Google provides high accuracy emergency location tracking in the United States.

In an emergency, every second can mean the difference between life and death, and Google's latest technology could be a literal lifeline.

In partnership with local operators, Google has begun deploying emergency location services on Android devices – a service that will ultimately provide more accurate location information to first responders. The company announced its new service two years ago, and since then has deployed 99% of Android devices with Android 4.0 or later in 14 countries.

Now, in partnership with RapidSOS, ELS is finally coming to the United States. It will first be available on Android devices on T-Mobile, but will be deployed on other operators over time.

The movement really brings the 911 call into the 21st century. In the past, emergency services were optimized for fixed lines and the result was a large radius of location. At present, 80% of emergency calls come from mobile phones, meaning that these obsolete systems are not really competitive in modern times.

Services have been very useful in the countries where they have been deployed. According to Google, the average uncertainty range has gone from 522 feet to 121 feet, which makes it much easier for emergency responders to quickly find the urgency.

"In Austria, a mountain biker in a remote and heavily forested region suffered a serious accident and called the emergency services for help. The old emergency location systems provided a location within a radius of more than 900 meters, while ELS was able to provide a location within 12 meters to help first responders locate the biker, "he said. Google. a blog post announcing the US launch.

Of course, technology raises some privacy issues, but Google is quick to point out that location information is measured on the smartphone and sent directly to emergency services. In other words, it does not go through Google's servers, which may be important for some.

So, what should you do to make sure ELS is enabled on your phone? Fortunately, nothing. As long as you have an Android phone with Android 4.0 or later and your carrier supports this service, you will be able to use it. We hope you will never need ELS, but if you do, there will most likely be one once the operators take care of it.