the rain to find the nearest phone box. Wouldn’t it be great if you could press a button and someone would come to the rescue? A one-touch system available from next year will alert a breakdown company to the driver’s whereabouts and the car’s make and model.

Called “B-Call” by the BT engineers developing it (it will have a different name when it is launched) the system will eventually be able to narrow down and communicate the cause of the breakdown, using information from the car’s engine management system.

BT says it is in discussion with car companies and breakdown services interested in installing the system. “All the information will be transferred instantly to the breakdown service provider,” said Daniel Ballin, service information consultant for BT.

As people also like to know how long they will have to wait, and hear a reassuring voice, a call-centre operator could phone them (assuming they have enough signal/battery to receive the call) or send a paged reply to the in-car system confirming receipt of their alert message.

“You would be able to fit a system like this relatively cheaply and breakdown service providers could offer it as an added incentive to attract customers,” said Ballin. “There would be an initial installation cost and then perhaps a small subscription fee.”

The device would be installed in the car in a similar way to a tracking system, probably in the engine bay. When the driver presses the button a message is sent using a paging network to your breakdown service. It would include an identifier — probably your policy number — then your name, contact details, car make, model, colour and registration number would appear on a screen in the company’s control centre.

The device would also include a GPS locator. The AA estimates that more than half of motorists do not know where they are when they break down. “Our call centre staff spend quite a lot of time trying to establish details of landmarks to try to locate motorists,” said a spokesman. GPS technology will let the B-Call system pinpoint the car to within a few metres.

The facility to give the mechanic attending the scene an idea of what has gone wrong is still being developed and will not be available before 2008. Modern engine management systems store data that could help diagnose what happened in the engine immediately before the car stopped, such as a fan belt or valve breaking, the engine overheating, or a problem with brakes or suspension.

BT’s system is one of a number of services being developed that allow cars to “talk” to breakdown or emergency services if the car is in an accident. BMW Assist is an optional service that sends a text message to the emergency services when airbags are activated in an accident, giving details of where the vehicle is.

The service comes as part of a package with satellite navigation and Bluetooth wireless phone connection that costs from £1,730 with an annual subscription of £120. “We know people have really benefited from this system,” said Duncan Forrester of BMW. “In May this year a woman crashed into a tree in her X5. She was knocked unconscious but BMW Assist went into action and the next thing she remembered was being helped out of her car by a policeman.”

The European Union wants to see all new cars fitted with similar systems by 2009. Under the EU proposals the technology would also be used to give investigators clues about how accidents are caused, in the same way as an aircraft’s black box recorder. The technology could reveal whether seatbelts were worn, the brakes failed, the car skidded or at what speed the vehicle was moving.

Police forces in the UK use similar devices in some patrol cars to help explain what happened before a collision, especially following an accident during a high-speed chase. Some courier and freight companies use them to track their vehicles.

The fast-developing technology has caused controversy in the United States. Like the EU, the National Transportation Safety Board there wants to make black boxes compulsory by 2009. The devices are fitted in 15%-20% of American vehicles and most new cars have them as standard.

However, in the interests of privacy, US motoring organisations are calling on manufacturers to state in their owners’ manuals what data are collected and who would be able to access them. The controversy has been fuelled by revelations that unknown to most customers, car hire companies have used black box recorders to check their whereabouts.

The same technology could be used as a basis for road user charging.

Click above for larger image

Explore Features

• Porsche

• BMW

• Mercedes

• Ferrari

• Bentley

• Audi

• Maserati

• Aston Martin

• Jaguar

• VW