>I see a future where one party launches 10,000 kamikaze drones (whether anti-personnel, high explosive, or incendiary) to start or end a war.

It would be a mistake to think that in the future there will be no way to counter this threat.

Every time when something as goundbreaking as small drones, or tanks, or jets appear on the battlefield, militaries will find ways to counter these new threats.

In the case of tanks, they way we countered that was with anti-tank guns/rifles. In the case of jets it was anti air missiles. In the case of drones, it be jamming, self propelled anti air guns and lasers (not available at the moment but work is being done right now).

I wonder how many Pixels have accidentally called?

Why am I getting down voted? It's a genuine question, I love my Pixel phone and do wonder how many accidental 911 calls they've made.

It’s exclusive to the iPhone 14 pro line

Really hope it isn't the same size as a Samsung flagship. Using the S22 Ultra was like carrying around a brick. Returned it after a week and got an Asus Zenfone 9, which I like, except for the mediocre camera performance.

I also wish they had dbrand support... The case performs very well and the teardown skins look great. I wish either there were better accessories for the Xperias or the larger phone brands would stop with the notch/ punch hole/ island nonsense so I could upgrade from my OP7Pro.

[removed]

While that feature seems like a good idea ( and I’m sure it has saved some people due to legitimate calls) as a 911 dispatcher I can tell you between this feature, iPhone emergency sos calls and pocket dials, it can be a MAJOR PITA.

It almost happened to me after a roller coaster ride at islands of adventure in Orlando! I got of the hagrid motorbike adventure ride and my watch was calling 911! I stopped it in time before it actually went though thankfully. My watch through I was in an accident because that ride has a drop track where it free falls 17 feet. I turned off crash detection right away after that.

unfortunately that's the consequences of them (edit: as in Phone manufacturers, not just Apple) wanting to make thinner n thinner n thinner phones.

What about making a pocket phone that bends easily when in a pocket?

Slaughterbots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CO6M2HsoIA

my favorite was "You're holding it wrong" 🤣

Can you imagine having yourself a wank and the cops pull up cause your phones a snitch hahaha

This exact thing happened to me! Took a spill getting off the lift thanks to a beginner friend, got up went down the run. On the lift back up I check my phone and it’s 911 calling. Thought I was in trouble!

Happened to my son while skiing. He didn’t even crash. He skied (aggressively) from a slope onto a flat traverse and his phone started going nuts. 911 called him and asked if he was in an accident, or was being held against his will. He turned off crash detection on the next lift ride.

It is worth mentioning, integrated car system do this ALL THE TIME. My dads Toyota literally puts the SOS button next to the interior light button.

I guess the good news is that all of these off the shelf consumer drones are prohibited by their software from flying in a lot of these places.

I have a DJI drone and it has a map of where I’m allowed to fly and it changes constantly (I live near several airports and military bases) and I basically can’t get the drone to turn on if I’m near downtown.

So someone would basically need to build a custom drone. I’m not sure if the open source software also links to FAA sites as well. But basically you’d need decent technical know-how to strap a bomb to a drone and bring it into controlled airspace. And anyone with that know how probably has a job and a house and isn’t going to risk that. That skill set would only be used in actual wartime where those restrictions are removed.

I’m not sure how easy it would be for a foreign military to manufacture their own handheld drones that can bypass those limitations, import them in any quantity to the US, and then have someone fly it in the US, not have the signals be picked up by all of the SIG-INT sites in major cities and then not be picked up almost immediately by authorities after the attack and pinpointed as an agent of a specific country and then have the ever loving shit bombed out of them by NATO.

I'm a bit surprised that this isn't happening already. We know drones are being used, but it sounds like it's at a smaller scale than I expected.

See, it worked.

I'll bash Apple on all kinds of stuff (anti-competition, breaking older phones intentionally using software, gouging customers, etc.).

A product making false calls that need a simple "it was a mistake" discussion for a feature that has saved MANY lives, is not something bashable.

Replying to you because this seems like a good injection point, but these comments aren't necessarily meant as a rebuttal to anything you said :)

There's definitely a larger scope to assess here, but it extends even beyond a basic analysis of call volume. The analysis of systems designed to make automated calls to emergency services not only requires assessment of false-report calls, but also an analysis of the positive-report calls, as well as outcomes.

Ultimately, the objective is to save lives. A small-to-moderate increase in false-report calls is acceptable if there is a significant increase in the number of positive-report calls that wouldn't have otherwise been made in time. That analysis is way more complicated than simply looking at call volume though. You need to know:

• How many false report calls were placed.
• How many positive-report calls were placed.
• The percentage of the positive-report calls that were duplicates.
• The temporal proximity of the duplicative calls.
• The ultimate outcome of the positive-report calls.

Using this data (and likely more), you'd want to build a complete picture of the correlation between automated reports and the desired outcome: lives saved in cases where other options would have failed. For example, consider two scenarios:

Your tire blows while driving home from your shift that ended at 2am and you veer into a ditch. You're knocked out on impact, but your iPhone calls 911 and emergency services can tell where you are from the GPS coordinates transmitted by your phone. They arrive and find you badly injured, but are ultimately able to save your life.

Here, the automated call to 911 was critical, and because it was so late, and because you were in a ditch out of sight, the automated call clearly saved your life.

You are texting while driving and rear-end a car that has come to a stop in front of you. Your phone goes flying out of your hand as the airbag deploys and is out of reach. The automated call is made to 911, but four other people who saw the accident have also called in within 60 seconds of seeing the accident.

Here, the automated call was superfluous. There's no way for the device to know, but it results in an extra call to 911 that was unecessary.

There will always be a cost associated with emergency response. It will also be impossible to optimize any automated system to achieve a 0% false-report rate, but that's not a license to be cavalier with the approach taken.

The iPhone isn't the only device designed to make automated calls to emergency services. For example, seniors who are at risk for falls will often buy a device with a remote that they wear around their neck or on their wrist that will call emergency services when a button is pressed.

These systems don't call 911 directly though. Instead, they call a call center. The call center agent answers and inquires about the individual's status. If the person is unable to respond, the agent initiates the pass through call to 911. If the person is able to respond, they assess whether emergency services are needed.

The systems work this way because 911 operators around the world are often short-staffed and cannot handle a deluge of false-report calls. As the number of iPhones in use grows, Apple will be forced to make closer evaluations of the usage data to determine what changes are required. I'd be surprised if this isn't a net positive for public safety though. It's just going to require some tweaks.

You can buy a Raspberry Pi for $4 that has more than enough processing power. An IR camera adds another few dollars. The servos and grid fins would probably be the most expensive part. Apparently dumb grenades cost only $50-100, though.

I see a future where one party launches 10,000 kamikaze drones (whether anti-personnel, high explosive, or incendiary) to start or end a war.

A large part of the appeal is how cheap they are, so I was thinking more along the lines of different shapes or weight distribution. Maybe even a rudimentary bomb sight for the drones? Just a readout of wind speed and direction and altitude/approximate freefall time on the screen for the operator. Shouldn't be too hard to do.

Maybe even give them "smart fins" and IR cameras so they hit the target more often.

How long before the first one is dropped on someone in in the middle of Times Square? Or insert public place here…