This whole iOS dialing 911 thing reminds me of the technology connections video on LED street lights. A perfect case of good intentions all around but with some

This whole iOS dialing 911 thing reminds me of the technology connections video on LED street lights. A perfect case of good intentions all around but with some emergent caveats that could not have been foreseen until the final result was in place. In the case of LED street lighting, a mild compromise or patch-around makes sense. In the case of your phone automatically dialing emergency services, the game theory seems a bit more difficult to mediate. At this point I feel like the best course of action is to back out the feature. Adding a "are you sure" button to prevent a false dialing might as well just be turning it off. Making it less sensitive - effectively the same (maybe worse if you expect to rely on it). There really isn't a fundamental way to save this without yet-more-complexity. The user's intention will be betrayed from the perspective of their device in some percent of cases. You will never be able to solve this 100%. Now the real question is, are we comfortable with some % error rate? Probably yes. A crank call to 911 isn't like an airbag going off unprovoked or your car deciding a plastic bag floating on the freeway is good cause to engage full emergency braking.