A new Google system may shave precious seconds off the amount of time it takes emergency responders to locate those who call 911 from a cell phone.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the web giant trialed this new system in several states including Texas, Tennessee, and Florida during December and January with “promising” results.
Normally, when you call 911 from a cell phone, your wireless carrier is responsible for sharing your whereabouts with operators. But the location information they send isn’t always precise, which can make it difficult for emergency responders to find you.
Public safety officials, in an effort to improve response times, have been pushing Google and Apple to share smartphone location data with 911 for years, the report notes. Now, Google may be getting ready to do that.
During the trial, a “random sample of 911 callers using an Android smartphone” had their devices’ location data sent directly to dispatchers, according to the report. The test reportedly covered “tens of thousands of 911 calls.”
