Text-to-911: Harnessing Technology to Keep Americans Safer

Text-to-911: Harnessing Technology to Keep Americans Safer

Imagine you are witnessing a crime or facing a life-threatening situation where making a voice call to 911 could further endanger your safety. You need to reach 911 emergency responders, but an audible call could alert a would-be assailant. What can you do to summon help fast?

You reach for your cell phone and send an instant – and silent – text message to 911 responders who quickly arrive to help you and remove you from harm’s way.

This scenario will soon become a more common reality. Limited tests of text-to-911 in Iowa, North Carolina and Vermont have seen lives saved, an attempted suicide averted and domestic abuse prevented.

And, by May 15, 2014 —following actions by the Federal Communications Commission and the wireless industry this week —text-to-911 will become much more widely available to millions of Americans.

In most cases, 911 cannot be reached today by sending a text message, and text-to-911 will be a complement to, not a substitute for, voice calls to 911 services. Consumers should always make a voice call to 911 during an emergency if they can.

However, the rollout of such a service will greatly widen the accessibility of 911 for all Americans, including millions with disabilities. And today, the FCC has taken an unprecedented step toward making text-to-911 available across America.

For the first time, we are proposing specific requirements and timeframes that will add text capability to the 911 system. This marks the first major milestone in the country’s migration towards Next-Generation 911.

The actions build on months of Commission work, as well as efforts initiated by industry and the public safety community, such as the voluntary agreement approved this past week.

Under its terms, the nation’s four largest wireless carriers - AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile - have agreed to accelerate the availability of text-to-911 to local 911 call centers (known as Public Safety Answering Points or PSAPs) that request service. Major deployments are expected in 2013, and the agreement includes a commitment to provide nationwide availability by May 15, 2014.

The agreement will accelerate progress and ensure that over 90 percent of the nation’s wireless consumers, including consumers with hearing or speech disabilities, will be able to access emergency services by sending a text message to 911, where local 911 call centers are also prepared to receive the texts.

To help eliminate consumer confusion while this capability is being phased-in, the carriers have committed to provide an automatic “bounce back” text message to notify consumers if their attempt to reach 911 via text message fails because the service is not available in their area.

If approved, the actions we have taken would require all wireless carriers, as well as providers of certain Internet-based text messaging applications - those that send messages to telephone numbers, but not, for example, messages within games and social media - to enable their customers to send text messages to 911 where PSAPs are prepared to receive such messages.

We will also take additional steps to address other aspects of Next Generation 911 in the coming year - such as enabling transmission of photos and videos to 911 centers - to ensure we meet the nation’s public safety needs.

For further information and updates on text-to-911, please see www.fcc.gov/text-to-911.

By Julius Genachowski

White House Wants Black Boxes in All Future Cars

The Detroit Bureau

The famed "black boxes" aren't actually black. But they may soon be attached to every car.

The White House has given its OK to a plan that would require all future cars and trucks be equipped with event data records – most commonly referred to as “black boxes.”
The majority of vehicles produced today already have such devices onboard and they have aided in recent investigations into such safety issues as the so-called unintended acceleration scare at Toyota. But the use of the technology has also raised some concerns with privacy advocates.

 

Congress failed to pass legislation that would have required the use of event data recorders, or EDRs, in 2010. That prompted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to consider its own mandate. A review was completed this week by the White House Office of Management and Budget and final regulations will likely follow early next year.

The proposal was originally expected by late 2011 but the process was delayed without explanation. Nonetheless, NHTSA has listed the use of black boxes as a “priority,” a spokesperson insisting such devices are critical to “continued improvements in vehicle safety.”
Automotive EDRs are similar, though not nearly as sophisticated, as the black boxes used in commercial airliners – and which are routinely used to provide critical information about crashes and other aircraft incidents. They are already installed in nearly 92% of today’s vehicles, according to industry officials, and also provide important information for industry engineers and, under some circumstances, law enforcement authorities.

During several investigations looking into claims that Toyota products would unexpectedly begin to accelerate without driver input, researchers used such recorders to see what actually happened, often discovering the issue was, in fact, the result of driver error, such as the application of the throttle rather than the brake.
The industry trade group, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, or AIM, has endorsed the use of black boxes – but has also warned that any new rules must consider privacy issues.
“We need to make sure we preserve privacy,” spokesperson Gloria Bergquist told the Detroit News. “Automakers do not access EDR data without consumer permission, and any government requirements to install EDRs on all vehicles must include steps to protect consumer privacy.”
One concern is that new mandates for such devices might make it easy for authorities to see if a motorist were speeding or otherwise violating the law.

Rules vary by state but in much of the country a law enforcement official – or a plaintiff in a legal case – must get court approval before a vehicle’s black box can today be accessed without the permission of the owner.
As with an airliner’s black box, the current technology records and stores only a limited amount of data – though that is considered enough to piece together a snapshot of what might have led up to a crash, such as whether the driver was applying the brakes or throttle, and if seatbelts were being used. Unlike the aerospace industry, the new regulations are not expected to require taping of conversations in a vehicle’s passenger compartment.
NHTSA already has stepped into the issue requiring that as of the start of the 2013 model-year all EDR data be commonized while simplifying access. The use of proprietary formats complicated the Toyota unintended acceleration investigations.

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