space travel
Standard Member
I had the bad luck to need to call the emergency services while driving earlier today.
I thought it would be a good idea to use the car's eCall SOS button, because it automatically transmits basic details about the car's location and would also save me having to handle my phone while driving.
I pressed and held down the button. There were some loud beeps and brief electronic garbling (not unlike a fax machine or dial up modem) which I guess was the telemetry data transmitting.
And then when the 999 operator spoke, it almost sounded like a fax machine too! The speech was robotic and so heavily garbled, it didn't even sound like English. Through the distortion, I couldn't even make out the shape of sentences or pick out individual words.
I gather they could hear me - it sounded like they connected me to the police when I asked. But all the speech on the other end of the line was completely indecipherable. I couldn't understand anything they were saying or answer any of (what I presume were) the questions they asked.
I had to end the call, carry on driving until it was safe to pull over, and try again from my mobile.
This was a really stressful and worrying experience. I thought eCall SOS was the preferred way of calling for help, and assumed it would available even if I didn't have a phone with me. Not being able to understand a word the emergency operator was saying was, to be honest, terrifying.
I've had my MG4 almost a month and driven 1,500 miles. I absolutely love the car so far and think it's fantastic (to the point where most of the issues I see written about here nearly make me wonder whether I've got a different car to everyone else!). But I think I need to have a serious conversation with my dealer on Monday.
Has anyone else used eCall SOS? And had good or bad experiences with it?
I should say, bluetooth handsfree has always worked perfectly - this issue only seems to be with eCall. I'm really hoping there's an easy software fix.
I thought it would be a good idea to use the car's eCall SOS button, because it automatically transmits basic details about the car's location and would also save me having to handle my phone while driving.
I pressed and held down the button. There were some loud beeps and brief electronic garbling (not unlike a fax machine or dial up modem) which I guess was the telemetry data transmitting.
And then when the 999 operator spoke, it almost sounded like a fax machine too! The speech was robotic and so heavily garbled, it didn't even sound like English. Through the distortion, I couldn't even make out the shape of sentences or pick out individual words.
I gather they could hear me - it sounded like they connected me to the police when I asked. But all the speech on the other end of the line was completely indecipherable. I couldn't understand anything they were saying or answer any of (what I presume were) the questions they asked.
I had to end the call, carry on driving until it was safe to pull over, and try again from my mobile.
This was a really stressful and worrying experience. I thought eCall SOS was the preferred way of calling for help, and assumed it would available even if I didn't have a phone with me. Not being able to understand a word the emergency operator was saying was, to be honest, terrifying.
I've had my MG4 almost a month and driven 1,500 miles. I absolutely love the car so far and think it's fantastic (to the point where most of the issues I see written about here nearly make me wonder whether I've got a different car to everyone else!). But I think I need to have a serious conversation with my dealer on Monday.
Has anyone else used eCall SOS? And had good or bad experiences with it?
I should say, bluetooth handsfree has always worked perfectly - this issue only seems to be with eCall. I'm really hoping there's an easy software fix.
