Lifelines: How technology is transforming the world of emergency rescue

Since the dawn of cell phones, first responders have struggled to locate many emergency callers who are unable to describe their locations. In 2016, a small team of Google engineers partnered with the European Emergency Number Association (EENA) to see how smartphone location technology might be able to help.

This is a true story that followed—the tale of one paraglider in the lower Austrian Alps whose routine flight took a harrowing turn.

Learn more about how technology is transforming the world of emergency rescue at https://g.co/emergencylocation.

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Android Emergency Location Service (ELS) has been activated by more than 20 countries worldwide and helps first responders locate over 2M calls a day. To learn where ELS is available, review the FAQs here: https://crisisresponse.google/emergen....

If ELS works in your country and on your mobile network, then your phone will automatically send its location using ELS when you dial an emergency number. You can turn emergency location services on or off at any time. To learn more about how Android Emergency Location Service works and how to manage your Android device’s location settings, click here: https://support.google.com/android/an...

ELS performance may vary depending on environment, network conditions, partner choice of transmission protocol and confidence level.

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Director: Nick Carbonaro
Cinematographer: Karl Erik Brøndbo
Editor: Kyle Valenta