Emergency
S fety
Solutions
S fety
Solutions
Imagine a bit of code that could save hundreds of lives each year and prevent billions of dollars in accident damage, not to mention medical and road repair bills. Code that could keep your teen safe when she has a flat tire and helps first responders quickly locate disabled cars.
That’s what David Tucker thought when he was almost killed by a truck after his car was stranded on the side of a highway: There has to be a better way.
So the oil and gas executive started Emergency Safety Solutions to connect cars and their systems to both emergency response systems and to other cars on the road, letting them know that there’s a disabled car ahead.
I took a test drive with the system to try it out and even saw it in action afterward in another car. After seeing H.E.L.P. in action, it’s sort of crazy to think we haven’t had this system in place for years already.
The system that Tucker dreamed of became a reality not long ago when Tesla added the system—at its base, a piece of code that works with existing hardware—to all its cars. The system sends a notification that lets other cars with the software know that there’s a disabled car ahead.
Car makers can also activate more intense emergency flashers allowing drivers without the software to see a disabled car from further way.
Recently, Volkswagen added ESS’s H.E.L.P. system to its vehicles. This two-way communication system, which is installed on 2025 VW models and added to 2024 models through over the air updates, identifies cars stranded on the roadside and if a VW is stranded, the car can send a notification to other H.E.L.P.-enabled vehicles and notify emergency services.
Once the emergency flashers are on, a notification on the multimedia system allows the driver or passenger to decide whether or not to activate H.E.L.P. the warning. Drivers who are in a safe place or don’t want or need help can simply decline.
This is a pretty cool feature for those moments when it’s clear, an emergency vehicle like a fire truck or ambulance is headed your way. But you can’t see it. It could be a block away, hidden by other cars or going a different direction. The system detects when an emergency vehicle is coming toward you and issues an alert so you know to slow, pull over and use caution.
H.E.L.P. notifications are displayed on the central multimedia system in the cars that carry it— so far, VW, Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler, Ram and Tesla. A notification pops up when necessary and it can work with any screen setting, from Waze to Google Maps, Apple maps and built-in navigation systems. The H.E.L.P. system is agnostic to the built in-system so it will display no matter what is on the screen.
The notification will disappear either after a period of about 20 seconds or a set distance, both determined to be enough time to notify the driver but not so long as to disrupt navigation or other key displays.
Probably the largest need for a system like this is with commercial trucking, which sees many instances of both disabled trucks on the side of the road and of accidents or near-misses with disabled vehicles. ESS is working with truck makers and commercial truckers to make the system available.
And drivers who don’t have it installed in their cars yet will soon be able to buy an after-market system that consumers can install themselves.
During my test drive I was able to see the H.E.L.P. system at work, popping up when a car with emergency flashers was ahead on the shoulder. In a VW Jetta we saw notifications on the screen both as we approached an disabled car and as we sat on the side of the road with flashers activated. It was nice to know that if I really needed it, help would be there.
But then, as I drove a Porsche Macan through Los Angeles I got a notification on the multimedia screen of a disabled car ahead. After driving the test route to see the tech at work, this was a pleasant surprise— and a bit unexpected. Porsche isn’t on the list of cars with the tech, but as a VW family brand, it’s not a surprise, either.
It’s comforting, in fact, that as ESS ramps up its lineup of carmakers—you can expect to see this service in most brands in the coming years—that this simple software tweak will keep drivers aware of roadside emergencies and not become one themselves.
