Some Pixel owners still can't dial 911 during an emergency • Hacker News Board

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

#251

Post by nneonneo » Sun, Oct 01, 2023, 1:51 AM UTC

simfree wrote: post #250

nneonneo wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And, it’s worth pointing out that the sales volumes of iPhones and just Samsungs (not counting any other brand) are many times that of Pixel, so if there was an issue even nearly as frequent with those phones it would definitely have been noticed by now.

Samsung has probably automated this testing given the number of SKUs they support, and they definitely have a lot more developers who are familiar with the cellular modems they use (Exynos and Snapdragon) to fix up edge cases unlike Google. The Pixel 6 (Pro and non-Pro) is a great example of an improperly tuned LTE/5G NR modem. Cellular connectivity was unreliable as could be, and the random No Network issue seemed c…

It’s worth pointing out that the 911 issue cropped up on Pixel 7 phones too, so the issue is not unique to the Pixel 6 line.

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

#252

Post by GaryNumanVevo » Sun, Oct 01, 2023, 2:03 AM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #203

fluidcruft wrote: post #79

All cell phones with 911 functionality should have a way to periodically test that the 911 feature is fully functional. The reality is that I rarely even make a phone call anymore... but I don't even know whether being able to make a call implies 911 works? And I don't know if its still true but there used to be pretty significant fines for calling 911 so I'm not just going to dial 911 and say "making sure this still…

> I rarely even make a phone call anymore This is true for many young people. Turns out phone calls are pretty much the only time the earpiece speaker gets used on a phone. Lots of people have killed their earpiece speaker by filling it with sand, salt, water, lint, etc. Speakers seem to die more easily when never used, presumably because use vibrates dirt out. End result: When they call 911 they can't hear anything.…

1) Facetime 2) People listening to any audio will use the earpiece speaker

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

#253

Post by jpk » Sun, Oct 01, 2023, 2:12 AM UTC

bufio wrote: post #218

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…

Software is a mess.

You're down-voted because you kinda stopped short, but I think it's worth discussing: Many engineering disciplines deal with safety-critical stuff and often have robust process around validation of design and implementation as a result. There's heaps of non-safety-critical software written, and if the same processes, attitudes, and even personell, are applied to a safety-critical component of a generally non-safety-critical system (like mobile 911) then we get bugs like this that canget people killed. How does our field improve on this?

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

#254

Post by Grimburger » Sun, Oct 01, 2023, 2:51 AM UTC

davewasthere wrote: post #247

Had exactly the same thing in Australia when trying a 000 (Australia's emergency number) call with my Pixel 6 Pro after watching somebody run off the road and smash into a pole. Fortunately I had the local police station number and was able to call that just fine, but not until a few failed attempts at the real emergency number. That said, another good option is attempting to call 112. Which is an emergency number in…

Disheartening to see this. I was planning on getting a pixel for my next phone and hoping this might be a 911 only issue but obviously it's related to emergency dialing all-round.

> 112. Which is an emergency number in many countries.

There's a lot of the planet where 112 will work, often as a redirect to the actual number.

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

#255

Post by freitzkriesler2 » Sun, Oct 01, 2023, 3:42 AM UTC

Please write a complaint to the FCC about this folks. These complaints are taken very seriously and they do follow up on them.

Issue type is equipment and send the comaint about it to your carrier. The carrier will then put pressure on Google directly.

https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/1150022...

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

#256

Post by diego_sandoval » Sun, Oct 01, 2023, 4:01 AM UTC

syntaxing wrote: post #201

diego_sandoval wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a Pixel 3a with GrapheneOS as my daily driver.

How is it? Was debating rooting it and loading it but it was easier to get a cheap used iPhone SE.

The experience has been good for me, but I'm in no way an average smartphone user. The apps I use are mainly Whatsapp, Firefox and Spotify Lite.

I think grapheneOS the best choice if you don't tolerate a proprietary OS on your smartphone.

Disclaimer: Pixel 3a support on GrapheneOS is EOL, but you can still download it and install it.

Some observations:

- I have not had any calls dropped.

- I don't remember a case where I couldn't get mobile data while being in an urban area. At least LTE and 3G work well.

- UI is snappy.

- You can install Google Play Services in a sandbox, but some apps, notoriously most banking apps, crash on launch, probably because they implement Play Integrity API.

- If you install Google Play Services in the sandbox, Whatsapp messages arrive instantly. If you don't, they do sometimes, sometimes they take some time, and sometimes you need to launch the app to see the messages.

