Rescuers question what3words' use in emergencies



  • jump.legend.warblers which was in Vietnam
  • duties.factory.person was located in China
  • dignitary.fake.view turned out to be in India
  • refuse.housework.housebound was in Australia
  • middle.plugged.nourished was in the US
  • demand.heave.surprise was actually in Canada
  • flesh.unzip.whirlwind was in Russia
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:lol:

3 words to describe a country...
 
My daughter and her mates went for a walk up to Beamish woods recently. One of the other Mams came round concerned as her son was using what three words and it said he was near the Lambton Estate. I've got Life360 and mine showed that they were in the woods where we thought they were. I wonder if that was some kind of spelling error like this.
 
becs said:
My daughter and her mates went for a walk up to Beamish woods recently. One of the other Mams came round concerned as her son was using what three words and it said he was near the Lambton Estate. I've got Life360 and mine showed that they were in the woods where we thought they were. I wonder if that was some kind of spelling error like this.
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We use life360 on all of our phones. Its great.
What3words is a great app though and its commonly used in the police to the point where nearly all cops have it on personal and job phones. Ive not heard of any issues with it. Its saved lives as well on a few occasions
 
becs said:
My daughter and her mates went for a walk up to Beamish woods recently. One of the other Mams came round concerned as her son was using what three words and it said he was near the Lambton Estate. I've got Life360 and mine showed that they were in the woods where we thought they were. I wonder if that was some kind of spelling error like this.
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McMackem said:
The system should be foolproof by text, but clearly isn't sophisticated enough to be safe when used in speech, where you would think the authorities could use a 'check digit' approach of giving the location of an adjoining square and having the caller confirm it.
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Or just talk properly?
 
If you replaced What3Words with a string of numbers, I think you'd be just as likely to get people mangling them, transposing numbers, missing out a number or whatever. On balance, it's probably helped rescue services find many people than there's been an issue with it.
 

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