Packaging
Automatic SOS: Car Alerts Emergency Services after Accident
Wednesday 06. February 2008 - SIM cards are finding their way into car electronics, where they automatically report accidents and technical problems via the mobile network
There has been a car accident, and just a few seconds can make the difference between life and death. But the SOS has already gone out – the emergency call was made by the SIM card installed in the cars electronic equipment. An application of this nature makes heavy demands on the SIM card. It must be capable of withstanding extreme climatic conditions and high mechanical stresses. For this purpose Giesecke & Devrient (G&D), the worlds second-largest provider of SIM card solutions, has now developed particularly robust SIM cards for fixed installation in automotive electronic systems or metering devices. In the future, these cards will be employed in a variety of machine-to-machine applications, where they will automatically transmit data from machines via the mobile network. The same principle works for vending machines, electricity meters, or fleets of vehicles whose counter readings are communicated to their operators in this manner.
“To cater for these sophisticated requirements, for the first time our exhibit at the 2008 GSMA Mobile World Congress will unveil M2M SIM cards that function reliably even under extreme ambient conditions,” stresses Dr. Klaus Vedder, head of the Telecommunications division at G&D. “We expect to see very pronounced growth in the implementation of smart metering applications over the next few years – that is, in the capture and retrieval of machine data via the mobile network. We are working with the network operators and interested manufacturers to expedite the standardization of M2M SIM cards for this type of application.”
Just as in mobile telephony, the M2M SIM card ensures that all communications are reliably protected against unauthorized access and that the transmitting entity can be unmistakably identified. In order to satisfy the heavy demands of day-to-day use, several versions of the card are available. Depending on the requirements of the specific operating environment, the M2M SIM cards presented by G&D can either be flexibly retrofitted to the finished metering and monitoring devices, or built in when the devices are manufactured.
M2M SIM cards have to meet a multifaceted catalog of requirements: For example, their contact surfaces need to be especially robust for use in a car so that they can withstand the incessant vibrations when the vehicle is in motion. In vending machines and gas or electricity meters, which are often in the open air or integrated in production facilities, wide temperature fluctuations present a particular challenge. M2M SIM cards can survive temperatures from a frosty minus 40 to a fiery 105 degrees Celsius with no difficulty at all. The systems also have to be protected against dust.
G&D will be presenting the M2M SIM cards at Stand B65 in Hall 8 at the 2008 GSMA World Congress (February 11-14, 2008) in Barcelona.