At Least 10 million Ford vehicles have 911 Assist capability. ( Photo: Ford Logo)
According to reports from Chicago's ABC7 and West Palm Beach, Fla.'s ABC25, a car driven by 57-year-old Cathy Bernstein automatically called 911 to report a crash. The call was part of a safety feature designed to help first responders locate people who may have lost consciousness after accidents.
That seems to have given dispatchers all the information they needed to pinpoint the location of the vehicle - and find the alleged hit-and-run driver - without ever having to talk to a person. In fact, talking to a person didn't help at all: In an audio clip of a 911 call obtained by the Florida station, Bernstein denied to a skeptical dispatcher that there had even been an accident at all.
The report said the car that tattled on its owner was a Ford. Police in Port St. Lucie, Fla., did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alan Hall, a spokesman for Ford, said that the company hadn't heard of 911 Assist being used in this way. But, he said, from reports he had heard about the Florida incident, it seems that the emergency call feature "worked exactly like it was supposed to."
The vehicle was in a collision, and it called 911 through the driver's phone, which was paired with the car. When the driver did not respond to the operator, the car appears to have taken over and provided the operator with the information needed to locate the vehicle. That could have been a lifesaver if the driver had been unresponsive after passing out behind the wheel.
Hall said at least 10 million Ford vehicles with 911 Assist capability are on the road. However, drivers should note that the feature is opt-in, meaning that all drivers, including the one allegedly involved in this crash, have to turn the feature on and pair their car with their phone before it will work. This kind of emergency-call technology is also on track to be in every car in the European Union starting in April 2018.
Concerns about cyberattacks that could divulge drivers' locations or even take over their cars have gotten a lot of attention on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers and regulators warn of the security implications of putting more smart technology into our vehicles.
But there are other risks to consider. Whether drivers consider it a positive development or not, it's becoming increasingly difficult to hide your location even when you're in your own vehicle. This case does raise the point that people may not realize what they're signing up for when they use the smart features on their cars.
In this case, few people would criticize the software for behaving as it did, or spare much concern for someone apparently leaving a crime scene. You can lump it in with other techy "dumb criminal" stories, such as a case in October in which a woman used Twitter's live-streaming Periscope app to film herself driving while drunk. Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, also mentioned a case in which a person posted a picture of his illegal marijuana-growing operation, only to be reported to the police by a social media friend.
Those moves may be, well, just plain stupid. But you could also look at them as extreme versions of common "oversharing" mishaps.
Stanley said he doesn't have sympathy for someone who flees a crime scene but that cases such as this one can illustrate how little people think about how their tech use affects them. And that can give us all pause.
"Technology is moving so fast that people can forget what information is being collected and who it's going to," Stanley said.
© 2015 The Washington Post
That seems to have given dispatchers all the information they needed to pinpoint the location of the vehicle - and find the alleged hit-and-run driver - without ever having to talk to a person. In fact, talking to a person didn't help at all: In an audio clip of a 911 call obtained by the Florida station, Bernstein denied to a skeptical dispatcher that there had even been an accident at all.
The report said the car that tattled on its owner was a Ford. Police in Port St. Lucie, Fla., did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alan Hall, a spokesman for Ford, said that the company hadn't heard of 911 Assist being used in this way. But, he said, from reports he had heard about the Florida incident, it seems that the emergency call feature "worked exactly like it was supposed to."
The vehicle was in a collision, and it called 911 through the driver's phone, which was paired with the car. When the driver did not respond to the operator, the car appears to have taken over and provided the operator with the information needed to locate the vehicle. That could have been a lifesaver if the driver had been unresponsive after passing out behind the wheel.
Hall said at least 10 million Ford vehicles with 911 Assist capability are on the road. However, drivers should note that the feature is opt-in, meaning that all drivers, including the one allegedly involved in this crash, have to turn the feature on and pair their car with their phone before it will work. This kind of emergency-call technology is also on track to be in every car in the European Union starting in April 2018.
Concerns about cyberattacks that could divulge drivers' locations or even take over their cars have gotten a lot of attention on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers and regulators warn of the security implications of putting more smart technology into our vehicles.
But there are other risks to consider. Whether drivers consider it a positive development or not, it's becoming increasingly difficult to hide your location even when you're in your own vehicle. This case does raise the point that people may not realize what they're signing up for when they use the smart features on their cars.
In this case, few people would criticize the software for behaving as it did, or spare much concern for someone apparently leaving a crime scene. You can lump it in with other techy "dumb criminal" stories, such as a case in October in which a woman used Twitter's live-streaming Periscope app to film herself driving while drunk. Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, also mentioned a case in which a person posted a picture of his illegal marijuana-growing operation, only to be reported to the police by a social media friend.
Those moves may be, well, just plain stupid. But you could also look at them as extreme versions of common "oversharing" mishaps.
Stanley said he doesn't have sympathy for someone who flees a crime scene but that cases such as this one can illustrate how little people think about how their tech use affects them. And that can give us all pause.
"Technology is moving so fast that people can forget what information is being collected and who it's going to," Stanley said.
© 2015 The Washington Post
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
