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That's very strange. I called 911 about a motorcycle accident a couple months ago. I was on the freeway and not sure exactly where I was, I said something like

That's very strange. I called 911 about a motorcycle accident a couple months ago. I was on the freeway and not sure exactly where I was, I said something like "101 somewhere between LA and the valley? I don't know I wasn't watching the exit signs." They were immediately able to locate me, I assume from my phone's geolocation, and CHP was there in minutes.

fspeech 11y ago
Locating you on a freeway (a 1d constraint) is a lot easier than locating a residence (a 2d or 3d constraint).
- ams6110 11y ago
  When I start up Google Maps on my phone it pinpoints my location to my house. 911 service also activates the GPS, so why would it be any less accurate? Haven't had a landline in years. I don't smoke, I don't binge drink. Hoping these stats don't end up affecting my insurance premiums.
  - nonbel 11y ago
    People without landlines seemed to be healthier, if anything: "Compared with adults living in landline households, wireless-only adults were more likely to have their health status described as excellent or very good, more likely to have met the 2008 federal physical activity guidelines for aerobic activity (based on leisure-time activity), and less likely to have ever been diagnosed with diabetes." http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/wireless201512.pdf http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/wireless20151...
  - fspeech 11y ago
    911 services should use Google Maps! Seriously, this is a non-trivial problem. GPS data alone does not have the precision. However from all the data that Google has collected from driving those mapping vans around, Google should have accurate topography data (elevation is important for making GPS more precise for non planar geographies) and should have building locations through, say, visual analysis of the street photos. With the additional inputs it can make a better guess of your most likely location. The improvement is probabilistic, not guaranteed. And it is only available if your phone is capable of communicating at the right level with the service (provided by your app in the Google Maps case) that has the enhanced information. But even then, in multi-story buildings GPS may be hard to acquire in the first place. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_9-1-1#Wireless_enhanced_911 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_9-1-1#Wireless_enhanc... for general information.

fspeech 11y ago

Locating you on a freeway (a 1d constraint) is a lot easier than locating a residence (a 2d or 3d constraint).

ams6110 11y ago
When I start up Google Maps on my phone it pinpoints my location to my house. 911 service also activates the GPS, so why would it be any less accurate? Haven't had a landline in years. I don't smoke, I don't binge drink. Hoping these stats don't end up affecting my insurance premiums.
- nonbel 11y ago
  People without landlines seemed to be healthier, if anything: "Compared with adults living in landline households, wireless-only adults were more likely to have their health status described as excellent or very good, more likely to have met the 2008 federal physical activity guidelines for aerobic activity (based on leisure-time activity), and less likely to have ever been diagnosed with diabetes." http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/wireless201512.pdf http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/wireless20151...
- fspeech 11y ago
  911 services should use Google Maps! Seriously, this is a non-trivial problem. GPS data alone does not have the precision. However from all the data that Google has collected from driving those mapping vans around, Google should have accurate topography data (elevation is important for making GPS more precise for non planar geographies) and should have building locations through, say, visual analysis of the street photos. With the additional inputs it can make a better guess of your most likely location. The improvement is probabilistic, not guaranteed. And it is only available if your phone is capable of communicating at the right level with the service (provided by your app in the Google Maps case) that has the enhanced information. But even then, in multi-story buildings GPS may be hard to acquire in the first place. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_9-1-1#Wireless_enhanced_911 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_9-1-1#Wireless_enhanc... for general information.