Navigation apps to get real-time alerts on approaching emergency vehicles

A notification on a navigation app informs the driver that an emergency vehicle is approaching from behind in this sample screenshot of the new alert system. [KAKAO MOBILITY]

 

Drivers in Korea will soon receive real-time alerts on their navigation apps when emergency vehicles are approaching, according to the National Police Agency on Sunday.

 

The move is aimed at improving response times and encouraging drivers to yield more quickly.

 

The new service provides navigation platforms with information on the location, route and traffic signal priority status of emergency vehicles, including fire trucks, ambulances and police cars.

 

The system links traffic control data from municipal traffic information centers — including so-called priority signal systems that switch lights to green to accommodate approaching emergency vehicles — with the police agency’s urban road information network. This allows navigation apps to display real-time alerts to nearby drivers.

 

Priority signal systems, which automatically grant green lights to emergency vehicles at intersections, have been in operation at 27,772 intersections nationwide since late last year. 

 

But police say their effectiveness has been limited because drivers often have no way of knowing if an emergency vehicle is approaching from behind until it gets near.

 

The new alerts are intended to close that gap by notifying drivers in advance, giving them more time to move aside.

 

The service is being developed in cooperation with the Korea Road Traffic Authority, the Gyeongsangnam-do Fire Department, the Daejeon municipal government and Kakao Mobility.

 

It will first be introduced across South Gyeongsang and in parts of central Daejeon before being expanded nationwide.

 

“Our hope is that the system helps foster a more developed driving culture whereby people yield to emergency vehicles,” said Lee Seo-young, a senior police official in charge of traffic safety. 

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

BY HYEON YE-SEUL [[email protected]]