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Dialing 911

11K views 22 replies 9 participants last post by  Hawkeye-08 
#1 ·
Yesterday I had the need to call 911 but apparently the little lady in the radio won't take just a three digit number. I told her to dial 911, which she did, then just waited for more numbers. Finally I had my wife dial it on her phone which isn't paired to the radio. I'm wondering if anyone else has ran into this and knows of a work around? Today when I get in the car I'm going to try telling her 9110000 and see if it will dial ignoring the trailing zeros.
 
#5 ·
Save 911 as "Emergency" on you phone then use Bluetooth/Voice/call emergency :thumb:
 
#8 ·
From what I can tell the system should understand just 911. The kicker though is it does not activate the GPS unit and send that information to the 911 center that gets the call. THerefore, the best they can do is track you within a 5 mile radius of the tower you are connected to.

Also, my understanding is that while not subscribed, the emergency button is suppose to still work. The auto notify services will not (air bag deployed, vehicle flipped, etc) but the actual button still works just like a cell phone is required to call 911 even after deactivated.

Not sure if that helps at all or not.
 
#9 ·
JediSkipdogg said:
From what I can tell the system should understand just 911. The kicker though is it does not activate the GPS unit and send that information to the 911 center that gets the call. THerefore, the best they can do is track you within a 5 mile radius of the tower you are connected to.

Also, my understanding is that while not subscribed, the emergency button is suppose to still work. The auto notify services will not (air bag deployed, vehicle flipped, etc) but the actual button still works just like a cell phone is required to call 911 even after deactivated.

Not sure if that helps at all or not.
I still haven't gotten around to trying the 9110000 because the past two days we have been driving the wife's car, but I wanted to make a comment about activating the GPS unit. According to our local police, tracking a 911 call has nothing to do with using the GPS in the car or in a cell phone. They triangulate the call using multiple cell towers. I have heard them on the scanner talking about a 911 cell phone hangup and I have heard the dispatcher pinpoint the location to a driveway between two addresses. I got on the subject with a couple of officers in a restaurant. I was asking them if I would be hiking somewhere and fell and broke a leg and would give them some GPS coordinates from my handheld, would they be equipped to use those coordinates to find me. That's when they told me the above.
 
#10 ·
Don B said:
I still haven't gotten around to trying the 9110000 because the past two days we have been driving the wife's car, but I wanted to make a comment about activating the GPS unit. According to our local police, tracking a 911 call has nothing to do with using the GPS in the car or in a cell phone. They triangulate the call using multiple cell towers. I have heard them on the scanner talking about a 911 cell phone hangup and I have heard the dispatcher pinpoint the location to a driveway between two addresses. I got on the subject with a couple of officers in a restaurant. I was asking them if I would be hiking somewhere and fell and broke a leg and would give them some GPS coordinates from my handheld, would they be equipped to use those coordinates to find me. That's when they told me the above.
Not sure who gave you that info but I work in 911 and have for 7 years during the major changes from cell technology. When I first started 7 years ago we only got the phone number from the cell and if possible, it would pull records from the database of the owner's address of the cell. Then about 5 years ago we upgraded to be able to pinpoint based off of ONE tower. Then we upgraded to GPS tracking if the cell is GPS capable. Even if the user disables GPS, it's still required to activate when 911 is dialed. THat is where we are with technology now. No triangulating, no cell tower only, no guessing, just GPS and my understanding is that's how Onstar works now when you push the red emergency button (even their manual says that, it says if you dial 911 manually over pushing the red button, you don't get GPS tracked.)
 
#11 ·
JediSkipdogg said:
Not sure who gave you that info but I work in 911 and have for 7 years during the major changes from cell technology. When I first started 7 years ago we only got the phone number from the cell and if possible, it would pull records from the database of the owner's address of the cell. Then about 5 years ago we upgraded to be able to pinpoint based off of ONE tower. Then we upgraded to GPS tracking if the cell is GPS capable. Even if the user disables GPS, it's still required to activate when 911 is dialed. THat is where we are with technology now. No triangulating, no cell tower only, no guessing, just GPS and my understanding is that's how Onstar works now when you push the red emergency button (even their manual says that, it says if you dial 911 manually over pushing the red button, you don't get GPS tracked.)
I don't claim to be an expert, I'm only going by what the police told me.

I did do some more experimenting with the dialing 911. I tried dialing 9110000 hoping it would ignore the trailing zeros and satisfy the lady in the radio looking for a seven digit number, that didn't work. I tried adding a voice tag of "emergency", that didn't work either. As someone suggested I tried using the area code and 911 which I didn't think would work because of only six numbers, so I added a 1 in front of the area code to make it seven numbers, no dice. Right now I'm trying to think of what to try next.
 
#12 ·
I don't really understand what the problem is, I guess.

Are you saying that you are trying to use your Bluetooth button to dial 911 through your phone? If that's the case, then just program 911 into your phone and give it the title of "emergency" or something, and then when you give the command through your bluetooth, say, "Dial Emergency"

I don't see why that wouldn't work.
 
#13 ·
Sumr616 said:
I don't really understand what the problem is, I guess.

