Apple iPhone 14 has an SOS system that connects to satellites - and saved a man in Alaska!

[thewayne]

This capability is new to the 14 and will presumably be continued and improved upon in future generations. In an emergency, with some restrictions, the phone will connect to emergency services via satellite. In this case, the dude was driving across Alaska wilderness in a Snow Machine was stranded when the machine broke down. His iPhone 14 was able to make a connection, transmitting precise GPS coordinates to emergency services and he was rescued!

The satellite SOS becomes a subscription feature after an initial trial period.

I understand a future Google phone will have similar satellite SOS functionality.

I don't have a link to it, but another person was saved with an iPhone. She was at a family gathering, went home, and no one heard from her. The iPhone has a feature called Find My Friend that lets you see the general location of where other people are - they have to send you an invitation and can cancel it.

Family used Find My Friend and got a consistent, non-moving signal off the highway. Turned out she'd rolled her car off an embankment that was not visible from the road. Family were able to find her and call emergency services, though it took some work as the car was inverted in a culvert and she was rescued.

And before people start replying with "I don't want to be tracked!", regardless of whether you use a smart phone or not, your cell company has precise location data on you - it's the only way cell towers can work. If you choose not to further share your location info, that's fine. Me, I'm seriously thinking about upgrading my wife's phone when the contract is up in December to get this satellite SOS feature - a lot of the drive to the observatory has no coverage, and when she hit an elk and totaled her car a few years ago she was was in such a dead zone. Fortunately someone came upon the accident shortly after it happened and took her to a place with signal.

https://www.macrumors.com/2022/12/01/iphone-14-satellite-sos-in-action/

https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/22/12/02/2143226/iphone-14-satellite-feature-saves-stranded-man-in-alaska

Comments

[bibliofile]

That's pretty cool!

(I expect to upgrade to an iPhone 14 in about ten years.)

[thewayne]

I expect they might have something newer than the 14 available in ten years. :-)

[kaishin108]

It sounds like it would really help to have peace of mind in some situations. I kind of like the idea, like for when G. goes hiking alone.

[thewayne]

My wife drives back and forth from Southern NM to Salt Lake City, I don't know how many dead zones there are in that route but at least it's well-traveled.

[kaishin108]

That is quite a drive!
The freeway from here to SLC is a lot better than the windy grades to Portland!

Yes, well traveled at least.

[acelightning73]

When my husband and I were driving my son and all his earthly belongings to California for grad school, as we were driving across Nevada there was a sign that said "Next Gas - 78 miles!" My son was driving, and he said he thought we'd make it to Reno. Nope; eleven miles outside of Reno we chugged to a halt. My son's cell phone couldn't connect to anything, and my husband's was very weak. I browbeat my phone into connecting, and called AAA, and they couldn't get a driver out to me for a while - the AAA guy for this area was busy with a multi-car pileup further down the road. Eventually someone arrived, and the gas can was only partially full. He had gone to fill it up and realized he didn't get money from "petty cash". So he could only give us three dollars worth of gas, which got us to an Elvis-themed truck stop in Reno. We filled up there, and had dinner. And it startled me that there were slot machines inside the ladies' room (nickel slots only).

[thewayne]

I'm somewhat conservative on gas fillups, if I'm down about 3/4ths on a road trip I start thinking about my next fillup. Slots in bathrooms?  I never encountered that in Vegas or other places in NV.  That's funny!

[acelightning73]

That was the only place we stopped in Nevada, and eventually we went over the Donner Pass into CA and made our way down to San Jose and unloaded the trailer in the middle of the night, and threw the mattresses on the floor to sleep on.

[disneydream06]

I guess my "smart" phone isn't that smart. LOL..........
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

I would think that your area and the area you commonly travel to/from is pretty well covered up there.  I don't read about you road-tripping like my wife and I and others do.

[disneydream06]

Yeah, the most driving I do is basically up to the Twin Cities and back.

[gingeriana]

not afraid of mobile trackers at all
but somewhat tense when people start saying "i don't want to be tracked!"
like WHY? what exactly are you doing there, huh? :)

the feature could be def. life-saving for huge territories like US, Canada or Australia

[thewayne]

People are idiots when they talk paranoid about being tracked, they clearly don't know what they're talking about.  And usually their lives are far too simple and stupid for the gov't to be concerned about.  Your phone is always tracking your position, lots of police depts have automatic license plate readers, etc.  It's sadly a common thing now.

[acelightning73]

When my various ailments added up to "fall risk" and possibly "gets confused easily", I activated the "location" function on my stupidphone (just a normal flip phone - it doesn't do videos or clicking on links or using apps.

[silveradept]

The hard part, then, is to make sure that things don't activate by mistake, like they are on the ski slopes for people who are taking spills.

[thewayne]

Yep!  Definitely a problem up in Colorado and Utah and other big ski areas!  It's kind of amusing, but hard on 911 centers and responders.