John Oliver Has Bad News: 'Ubers Can Find You Better Than Ambulances Can'
Bad news: 911 has a deadly flaw, and it’s not that they’re required to answer every single call, no matter how much of a prank it is. It’s this: On the off chance that you’re having an actual emergency, there’s no guarantee that 911 can find you.
“While 911 does get some location information from towers, sometimes they may only get the cell tower your call was routed from, announced John Oliver, host of Last Week Tonight. “That’s why your chance of 911 getting a quick fix on location ranges from as low as 10% to as high as 95%."
That’s a pretty big range. And as Jeff Rosson of NBC News proved, it doesn’t even matter how close your emergency is to the nearest 911 center.
“You never want to have to be in a situation where you have to tell someone, I’m actually inside you right now,” Oliver joked. “And if you’re thinking ‘I can find my location on my cell phone,’ well, you’re not alone. Dispatchers wondered the same thing. Even the Dominos app can tell you where you are and they’ve barely mastered the technology to make a palatable pizza. So we asked everyone, from the FCC to public safety groups, to industry trade groups about why it seems Ubers can find you better than ambulances can.”
Watch:
