I saw a bit on the TV about this and they seemed rather vague as they said there was an increase in silent calls and they think it may be due to the Android feature. They won't mention the Apple feature, https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT213225 that calls if it believes you have had an accident. I get the feeling it was a reminder for people not to prank call and if they accidentally call to remind people to say I am ok just an accidental call. But as it's gone along the editors have zoned in on the android technology is the scary thing, I am shocked there was no mention of AI. The hot weather means people are out doing stuff and that causes a lot of calls to 999 so they are very busy so these stories come out each year.
I would like to see the Data or at least some summary. I wonder how many are the standard accidental calls, and the kids being kids.
If you live in the UK it is worth signing up to use the 999 SMS service. Handy for when you are in crap signal zones aka Wales.
Thanks. I hadn't heard of the '999 SMS service', that sounds interesting.
These days (as you seem to be hinting or touching on), these news stories, can be too watered down, and/or the author can be less than a technical expert themselves. So, the articles can end up being very misleading.
Also not so common knowledge (I think), is that some (possibly all, via an EU mandate, vaguely remember, not sure if it got passed in the end), recent/new cars. Can/will phone the emergency services in a crash, automatically, for the EU (not sure if it includes the UK, i.e. did the UK follow the same EU laws, in that case).
I know it has been an available option for some cars, for a while now.
I suppose as AI gets further and further developed. Phones may one day, watch over what is happening, and then automatically phone the emergency services, as and when necessary. I think some existing ones (phones, perhaps iPhone ones), detect falls (presumably via the gyro and accelerometer sensors), and can phone the emergency services, when that happens, already.
So, ultimately, when the technologies are well developed, some time in the future. These mechanisms of automatically (or on request), phoning the emergency services, can be a good thing.