Service platform for e-safety automotive intelligent system

Thousands of people die due to road accidents every year. This alarming situation has generated lots of public and private initiatives addressing the car safety improvement. This chpater aims at the definition of an intelligent system focused on taking care of the driver, passengers and vehicle conditions, so that it can be possible to prevent risky situations as well as to mitigate the damage when a critical situation has happened. To complete this target, an open service platform, characterized by a high integration level of data provided by on-board sensors and nomadic devices, has been developed, the car gateway. It allows deploying an intelligent environment for carrying out the appropriate e-safety tasks inside the vehicle. Additionally, a standalone nomadic device, the smart infant seat, has been proposed. It is in charge of taking care about the child's status. Such device will provide added-value information and functions, which will extend the e-safety routines the car gateway implements. © 2009 pringer Science+Business Media B.V.