The Campaign

While you might be far from a cell-phone tower in the Outback, you’re never far from a LandCruiser. These vehicles outnumber cell-phone installations in Australia 30 to 1. So we launched the LandCruiser Emergency Network (L.E.N.); an ongoing project aiming to bring emergency mobile communications to the 5.3 million square kilometres of Australia’s landmass that currently receives no mobile signal. By leveraging Australia’s most widely used 4x4, it’s possible for us to bring emergency communications to some of the most remote parts of the continent. We turned volunteers’ LandCruisers into communication hotspots with a range of up to 25km, close to what an ordinary cell-phone tower provides. Together, these L.E.N.-enabled vehicles can create an emergency mobile network anywhere it’s needed.

Creative Execution

Once we had the idea of a roving emergency network, we engaged the Flinders University remote communications experts to help develop the LandCruiser Emergency Network (L.E.N.) and device. The result was a simple, inexpensive, signal-providing device engineered to use a combination of Wi-Fi, UHF and Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) technology to turn vehicles into communications hotspots each with up to 25km range. During emergencies, anyone within range can use the network to log a call or geo-tagged message straight from their ordinary mobile phone. Data is then securely passed between LandCruisers, on a store-and-forward basis, until it reaches a network base-station and first responders can be alerted. As well as communicating with the outside world, people within the network can share data to help organise their disaster response. L.E.N. is backwards-compatible, allowing maximum uptake. As most remote communities are using basic (but resilient) mobiles and technology, it’s critical that everyone access the network. Initial testing began in July 2015, with a full-scale pilot program initiated in August 2015 across a 50,000km2 area in the remote Flinders Ranges. This ongoing pilot is part of the larger project aiming to bring emergency communications to remote communities across Australia and around the world.

Thousands of messages have been successfully tested, with a pilot program launched in August 2015 across a 50,000km2 area of the remote Flinders Ranges in Outback Australia. The successful pilot is just the first step: • Toyota’s Product Planning Department is currently exploring distribution and integration of L.E.N. into LandCruisers in Australia and around the world. • NGO’s, Emergency Services and Government agencies around Australasia have sought involvement with the project, with the aim of using L.E.N. in emergency responses. • We are currently in discussions with a local government in Western Australia to further expand L.E.N. into 60 vehicles in an area including the Canning Stock Route (one of the most dangerous and remote roads in the world stretching 1,850km). The LandCruiser Emergency Network has successfully brought a means of communication to people who previously had almost no way of communicating with the outside world in times of emergency.

Toyota’s mission for technologies is to ‘help provide world class safety to protect the lives of customers’ in any way possible. We wanted to prove this wasn’t limited to people living in the city, or on-road safety, but a bigger mission that covered our customers wherever our vehicles took them. With a market penetration of over 90% in many remote places, LandCruisers are everywhere in the Outback. And because of their toughness, durability and reliability, LandCruisers can go almost anywhere. This makes them the perfect platform for creating ad-hoc networks in even the most isolated places. We saw an opportunity to utilise modern technology to make rural communities and remote areas even safer – not just for LandCruiser drivers and their passengers, but for their communities too. The combination of technologies engineered into the LandCruiser Emergency Network means that emergency communications are available to anyone – using their normal mobile phone.