2 ms·

While not a firefighter, I've some experience with dealing with this as I'm SAR crew on a lifeboat in an area where unfortunately vehicles enter the water regul

While not a firefighter, I've some experience with dealing with this as I'm SAR crew on a lifeboat in an area where unfortunately vehicles enter the water regularly. During recovery, it would be _very_ useful to know some of this information (particularly where the curtain airbags, hydraulic dampers, and batteries are). We generally aren't going to be able to get any documentation from the vehicle, but now I know these exist, just being able to Google for them will be very helpful.

tosh 5y ago
Imagine an app that does the lookup based on a photo you snap. Does something like that exist?
- closewith 5y ago
  TBH, if no-one recognises the car, we'd just radio in the registration number and get control to do a look-up. For various reasons, we're not allowed private phones on the boat.
- pfranz 5y ago
  I have no experience in this field. The article wants a hard-copy behind the sun visor of each car. I would think having a digital copy could be grabbed from the VIN number with minimal coordination. In practice, it could be pulled up before rescue services arrive on the scene from the license plate or driver's registration with a final spot-check on scene. That might help the parent? I would think a lookup via a photo (unless it's the vin number or a QR code) would be more difficult and take much longer to adopt. I would think something like having the car broadcast basic info with an emergency beacon would be more ideal...but has privacy concerns, would require opt in from manufacturers, and equipment and training on the emergency services side. Maybe another industry like planes or boats would be easier to adopt something like this?
  - closewith 5y ago
    Interestingly, in the EU, all cars sold since mid-2018 have a mandatory SIM card as part of the eCall system. In the event of a crash, it automatically connects to the driver to the local 112 emergency number, but also sends telemetry (location, direction of travel, VIN and some other details). There are definitely privacy implications to this system. It doesn't generally help when the vehicle enters the water, because the signal attenuates so quickly in water that it's very unlikely that the modem will be able to connect to a tower.
  - tosh 5y ago
    Makes sense @ beacon, I'd also imagine visual identification might be difficult in some cases (e.g. if the car is damaged or submerged etc)
- proto_lambda 5y ago
  Yes, it does! Here's a an example of such an app being used, courtesy of the Lunteren fire brigade (video with English subtitles): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoK_QOvm8n8&t=882s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoK_QOvm8n8&t=882s
  - bipson 5y ago
    Neat, had to reread how GP defined this "App" and it actually fits. Although this App simply snaps the license plate and does a lookup and I think what GP meant was a "random snap of the car itself, doing some machine learning magic... But that's possibly my bias towards hn comments :) This is actually much more helpful, although I think not every country allows for has easy access to the license-plate data for vehicle type lookup...

tosh 5y ago

Imagine an app that does the lookup based on a photo you snap. Does something like that exist?

closewith 5y ago
TBH, if no-one recognises the car, we'd just radio in the registration number and get control to do a look-up. For various reasons, we're not allowed private phones on the boat.
pfranz 5y ago
I have no experience in this field. The article wants a hard-copy behind the sun visor of each car. I would think having a digital copy could be grabbed from the VIN number with minimal coordination. In practice, it could be pulled up before rescue services arrive on the scene from the license plate or driver's registration with a final spot-check on scene. That might help the parent? I would think a lookup via a photo (unless it's the vin number or a QR code) would be more difficult and take much longer to adopt. I would think something like having the car broadcast basic info with an emergency beacon would be more ideal...but has privacy concerns, would require opt in from manufacturers, and equipment and training on the emergency services side. Maybe another industry like planes or boats would be easier to adopt something like this?
- closewith 5y ago
  Interestingly, in the EU, all cars sold since mid-2018 have a mandatory SIM card as part of the eCall system. In the event of a crash, it automatically connects to the driver to the local 112 emergency number, but also sends telemetry (location, direction of travel, VIN and some other details). There are definitely privacy implications to this system. It doesn't generally help when the vehicle enters the water, because the signal attenuates so quickly in water that it's very unlikely that the modem will be able to connect to a tower.
- tosh 5y ago
  Makes sense @ beacon, I'd also imagine visual identification might be difficult in some cases (e.g. if the car is damaged or submerged etc)
proto_lambda 5y ago
Yes, it does! Here's a an example of such an app being used, courtesy of the Lunteren fire brigade (video with English subtitles): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoK_QOvm8n8&t=882s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoK_QOvm8n8&t=882s
- bipson 5y ago
  Neat, had to reread how GP defined this "App" and it actually fits. Although this App simply snaps the license plate and does a lookup and I think what GP meant was a "random snap of the car itself, doing some machine learning magic... But that's possibly my bias towards hn comments :) This is actually much more helpful, although I think not every country allows for has easy access to the license-plate data for vehicle type lookup...