The emergency button in TVDE apps

The short answer

Since the 2026 revision, every TVDE app must offer an emergency service, to both the passenger and the driver.The service sets up a real-time telephone connection with the authorities and shares the vehicle’s location, so that a decision can be made on whether to send medical or police help. It is provided for in article 19(1)(j) and is a technological capacity requirement for the platform. Platforms have 120 days from 1 September 2026 to demonstrate that they meet that requirement.

It is a new rule. The list of mandatory services in article 19, in the 2018 version, ran from item (a) to (g) and made no reference at all to emergencies.

What the law says, word for word

Article 19(1) requires platforms to provide, for each service, before the start of each trip and during it, a set of information and services. Item (j) adds the following:

"Emergency service for users and drivers, which establishes a real-time telephone connection with the authorities and the corresponding sharing of the vehicle’s location, with a view to screening whether additional medical or police assistance should be dispatched."

Four elements follow from this:

• For whom: users and drivers, without distinction.
• How: a real-time telephone connection, not a form or a message to customer support.
• With whom: with the authorities, not with the platform.
• With what data: the vehicle’s location, shared with the authorities.

The purpose is "screening whether additional medical or police assistance should be dispatched". In other words, the call lets the authorities assess the situation and decide whether to send an ambulance or a patrol.

What the law does not say

The rule is short and leaves several questions open. It does not say which authority answers the call, or whether the connection is made to 112. It does not say what the service looks like in the app: the law does not use the word "button", that is the common name. It does not call for an implementing regulation, unlike the TVDE sticker or training. And it says nothing about recording the call. Until there is practice or clarification from the authorities, each platform will have room to design its own solution, as long as it meets the four elements above.

A licensing requirement, not just a feature

The emergency service appears twice in the law. Besides article 19, it appears in article 17-A, also new, which defines the platform’s technological capacity. Paragraph 2 of that article lists five requirements:

1. integration with the IMT’s databases;
2. recording the driver’s working times and compliance with driving and rest limits;
3. compliance with the personal data protection regime;
4. access by supervisory bodies to the strictly necessary information;
5. an emergency service for users and drivers, provided for in article 19(1)(j).

Technological capacity is, in turn, one of the licensing requirements for the platform operator, in article 17(4)(e). A platform without an emergency service does not meet a requirement for access to the activity.

For the passenger

In practice, it is worth checking, before a trip, where the emergency service is in the app you use. The law requires it to be available before and during each trip. Together with other obligations on the same list, such as following the route on a digital map in real time, item (c), and the driver’s identification with photo and unique registration number, item (e), it gives the passenger concrete means to act if something goes wrong.

For the driver

The service is not only for passengers. The law expressly includes drivers, who get a way to ask the authorities for help with the car’s location already shared, for example when faced with a violent passenger. The mandatory 50-hour initial training also includes a module on emergency situations and first aid, in article 10(6)(e).

Practical cases

Location privacy

The location sharing in item (j) is with the authorities and for the emergency purpose. Article 19(4) still requires platforms to respect data protection law, "notably information on the history of routes taken". More on this topic in the article onprivacy and data in TVDE.

Frequently asked questions