Apple, Google Upgrade 911 Location Data

The new technology that's helping nine to one one call centers get a better idea of exactly where you're calling from. What's going on. I'm rich Demiro. This is rich on Tech. Joining me today is Jeff Robertson.

He works for Rapid SOS. Jeff, thanks so much for joining me.

Oh, thank you for having me.

So I saw this.

Announcement from both Apple and iOS twelve that they're building in this new technology, and then also Google came out a couple weeks later saying kind of similar stuff. So when you call nine one one today, in many cases, how are they getting our current location from a cell phone?

Currently? The way they use it, if you remember elgebra class, they sort of get three towers and they try to look at the speed of the signal to you. The challenge with getting a location off that is, if you're in a building where sixty five percent of all wireless calls people are calling from inside a building, makes it

And with your technology. What happens with rapid SOS.

We have worked with both the operating systems as you mentioned, Apple's iOS twelve and Android, So when you dial nine one one and hit send, it sends a data payload to us, which we passed the clearing to the dispatcher, so they see exactly where you are and in some cases it'll even show what room you are and in the building.

We're actually recording this year at one of LAPD's dispatch centers for nine one one, and I saw the map of kind of what a cell phone looks like without the rapid SOS information versus what you guys offer, and it's pretty different. I mean, yours is basically pinpointing the location of the person versus the other one is just kind of a guestimate.

Yeah, and the older method of trying to locate a device was before smartphones were around. There is many different sensors in both the Google devices and Android as well Apple everything from they do an assisted GPS GPS, they have pedometers which help with location. They have Wi Fi sensors like the terminore and Bluetooth beacons, just to name a few of the sensors they use all to improve that location.

It's really interesting.

I know there's a whole side of privacy to all this stuff, but when you're talking about nine one one in particular, this is really valuable in saving lives.

Correct, And our rapid SUS technology only works when you actually dial nine one one. Is when it activates and sends that location. No one at the center can actually key in your number and find out where that device is without you actually dialing nine one one. But you're absolutely right.

So tell me what the change is.

So because Apple made this announcement in Google, you're actually embedding your software at.

The OS level.

Correct. We did some early trials. Rapid SS has been around for just shy a six years. Our original idea was to have an app running in the background, but we just found with people having to load that app if they got a new phone where they remember to download it again. The public has been very well trained in the last fifty years of now I want to just dial now on one and we have always been a proponent of not having the user have to do

And that's a pretty big get for your company.

It is. We worked very hard on working with them and also educating them what it was like in the front lines of public safety. We find a lot of technology companies don't know what goes on behind the scenes in many cases of how a nine to one calls taken, how the technology works, or even the technology and the cruiser as you're on your way to an incident or

Now, I'll be honest, I mean, I just kind of assumed that when you called from a cell phone it gave a pretty good idea of your location.

Did landlines give a better idea because it was linked.

Yeah, Back when I was on the job, we would get nine to one callers. In the early days of cell phones, the bag phones. If you remember when they were on one of those devices, nay dial nine one. A lot of times we would tell them to pull over a payphone pick it up in dial nine one so we could find out where they are because that's linked, that's a physical address, and that line had a cable that went all the way back to the phone company. They knew exactly where it was, so it's very different.

How do I know if this is on my device? How do I have to activate it? Do I have to do anything?

In particular?

You just have to make sure you're on iOS twelve or better from Apple and the Android is anything foreign above, which is most phones today. Android is supported, so nothing you should have to do.

So we saw this demo here at this location for Los Angeles.

Does every municipality have this in place right now?

No, your question. There are roughly about six three hundred nine one centers in America. We now cover fifteen just over fifteen hundred of them, which is still quite an accomplishment, but we've got a lot more to go. We're trying to educate the nine to one community that it's easy, it's free, and then we can get them access to these locations. When people down now on one. So we're working very hard and thanks to you getting the word out to do this.

And you said free, So I mean the technology that you're offering these people, these call centers is.

Free absolutely to public safety. It's it's a there's no charge.

And so tell me about the bigger idea of this company.

Obviously you're a location company. What can we see in the future. Kind of paint that picture for me of where this can all go.

Well, our mission is to improve emergency response. Now we've got all these new technologies coming out of IoT devices, everything from you know, many people are familiar with telematics in their car when they if they were in an axe and airbags are deployed, you know, it goes to

So we have that are we there yet you have that right now.

I mean, we're very close to having that, but we our technology fully supports that. We're in the middle of rolling it. Location was the most important thing when we talk to public safety to solve but these other things are very important. You're seeing these doorbell video cameras, You're seeing smoke detectors now that connect to your WiFi. All those can now send valuable information to a first responder to have a better outcome.

So the reason I got a video camera in my house was because I had just flown to New Jersey. I get a text on my phone or a call that hey, your fire alarm is going off at your house.

Now, my smoke alarm.

Was connected to the alarm system, but I said, oh my gosh, I can't look inside my house to know if it's actually on fire. And so it wasn't, thankfully, but the police were outside the fire everyone and I ended up getting a camera so next time I can look in.

So you're saying in the future.

When my alarm goes off, maybe it activates a camera that someone can actually at the dispatch center check in and see if you.

Authorize them to do that during that time of need yes, they could. That's in theory. They can do that. Or they may be able to see who's on your front porch from your your doorbell camera. If there's someone that's not supposed to be there, and you authorize that camera feed, they could see that. In the first responder that comes would also have that video to look for a suspect.

Now, I like how you have all these you know, if you authorize, I get it. There's so many it's like a privacy nightmare for some people. But for me and you, you kind of see the benefit of all these things working together.

And it's an opt in approach. Nine one one has always sent your location when you had a landline phone. My grandmother's phone when she del now one, it's sent the address to public safety. So now the only thing is the wireless device is going to do the same thing. So we had nothing's changed really there when we had these other devices. It's got to be an opt in where you say, hey, listen, I'm going to my fire alarms going off. I'm worried. I'm okay with them taking a look at that camera.

And I'm just painting a picture of the future. Let's say I drive a Tesla and I get to an accident. My phone is connected to that Tesla, so it's already gathered that data that says, hey, I'm connected to a Tesla. That tesla talks to my phone says, hey, the airbag just went off. This is an electric vehicle. Here's I don't know how much fuel it has in it, how much electricity is left location of that device. You know, whatever triggered inside that car could all theoretically be passed along.

To the people that are helping me.

And you may not have even called nine to one, and they may have that information immediately when you're when you've gotten that accident, that information could be at the dispatcher's screen. They could already be rolling personnel to help you.

Wow, and Los Angeles doing this one of the cities at the forefront. Obviously, since we're here, you'd like to see this in every city.

Absolutely, we'd like to have this rule because it's free of charge and it's fairly easy to roll out. We just need to educate the public safety community to go forward.

Throught more information on wrapping sos, you can go to the website. Richon tech dot TV Jeff Robertson with Rabid SOS.

Thanks so much for joining me.

Thank you appreciate that I have more in the show notes as well, so you can check them for more details. And if you like this show, share it with your friends. That's the best way that it will grow. I'm rich tomorrow.

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