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Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

arstechnica.com

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Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#71

Post by HappyPanacea »

Alupis wrote: post #63
mahathu wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate Apple as much as any other large tech company, but 1/4 true emergency rate seems like a pretty good start in cases where a person's life may be at risk! Emergency services in my city (the one you call via phone) have a "true emergency" rate of about 1 in 10 according to emergency personnel I talked to, so it is always a matter of balancing the false positive/false negative rate.

Another way to look at it - 1/4 of the time people who needed emergency responders had to wait because they were busy looking into false alarms. Seconds literally matter for many emergencies.

This conclusion doesn't follow, it only makes sense if they are 100% busy all the time. I volunteered in an emergency ambulance a little bit and most of the time we waited in the waiting station.

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#72

Post by [deleted] »

danpalmer wrote: post #12

iPhones have exactly the same feature, activated in almost the same way, except that it requires one fewer interactions with the device to trigger, and yet, there's no reporting about this happening too much with iPhones, nor was there any when the feature came out a few years ago. Additionally, this doesn't seem to have been a problem when it rolled out on Pixel devices a year and a half ago, Pixels are certainly co…

[deleted]

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#73

Post by maverick2007 »

Happened to me too, on a roller coaster funny enough.

I was at Busch Gardens in VA, riding their new coaster (Pantheon [1] for those curious). It's a fast, launched coaster and I guess the way I was sitting with the restraints hit the power button of my pixel 5 times and toggled the emergency call feature. I felt my smart watch vibrating with the ongoing call as we went up the top hat spike of the ride. Thankfully I was able to stop the call from my wrist before it connected. But that was the last time I didn't turn my phone off or put it in a locker before I got on a ride.

[1] https://rcdb.com/16812.htm

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#74

Post by omgmajk »

This happened in my pocket the other day, first time it happened. Samsung Galaxy S21+ that I have as a work phone. Suddenly a loud noise started blaring in the car and I had no idea where it came from until I noticed it had already started dialing 112.

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#75

Post by methodical »

This is anecdotal but the same exact thing (albeit with an Apple Watch vs. Android) happened to me a few days ago- I had forgotten to turn on the watch's water mode before going in the water. After about like 5 minutes in the pool it started calling 911 for a medical emergency. My watch ended up calling 911 about 3 times (it probably tried to call them about 5 more times but I ended up taking it off in time to prevent those calls- since it wasn't responding to my inputs at all). I also got a call from the Sheriff's office a little bit later and had to sheepishly explain that my watch was spam calling 911.

Still unsure what happened with it exactly, but whatever was triggering it to do this seemed to not simply be due to water on the screen since it tried to call 911 again even when I put the watch back on hours later after it had dried. I have since power cycled it a few times and let it run out of battery and it hasn't tried getting me arrested for spoof calling 911 again, so that's promising.

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#76

Post by nitwit005 »

danpalmer wrote: post #29
xethos wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From TFA: > The funny thing is, Android 12 — and this easy emergency call feature — came out a year and a half ago. [...] the feature is only now hitting enough people to become a national problem. Google's Pixel devices get new Android updates immediately, but everyone else can take months or years to get new versions of Android [...]. When this landed on Pixel devices in 2021, it was immediately flagged as a proble…

I did read this but it doesn't feel convincing. People complain on Reddit about anything, and have complained about triggering this on iOS, and yet we don't get ArsTechnica (or the BBC, or other major news organisations) covering it as a widespread problem. There are plenty of Pixels, I'd expect enough to cause coverage if this was a substantial issue. Increasing the accessibility of emergency calls is always going t…

There's about 3 android phones for every iOS device. Seeing Android highlighted as a problem isn't surprising.

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#77

Post by Marsymars »

projektfu wrote: post #44
notmyuserlogin wrote: post #42

It isn't just a problem with Android. I volunteer for a small fire department. We respond to about 500 calls a year. Since January I can think of three times the automatic crash detection on iOS devices has called us out by mistake. 1) A person left their phone on their car and it fell off. Being a small town one of the volunteers was able to find the owner and bring them the phone. 2) A gps location in the middle of…

I have to register my building's alarm with the county and pay a fine after 3 false alarms, or not register and the police won't respond. I also pay an annual registration fee. I wonder if too many "smart" false alarms will lead to similar regulation.

In my city, monitored alarms aren't worthwhile for non-commercial properties. For the police to respond, your alarm has to be registered, and registration requires authorized first responders with keys to confirm that an alarm is false or valid before police are called/dispatched.

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#79

Post by no_butterscotch »

xatax wrote: post #25
sowbug wrote: post #11

Possibly related: I've noticed that when I'm in humid weather and I stick my phone into a damp pocket, it basically monkey-tests until I pull it back out again. Flashlight might be on, string of gibberish might be queued up on a text message, etc. I'm normally really good about locking the screen when I'm done, but something with fingerprint or face recognition or lock screen quick actions behaves poorly.

> but something with fingerprint or face recognition or lock screen quick actions behaves poorly Maybe I'm not crazy. Twice in the past couple weeks, my phone has seemingly unlocked itself in my pocket and I suspected it was to do with moisture/sweat, but dismissed it as unlikely. In the first instance, it emergency dialed. I had just hung up the phone and put it away, so I thought I hadn't secured it. In the second…

Wow this has happened to me more in the past few months than in the previous decade of iPhone ownership.

I received a call with my Mom, my emergency contact, because somehow my phone had pinged her or dialed her as an emergency.

Other times I pull out my phone and also see that it was doing something. Earlier today I was using google maps in a new city, I put my phone back in my pocket and when I pulled it out a few minutes later I was on an "add a new place to the map" or "mark a new place" flow.

Re: Android’s emergency call shortcut is flooding dispatchers with false calls

#80

Post by willcipriano »

mahathu wrote: post #58
notmyuserlogin wrote: post #42

It isn't just a problem with Android. I volunteer for a small fire department. We respond to about 500 calls a year. Since January I can think of three times the automatic crash detection on iOS devices has called us out by mistake. 1) A person left their phone on their car and it fell off. Being a small town one of the volunteers was able to find the owner and bring them the phone. 2) A gps location in the middle of…

I hate Apple as much as any other large tech company, but 1/4 true emergency rate seems like a pretty good start in cases where a person's life may be at risk! Emergency services in my city (the one you call via phone) have a "true emergency" rate of about 1 in 10 according to emergency personnel I talked to, so it is always a matter of balancing the false positive/false negative rate.

The boy who cried wolf had a better rate 1/3.
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