Are you saying that you are trying to use your Bluetooth button to dial 911 through your phone? If that's the case, then just program 911 into your phone and give it the title of "emergency" or something, and then when you give the command through your bluetooth, say, "Dial Emergency"

I don't see why that wouldn't work.
Apparently you didn't read my last posts very closely. What I have tried to date starts by pushing the phone button on the steering wheel, and from there I have tried everything I have listed. So far none of it has worked. I don't know maybe it's a problem with my phone, it is an older phone. I'm getting a lot of suggestions but no one has said if what they are suggesting I try works with their system.
 
#14 ·
Don B said:
Apparently you didn't read my last posts very closely. What I have tried to date starts by pushing the phone button on the steering wheel, and from there I have tried everything I have listed. So far none of it has worked. I don't know maybe it's a problem with my phone, it is an older phone. I'm getting a lot of suggestions but no one has said if what they are suggesting I try works with their system.
Because no one wants to call 911 Have you called your phone provider because if you did it the way Sumr and I suggested and it doesn't work just dialing 911 won't work on your phone either because saving 911 as a number is doing exactly that?
 
#15 ·
Mochaman said:
Because no one wants to call 911 Have you called your phone provider because if you did it the way Sumr and I suggested and it doesn't work just dialing 911 won't work on your phone either because saving 911 as a number is doing exactly that?
Number one it works fine using voice with just my phone it will dial anything in my phone book, so that tells me it's an issue with the radio. Number two I didn't expect anyone to dial 911 or solve the problem for me. My original post was to ask if anyone else had experienced the same problem, and my posts after that were to just let anyone know that was following the thread what I had already tried. The point you seem to be missing is the radio expects at least a seven digit number and when I tell it to dial 911 it just sets there waiting for more numbers. In fact while it's just sitting there waiting, if you say anything to someone in the car the radio lady will say "pardon". I'm trying to figure out a work around for that.
 
#16 ·
The big red button on the mirror is 911. You dont have to have an Onstar subscription to use it. I still dont understand why you just dont press this? When you press this you dont even have to tell them where you are at because they know your exact location and all you have to tell them is the emergency.
 
#17 ·
Don B said:
Number one it works fine using voice with just my phone it will dial anything in my phone book, so that tells me it's an issue with the radio. Number two I didn't expect anyone to dial 911 or solve the problem for me. My original post was to ask if anyone else had experienced the same problem, and my posts after that were to just let anyone know that was following the thread what I had already tried. The point you seem to be missing is the radio expects at least a seven digit number and when I tell it to dial 911 it just sets there waiting for more numbers. In fact while it's just sitting there waiting, if you say anything to someone in the car the radio lady will say "pardon". I'm trying to figure out a work around for that.
That is why I have never set up the radio to dial anything I use "bluetooth-voice" to dial numbers on my phone. I tried it once and it can't recognize what I am saying 1/2 the time so even speaking a number is problematic.
 
#18 ·
So, if you are in your house, for example...not in your car....if you hold your phone in your hand and press the "voice dial" button (whatever button that is on your phone)...if you say "dial 911"...does your phone call 911?

I think the easy solution is just to save "911" as "Emergency" in your phone, so you can say, "Call Emergency."

You don't have to say the person's phone number to dial it through the bluetooth in your car...by pressing the steering wheel button.

If you say, "Call John," then your phone (via bluetooth in your car) should dial whatever number is saved as "John" in your phone.
 
#19 ·
Sumr616 said:
So, if you are in your house, for example...not in your car....if you hold your phone in your hand and press the "voice dial" button (whatever button that is on your phone)...if you say "dial 911"...does your phone call 911?

I think the easy solution is just to save "911" as "Emergency" in your phone, so you can say, "Call Emergency."

You don't have to say the person's phone number to dial it through the bluetooth in your car...by pressing the steering wheel button.

If you say, "Call John," then your phone (via bluetooth in your car) should dial whatever number is saved as "John" in your phone.
Why don't you bother reading my post? I think I have said it more then once, I have tried naming it "emergency" and it doesn't work. As I said before, the radio seems to be looking for a number that is longer then three digits. It will voice dial any number in my phone by number or name except 911, and to answer your question, yes I can dial 911 with just the phone using the name.
 
#20 ·
tahoebigah said:
The big red button on the mirror is 911. You dont have to have an Onstar subscription to use it. I still dont understand why you just dont press this? When you press this you dont even have to tell them where you are at because they know your exact location and all you have to tell them is the emergency.
I have never tried it because I was told by my salesman that I would have to have a subscription to Onstar to use it. He said it would connect me to an Onstar operator and they would take care of the rest.
 
#21 ·
Found this because I had a customer that was looking for the same answer. After hitting the bluetooth phone button on the steering wheel, you must say "Dial" or "Digit Dial" and not "Call". Worked correctly after that. Button, "Dial", 911" and and "Dial" again to initiate and it will call 911 or whatever numbers you like. We tried 1234 as well and got the same message you would if calling from a land line.
 
#22 ·
Justy8384 said:
Found this because I had a customer that was looking for the same answer. After hitting the bluetooth phone button on the steering wheel, you must say "Dial" or "Digit Dial" and not "Call". Worked correctly after that. Button, "Dial", 911" and and "Dial" again to initiate and it will call 911 or whatever numbers you like. We tried 1234 as well and got the same message you would if calling from a land line.
:thumb:
 
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