What3words app helps get urgent assistance to cyclist who was injured after skidding on oil

Shake wrote:

I'm skeptical of W3W https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2019/03/why-bother-with-what-three-words/

Indeed!
But W3W have a great PR team – pushing press releases which are then reported as uncritical news.

Just what a news desk loves, a fully packaged ready to print a̶d̶v̶e̶r̶t̶ article.

Hmm..
I imagine a person with a broken leg on a single track.. Looking at paper maps and trying to triangulate themself using a compass. THEN calling emergency services and explaining this to them where they are.
Another scenario: this person opens up Google Maps and sends an SMS (let me remind you that SMS is a text message) to 999.

Well, it's definitely more convenient then relying on a modern technologies.
 

You do realise that there is not 100% phone coverage in the UK. You may not get a signal at all.

Referring to the article -  'if you’re getting out to remote areas' you do need proper equipment it is foolish to rely 100% on a phone.

btw I already mentioned sms so I don't know why you are repeating it back to me.

Norfolk is a perfect example of that, patchy phone signal, even patchier data signal, completely featureless terrain & no road signs. If you get lost in that part of the world, or lose your bearings, aint no app going to help you out of that mess.

This why I only holiday in the Gobi desert. Norfolk scares the bejeezus out of me.

I was hoping you might post being in the Norfolk/Suffolk area.

People tend to conflate population coverage with area coverage. There are parts of the lake district and wales where it is hopeless. In fact in Essex, I can go 1 mile down the road to get to a blackspot.

We did stay in a hotel in Suffolk which boasted no phone signal - they wanted to attract people who wanted peace and quiet.

Awavey wrote:

Norfolk is a perfect example of that, patchy phone signal, even patchier data signal, completely featureless terrain & no road signs. If you get lost in that part of the world, or lose your bearings, aint no app going to help you out of that mess.

But then you won't be phoning for help either, so moot really. These guys were not lost. The article was about being easily able to give your location over the phone.

hirsute wrote:

You do realise that there is not 100% phone coverage in the UK. You may not get a signal at all.

Referring to the article -  'if you’re getting out to remote areas' you do need proper equipment it is foolish to rely 100% on a phone.

btw I already mentioned sms so I don't know why you are repeating it back to me.

But how is knowing your six figure grid reference and how to light a fire without matches going to summon help? For that you need a phone. Of course it's good to go prepared and have the skills and equipment, but these guys were not lost.

leipreachan wrote:

Another scenario: this person opens up Google Maps and sends an SMS (let me remind you that SMS is a text message) to 999.

My kids (teenagers) never respond if I send them an SMS.  I checked, and they both said "But we never check for text messages; who would send us a text message?"

Apparently all their social contacts are Whatsapp or Insta or some such soshul meeja thing which I don't use...

Do you know for sure if emergency services are able/willing to accept and react to SMS? What if you are not in UK? One benefit of this app is that if you are using the same phone as hosts the app to call an ambulance, you might have a chance of remembering those words after the likely 45 seconds it might take you to get through the pre-amble of the call with the operator. Otherwise, you've got to assume the caller is confident enough with their smartphone to switch apps, look at the words/coordinates and then read them back. Using speakerphone isn't always viable outside with road/wind noise. Would be ideal if smartphone firmware was coded to recognize dial of emergency number and trap that with an onscreen prompt asking "can I auto-release your GPS co-ords in background as part of this call". It's not exactly rocket science, but the problem will be coordinating it globally

its called advanced mobile location (AML), or emergency location service (ELS) if you are google, its been in place for 5 years, but works on phones older than that, it doesnt ask you for permission (well except buried in the T&Cs you agreed to when you bought the phone) it automatically sends the SMS with enhanced location data when you make a call to emergency services, works in the UK, is being adopted globally.

CafeStop wrote:

What if you are not in UK?

Then What3Words can get you into trouble, because the different language versions actually use totally different words. So if you have your UK W3W and the German or Portuguese or Turkish rescue service have their language versions installed, they may not be able to help you. Or the other way round, if the Turkish tourists phone UK services, they tell them three Turkish words - how many operators will be able to type them in?

Yes. What3Words is free to use for the casual user, but costs real money for emergency services to subscribe to - money which they could probably spend more usefuly. Phones can already send GPS data like a Google Maps location or the iPhone 'Compass' app which shows lat/log coordinates.

I expect someone in pain or medical need, it is easier to do three words then open up one app to read 9 numbers off or having to remember a number to send an SMS to with the maps location. The emergency services have decided to pay a cost to have a simple standardised system so why muddy the waters. 

May I sugggest:

What3words app helps get urgent help for cyclist who was injured after skidding on oil on Yorkshire descent

Or, for some headline brevity:

What3words app helps get urgent help for injured cyclist 

Or, for some headline excitement:

What3words app aids helicopter rescue of injured cyclist in minutes

It is unfortunately for the sense of a clause which can be split apart for the insertion of subordinate information not aided by the use of punctuation such as commas hyphens or brackets to aid parenthesis which would clarify the parameters of subordinate clauses not helpful.

GMBasix wrote:

It is unfortunately for the sense of a clause which can be split apart for the insertion of subordinate information not aided by the use of punctuation such as commas, hyphens, or brackets to aid parenthesis which would clarify the parameters of subordinate clauses not helpful.

To boldly go...

oh, you are awful.