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Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency

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Re: Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency

#221

Post by mlyle »

numpad0 wrote: post #209
mlyle wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Our primary concern is dialer crashing! Yes, so being able to use the phone UI is important for qualitative testing. > I don't understand why you're trying to shift the blame away from Google. That's just stupid. I feel like you didn't read my comment. I stated that a screened room isn't prohibitively expensive, but can't be delivered for the suggested $10k. In another comment, I said "Society spends a few billion…

You must have the UI? Call your factory, ask them make an extra ICE and hook it up to the simulator through an attenuator and shielded cables. Easy. Cost couple cars worth, so what. Add noises, simulate phasing, handover, do anything you want to. premises is, you're a top mass market smart phone manufacturer, and Google, both of that at the same time. No, you're trying to find a way to make it sound impossible. But w…

No. I'm just saying that it costs like $40-100k in practice to get a screened room into operation, not $10k, but that this is still a reasonable expense.

But you're too boiling over in vitriol to understand nuance. Somehow, in your mind, saying that you can't do it for $10k appears to be me defending Google.

Re: Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency

#222

Post by paulddraper »

guraf wrote: post #175
rkagerer wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jeez - can't dial 911, randomly dials 911. I don't understand why these devices can't even do the most core feature of a phone properly. This will sound crass but the development teams (right up to CEO's) should be dragged out to the gallows and flogged. If it was my product I would have made damn sure the 911 experience was perfect before shipping, and not rested for a minute until any bugs were solidly quashed - up…

In any other field, engineers would be held responsible and after so many "mistakes" they would lose their license. Software engineers will fight tooth and nails to keep their privilege is being called engineers whilst having none of the responsibility when it comes to the harm they're causing.

Really? Who lost their engineering license from Firestone tires? Toyota gas pedals? Hasbro easy-bake oven? Graco high chairs?

Stop trotting out the same baseless comment over and over.

Re: Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency

#223

Post by denysvitali »

zja wrote: post #123
denysvitali wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I think the real problem is #2. The only reliable way to test 911 features is a test lab, to which the average engineer doesn't have access to. On top of that, calling 911 isn't exactly as placing a normal call - so the only way to test is... to call 911. Again, a test lab should help towards these things, but I doubt Google has one accessible to the average engineer working on the dialer. Plus, they most likely…

> the only way to test is... to call 911 You should be able to use 933 to test emergency services. https://support.bandwidth.com/hc/en-us/articles/210291778-Th...

Okay, but that's not going through the same paths of a 911 call, is it?

And by that I mean the emergency mode of the modems

Re: Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency

#224

Post by denysvitali »

anarazel wrote: post #200
notpushkin wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem is, 911/112 calls are routed through the best cell network available. This means that if somebody is close enough to your lab, their phone would still try to use your femtocell.

From very dim memory: I think there's some flag you can set that marks your test network as not suitable for that kind of thing. But even if not, IIRC you can set routing information for stuff like 911 on a subscriber basis in your test network - which you'd just do for the handset you're testing.

In that case, you'd just be changing yet another variable and not test the emergency mode of the modem - which might actually be broken due to a software update, right?

Re: Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency

#225

Post by mcbrienollie »

If you would be isolated on a random place and given the chance to bring only one item, you would most probably pick the phone. On both ethical and user-experience cases, this is completely unacceptable. Google is just bringing the trust issues for such a silly bug.

Re: Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency

#226

Post by ThrowawayTestr »

paulddraper wrote: post #222
guraf wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In any other field, engineers would be held responsible and after so many "mistakes" they would lose their license. Software engineers will fight tooth and nails to keep their privilege is being called engineers whilst having none of the responsibility when it comes to the harm they're causing.

Really? Who lost their engineering license from Firestone tires? Toyota gas pedals? Hasbro easy-bake oven? Graco high chairs? Stop trotting out the same baseless comment over and over.

In my country, engineers are legally responsible for their work to the point where insurance is required to do engineering. And yes, engineers that are negligent are held responsible. Just because you're ignorant doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

Re: Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency

#227

Post by throwaway12046 »

mlyle wrote: post #221
numpad0 wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must have the UI? Call your factory, ask them make an extra ICE and hook it up to the simulator through an attenuator and shielded cables. Easy. Cost couple cars worth, so what. Add noises, simulate phasing, handover, do anything you want to. premises is, you're a top mass market smart phone manufacturer, and Google, both of that at the same time. No, you're trying to find a way to make it sound impossible. But w…

No. I'm just saying that it costs like $40-100k in practice to get a screened room into operation, not $10k, but that this is still a reasonable expense. But you're too boiling over in vitriol to understand nuance. Somehow, in your mind , saying that you can't do it for $10k appears to be me defending Google.

Even if it costs $1M, Google either has to do it or stop selling phones and recall sold units.

Re: Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency

#228

Post by prmoustache »

TerrifiedMouse wrote: post #202
exabrial wrote: post #71

When I had a Pixel4, I witnessed a car accident in which someone got hurt quite substantially. Hard as a tried, the process of dialing 911 failed multiple times; the phone app simply crashed and left me with a blank screen or the home screen. I put a complaint in with my carrier but nothing was ever done. And of course Google could give 0 fucks with their customer support. A few months later, I needed to call 911 for…

> A few months later I’m surprised you kept the phone. I would have gotten a new phone if I discovered my current one couldn’t dial 911 properly.

Well, how many times in your life do you call 911? I am in my forties and I maybe used my local equivalent 3 times and in every occurence someone else could have made the call.

And I've only used my mobile phone since my late 20's, it is not like I buy smartphones for emergency purposes.

Re: Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency

#229

Post by catgirlinspace »

anticensor wrote: post #196
IshKebab wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is such an obviously good idea I'm surprised it doesn't exist. Apparently the official way to test it in the UK is to email them and schedule a test. They say they use the real 999 because that's the best way to guarantee that it works, and that's true - but there's definitely utility in having an almost-real number that you can test at any time guilt free. They probably just can't be bothered to set it up tbh.

For maximum lore, that testing number should be set to +44 118 999 88199 9119 725 3.

yes!!!!! best emergency phone number. i heard the drivers are better looking too

Re: Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency

#230

Post by michaelt »

mlyle wrote: post #167
numpad0 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[1]. $1k, -95dB to 3GHz, in stock, manufacturer standard I/O plates sold separately. I think there's zero room for hypotheticals and challenges to talk about setting these up if you ask not webdevs but actual phone people. 1: https://jretest.com/product/jre-0912/

Who's the person who crawls into the tiny box and makes sure the dialer UI is doing the right thing, given that is what our primary concern is? We've been talking about the cost of making a screened room. "Turnkey" ones cost about $20-50k, but you're going to pay contractors a fair bit beyond that. Not to mention whatever equipment you're putting inside. https://www.ramayes.com/Refurbished_Radio_Frequency_Shielded...

You can get things like [1] - an RF blocking box with a window and attached RF-blocking gloves. This equipment is not at all exotic.

And if you don't like that option - you can also place test calls to 911 [2] by calling their non-emergency number and arranging a time. It would be easy to perform a once-a-month test call.

[1] https://jretest.com/product/jre-1812f-forensics-analysis-enc... [2] https://www.911.gov/calling-911/frequently-asked-questions/

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