- The default apps lack a cohesive UI appearance. The photo gallery looks as if it was taken from a 7 year old Android version. The clock app and settings app look up to date. The SMS app looks different from all the other apps mentioned.

- The default app icons are in black and white, which doesn't look bad in itself, but your app list screen looks ugly when you start installing other apps whose icons are not black and white.

- I don't remember a case of system apps crashing or the whole OS getting frozen in the 10 months that I've used it. And I don't remember feeling frustration because of system unresponsiveness.

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

#257

Post by lost_tourist » Sun, Oct 01, 2023, 4:23 AM UTC

lopkeny12ko wrote: post #65

Funny, because I have the opposite problem. My Pixel dials 911 out of random and I always have to race to disconnect the call. Just last night my Pixel Watch started ringing out of random while I was eating dinner and it said it was dialing 911. I saw a phone call pop up on my Pixel 6 phone but fortunately canceled it before it connected. My watch didn't even tell me why it dialed 911, and once I disconnected the cal…

My phone went from a hobby to a tool when I switched to iphone. Don't regret it at all.

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

#258

Post by lost_tourist » Sun, Oct 01, 2023, 4:26 AM UTC

milosmns wrote: post #239

yolovoe wrote: post #77

I used to have a Pixel 2 XL and then later a Pixel 5a. Went through them really fast as the hardware was pretty bad and the phone would just decide to stop turning on at some point. Same thing happened to a relative I gave a Pixel 5a. Phone didn't last a year. Don't get me started on the Pixel buds. I got tired of contacting customer support for replacements. That's when I decided not to buy hardware from Google agai…

Another anecdotal example here: Nexus 4, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 4 XL, Pixel 6 Pro – never had any issues whatsoever, all phones still alive and kicking at my grandparents' places. Yes, most of them tied to the wall now... but hey, they're fine for showing some photos and displaying current time or setting alarms. Interestingly, I also used Samsung's Note 9 and 10+, iPhone 12, iPhone 14 Pro Max – daily, also with no issues…

I had two pixels suffer heat deaths on me (after random boot cycles) switching around iphone 8 time and haven't had a problem out of the 3 devices I've owned from them. Got tired of Android being weird plus relaying everything I did on the phone to google to share with 3rd parties.

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

#259

Post by lopkeny12ko » Sun, Oct 01, 2023, 5:26 AM UTC

postalrat wrote: post #73

lopkeny12ko wrote: post #65

Funny, because I have the opposite problem. My Pixel dials 911 out of random and I always have to race to disconnect the call. Just last night my Pixel Watch started ringing out of random while I was eating dinner and it said it was dialing 911. I saw a phone call pop up on my Pixel 6 phone but fortunately canceled it before it connected. My watch didn't even tell me why it dialed 911, and once I disconnected the cal…

How are you doing this? Dialing an emergency has never happened to me by accident on Android or iOS. It has happened to me many times on office phones where you need to use 9 to route your call. And you learn to just stay on the call if you dial me mistake because they will call back if you disconnect and telling them it was a mistake if much quicker. They must deal with it all the time

> How are you doing this? Dialing an emergency has never happened to me by accident on Android or iOS.

I wish I could tell you. As far as I can tell, there's no way, either on my watch or my phone, to figure out retroactively why it automatically dialed 911.

I know the Emergency SOS feature allows dialing 911 with some sequence of power button presses, but I don't think I was pressing the crown on my watch at the time.

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

#260

Post by VTimofeenko » Sun, Oct 01, 2023, 6:02 AM UTC

lopkeny12ko wrote: post #259

postalrat wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are you doing this? Dialing an emergency has never happened to me by accident on Android or iOS. It has happened to me many times on office phones where you need to use 9 to route your call. And you learn to just stay on the call if you dial me mistake because they will call back if you disconnect and telling them it was a mistake if much quicker. They must deal with it all the time

> How are you doing this? Dialing an emergency has never happened to me by accident on Android or iOS. I wish I could tell you. As far as I can tell, there's no way, either on my watch or my phone, to figure out retroactively why it automatically dialed 911. I know the Emergency SOS feature allows dialing 911 with some sequence of power button presses, but I don't think I was pressing the crown on my watch at the tim…

I had my Pixel 5 dial 911 once at random. There was a tiny piece of debris stuck in the power button that triggered the call. A couple of blasts with a compressor and this hasn't happened since.