eCall SOS - terrible audio quality - garbled voices!

[Gandalfharrow]

I accidently used it a few weeks ago, instant response, person speaking was not English but perfectly understandable.

 

[adriangalilee]

Swipe the home screen right to get the second screen and tap 'Rescue Call'. You should see the UK number 0800 072 3338. If necessary tap the 'Switch country' button.

Have just checked my UK registered MG4 Trophy and, just like other replies, I found it identified the Country as Cyprus. So I changed that to the UK and the correct 0800 number came up. Hope I never need to use it! But thank you for those who have reported their experiences here.

 

[tsedge]

Cyprus is just the top country alphabetically in the list. Mine wasn't set to anything (now UK) so thanks for the tip!

Is it perhaps the case that it uses GPS to decide which country you are in unless you have one set up? Maybe this is as intended?

 

[JonnyG]

Just checked mine (new model) and it was also not set to UK so thanks for all the tips above.

Probably something that should be done by dealers as part of the PDI !!

Perhaps they've extened the list of countries recently as Albania was first on my list of countries but the car was just not setup at all to any country.

EDIT : If you click on the pics there is something there even though they just look black !!

 

[NickHeynes]

The SE does have eCall, but there's nowhere in the car (that I can see) to set the eCall number. However ... in the app on the main menu screen, if you click the headset icon top-left that takes you to the Rescue Call page where you can set the country. With UK set then the number is indeed 0800 072 3338.

(I don't know if this syncs with the car to set it).

Mine was set to no country at all!!

Mine was set to no country at all!!

Yet another example of shoddiness by MG/SAIC/The dealer network. Why is this not part of the PDI?
Forumheads to the rescue once again!!

 

[Nicko]

Mine was set to no country as well. Now set to the uk.

 

[dragon2611]

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.

May or may not be the cars fault, could just as easily be something in the telecoms network not sure how common it is on the newer packet switched stuff but on the older circuit switched equipment it's certainly possible for various bits of hardware to cause garbled transmission in one direction.

Given it's rather unlikely you'd hit exactly the same timeslot on exactly the same multiplexers if you were to hang up and redial you'd probably find that might have worked, although that's a bit tricker when it's an emergency call.