iPhone Will Give Exact Location to 911 Soon

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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Apple has now decided to let the caller's exact location to be transmitted during 911 calls, just like every other app on your phone.


Under the new system, iPhones will send their exact location to a RapidSOS dispatcher, which will then forward the coordinates to local emergency response centers. That should make it easier for ambulances and paramedics to reach callers and shave precious minutes off response times, potentially saving 10,000 lives per year, according to federal regulator estimates. The new feature will be packaged as part of iOS 12, an iPhone software update due later this year.
 
I never understood that facebook knew where I was but 911 didn't - hell the surveillance state / no-privacy genie is out of the bottle already. Too late to worry about it now if you want to use any kind of smart device.
 
Now we just need to make sure everyone standardizes on the same thing so we don't have 7 competing standards, and call centers that only support 2 of them.

This is a good thing, but it is only beneficial if the information is actually in a meaningful format.

dvsman said:
I never understood that facebook knew where I was but 911 didn't - hell the surveillance state / no-privacy genie is out of the bottle already. Too late to worry about it now if you want to use any kind of smart device.
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The problem is alluded to in the above. It becomes a chicken and egg problem. Dispatchers need the tools, but the tools are pointless if the phones dont' have the abilty to report in a "language" the tool understands. So the dispatcher's won't upgrade until the waters are less murky. In the mean time, phones won't pick a standard because that would (more or less, software updates are a thing these days) lock them in to supporting a particular standard.

The ultimate solution in my opinion is to have the government step in and say "this is the standard we're choosing, all dispatchers and new phones must support this by 2023." We already do this so that even phones that aren't active can use any available tower and call 911 at full radio power. Extending that to mandate phones report their GPS location would be fully reasonable in my opinion.
 
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Maybe they need to fix the issue of actually being able to get through to 911 reliably on a cell phone before they worry about exact location data.
What good does it do if the 911 calls will not even go through or be picked up when they do go through?

Speaking from personal experience and from hearing 1st hand from others who have had issues getting through to 911.
 
It already takes too long to dial. First I have to ask siri "what is the number for 911?" and then tell her to dial it. It really should be an easier process.

I do like the location thing though, the times I have had to call it I have to run to a street sign and see what it is lol.
 
Yeah and it will only work with certain 911 dispatch centers that have the upgraded software and hardware which at this point is something like 30% of the dispatch centers across the US and even fewer in Canada. But yay for selling features right! But this is huge for Europe and Asia where they already have their 911 equivalents ready for the upgrade.
 
byusinger84 said:
Does android already do this?
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If 911 were an app, then yes.
But no platform right now lets a caller automatically receive your coordinates. I think this is a pretty good idea. I am sure 911 needs to set up some type of system to receive the location message.
 
If iPhones were not sending exact coordinates before, then what the hell was it sending? I mean, what's the point of sending inaccurate location information to emergency services?
 
Billy the Dimwit said:
I think they just send out what tower your on or something.
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Which gives them what, a 5 mile radius circle for your location? That's less than worthless, especially in an urban environment. To me it is inexcusable that they did not provide GPS coordinates all along, which as others have pointed out, they provide for any app that requests it. I wonder how many people died because the caller did not know exactly where they were (or were unable to respond), and the first responders could not find them in time.
 
There has to be a tie-in now for trying to reduce swatting incidents?
 
PaulP said:
Which gives them what, a 5 mile radius circle for your location? That's less than worthless, especially in an urban environment. To me it is inexcusable that they did not provide GPS coordinates all along, which as others have pointed out, they provide for any app that requests it. I wonder how many people died because the caller did not know exactly where they were (or were unable to respond), and the first responders could not find them in time.
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Not necessarily, the tower data will give them a much closer idea. but nothing like GPS data. The e911 data the tower picks up can get you something more like a foot ball field of an area.

https://www.federalregister.gov/doc.../wireless-e911-location-accuracy-requirements

E911 (what we use now) requires an accuracy of 50 meter from what I understand and its gather from the tower your on. I'm sure there is someone here that know more about this and can comment further.
 
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112 911 999 or alike normally does bypass location settings and enable it self on android for the call (if the other end can receive it is another question as most call centers don't support receiving it Same as iPhone when they enable it)
 
TFA doesn't mention how RapidSOS will route the location information to the exact 911 operator that is taking the call. Plus relying on a 3rd party to have a perfect database of GPS coordinates = address X seems prone to errors. What happens if a squirrel just disconnected RapidSOS from the Internet? They do that.

Why not just send the GPS coordinates as a text message that rides on the 911 call itself? The 911 call center system could feed the coordinates into Google Maps type application and have the caller pinpointed. GPS coordinates should easily fit in one SMS text. Could also include a last GPS fix time stamp and accuracy estimate.
 
Dead Parrot said:
TFA doesn't mention how RapidSOS will route the location information to the exact 911 operator that is taking the call. Plus relying on a 3rd party to have a perfect database of GPS coordinates = address X seems prone to errors. What happens if a squirrel just disconnected RapidSOS from the Internet? They do that.

Why not just send the GPS coordinates as a text message that rides on the 911 call itself? The 911 call center system could feed the coordinates into Google Maps type application and have the caller pinpointed. GPS coordinates should easily fit in one SMS text. Could also include a last GPS fix time stamp and accuracy estimate.
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Because that would make sense and be simple.... so it will never happen.
 
Billy the Dimwit said:
Not necessarily, the tower data will give them a much closer idea. but nothing like GPS data. The e911 data the tower picks up can get you something more like a foot ball field of an area.

https://www.federalregister.gov/doc.../wireless-e911-location-accuracy-requirements

E911 (what we use now) requires an accuracy of 50 meter from what I understand and its gather from the tower your on. I'm sure there is someone here that know more about this and can comment further.
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50 meters is still 170,000 square feet. That's a big area, especially in a dense urban environment. How this became the standard when we've had GPS in phones for 20 years, I don't know.
 
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