Is GPS Getting Too Smart?

Don't these have a distinctly different distress signal than a marine unit? When I see the Northstar commercials the operator calls, refers to the owner by name and seems to know the nature of the emergency. They also know the location. 4 miles out to sea should be a hint. I'm surprised they responded.

Yes.
Onstar.
Subscriber name, not necessarily driver or owner name.
Triangulation among cell towers, not bidirectional GPS signal.
Surprised they had only a "distress call" as most of these are linked to a specific service via cellular/satellite communications rather than a radio/satellite generic broadcast SOS. Then again, it could have been a GSM 911-equivalent call from a vehicle-mounted phone. If the latter, then how would they know it's a car?

Unless someone didn't connect the dots and say 'We don't respond to these', I foresee a big problem for 1st responders coming.

It sounds more like a case of miscommunication between the cops and the lifeboat folks.

If it was, as stated, a police report of the location of a stolen BMW, wouldn't the prudent search and rescue mariner take a look at AIS data for that area before assuming the thief had driven 4 miles out to sea?

http://www.bmw.com/com/en/insights/technology/connecteddrive/tracking.html

Hi,

I was driving a new 1 Series Rental at the weekend and it had a button in the middle of the roof above the driver with SOS on it, my daughter was determined to press it , I am glad she didn't.

Great onboard NAV System and an easy way to hook my bluetooth phone to the car.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_Assist

"We don't respond to these" is a tough judgement call. What if it was a ferry passenger having a heart attack, ignored by the authorities?

What if it was a cell phone connected to a car via bluetooth or whatnot, dialing 911 because the boat it was on was sinking and the caller wanted to alert authorities? Or because of a fire or other emergency?

As a first responder, I'd prefer to head out and get canceled because it's nothing than to decide it's nothing and find out later my inaction caused harm or death to befall one or many.

One of the few times I don't mind "wasting" some tax dollars.

Think about that for a while and get back to us.

Hi,

On the type of ferry involved in that call, the access to vehicle decks is very well restricted when the vessel is underway.

I can not envisage an instance when the master would release the watertight doors during a fire or sinking to allow access to the decks by the vehicle operators.

Hi,

You've no experience with BMW ConnectedDrive, then?

Nothing quite like using the car's WiFi to browse the web on your phone via the car's GSM ConnectedDrive technology instead of burning cell data plans' limited bandwidth.

Problem is, I've been as much as ~35 meters away in another car in traffic and my phone rings into the BMW to which it has been connected rather than to the handset in the car I'm in. The perils of press events.

Domestic (US) carmakers use technology such as Autonet Mobile to achieve the same type of connectivity. $29 monthly beats the cost of iPhone or Blackberry overages.

WiFi doesn't know watertight.

I love when you talk out your ass. It lets us know you're still breathing.

Very interesting. On a slight tangent, Like we need people surfing the freakin net while driving, as if calling & texting aren't bad enough.
Sorry for the rant. Couldn't resist. Very interesting. Excuse my ignorance in this, but no problems inside a steal ship at sea?

No, I do not. I have just googled it and read up quickly.

The car I am currently driving can also be a bear with the bluetooth, if I am out of my car and the key is still in the ignition the phone will stay connected to the car up to about 40/50 ft away so if phone rings and I answer it without looking at the screen the **** car answers it instead of the handest.