DUE TO THE HIGH INTEREST IN THE PROGRAMME & SEVERAL REQUESTS, EENA & WAZE DECIDED TO EXTEND THE DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS UNTIL 8 MAY.

EENA, the European Emergency Number Association, announces a data-sharing partnership with Waze, the free, real-time crowdsourced traffic and navigation app powered by the world’s largest community of drivers. EENA and Waze launch a Europe-wide pilot project on emergency response.

About the project
Waze users who drive with the app turned on, passively contribute traffic and other road data to other Waze users. They can also actively share road reports on incidents that could affect others.

The project aims to evaluate how this crowd-sourced anonymous data can be used in emergency management to improve response operations.

“Waze has always been about connecting people with each other to improve the quality of their driving experience.” said Adam Fried, Global Partnerships at Waze. “We are excited to expand this community to emergency first-responders and see how Waze data can help them optimise their route planning and contribute to public safety.”

How can Waze contribute to public safety?
The project will test three different scenarios:

  • When citizens notify Waze about an incident, emergency services can receive a notification in their system and retrieve this data;
  • Emergency services can provide data directly to citizens about real-time/planned incidents via Waze, helping them to avoid delays or being affected by an incident;
  • Emergency vehicles can use traffic data from Waze to optimise their route planning and decrease response times.

“Waze data could improve the work of first-responders dramatically. What we hope to see is a decrease in response times and an effective two-way communication channel between citizens and authorities.” said Alexis Gizikis from EENA.

Four European pilots to be selected
Four pilot-sites around Europe will be selected to join the project and test different case-scenarios.

* Deadline has been extended after the high interest received and several requests from organisations around Europe.

About EENA
EENA, the European Emergency Number Association, is a non-governmental organisation based in Brussels, with the mission to contribute to improving the functioning of emergency services for citizens. EENA serves as a discussion platform for all stakeholders in the emergency services field: public authorities & emergency services, decision makers, researchers, associations and solution providers. The EENA memberships include more than 1300 emergency services representatives from over 80 countries world-wide, 90 solution providers, 11 international associations/organisations, more than 200 Members of the European Parliament and more than 90 researchers.
www.eena.org

About Waze
Waze is the social navigation pioneer, leveraging mobile technology and a passionate global community to redefine expectations of today’s maps. Waze is home to the world’s largest network of drivers who work together daily to outsmart traffic and save time and money. The app consistently recommends the fastest routes based on real-time driving and data from millions of users. From traffic reroutes to low gas price alerts and relevant offers from favorite brands, Waze is one of the most comprehensive driving companions in the marketplace.
www.waze.com