According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there were nearly 6,500,000 auto accidents in the United States in 2009 [1]. Being involved in a car accident is a nightmare, and the victims are often disoriented, upset, and unsure of what to do after the accident. In the worst case, the victims may be injured too badly to call for help. But what if the car can call for help automatically right after the accident? More than 1 million motor vehicles are stolen each year in the U.S. Losing a car is surely an unpleasant experience, but what if the stolen vehicle can report its geographical location to the owner or the police? Fortunately, commercial security and safety services, e.g., OnStar and LoJack, are available today on the market to address the above two concerns. However, these services require either a high installation fee or a high monthly/yearly service fee. This paper presents a senior design project which utilizes cellular and microprocessor technology to provide similar and better services at lower cost. The project also enhances the convenience features of motor vehicles. The outcome of the senior design project is a complete electronic system assembled on a printed circuit board, and it is ready to be mass produced for the unit price under $100. When the system is installed on an automotive, the following functionalities can be achieved: i) a user may turn on and turn off the engine remotely; ii) the car may turn the engine off automatically after the desired temperature is reached; iii) a user may inquire the cabin temperature of the vehicle; iv) remote keyless entry; v) accident monitoring and notification; and vi) vehicle location tracking. All these functionalities do not have any limitation on distance, as long as the cell phone signal is available. The system is also very easy to operate: a user simply sends the commands as short text messages from his cell phone.
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