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Many parts of your planet have sections of road that are little-frequented and run through largely unpopulated areas.
In some seasons and/or weather conditions, if a vehicle leaves the road, through a bust tire or an animal impact, it may be a long time before it's spotted. If the occupant is injured
and unable to move or summon help, the prospects are not good.
The solution is to be able to file the road equivalent of a flight plan.
Those intending to embark on such a journey would register with a website and enter a mobile phone number and email. For each trip they would enter basic details of their intended route, and an "overdue" time. They receive an SMS message with a unique code.
On arrival, they can text, phone or email to say "Arrived OK".
If they become overdue, the system sends reminders and tries to phone them. If there is no response, law enforcement is alerted in the relevant area.
The system could be offered by cellular phone operators. There would be fines for deliberate misuse.
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Annotation:
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This is an entirely benign and non-violent proposal. [+] |
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Who are you, and what have you done with [8th of 7]? |
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// This is an entirely benign and non-violent proposal. // |
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// and what have you done with [8th of 7]? // |
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8th of 7 has overdone it a bit in the Regeneration Alcove and is currently functioning non-optimally. |
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[+] Some roads/paths may have incidental satellite coverage as well. A few extra bucks and, if you don't check-in on time, an eye-in-the-sky looks for your vehicle. |
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If you've gone off the road and into the trees/long grass/snow that may not be that helpful. |
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I was thinking colours, non-native to the environment. Black, white and grey probably wouldn't work too well. |
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Or you could just drive a Fiat Multipla, a vehicle so ugly that Nature rejects it. |
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I like the aesthetic of the 60's version. |
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I'm surprised that modern GPS systems don't automatically send a distress call if a vehicle leaves a designated roadway at speed, or if airbags deploy. |
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Some can; but this idea is independant of any systems in the vehicle. |
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GPS can lose its fix, a particular problem in heavily wooded areas; similarly, cellular coverage may be patchy. |
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What if your vehicle catches fire on a remote highway ? Tracker unit is toast, airbags didn't deploy, vehicle still on road. It's cold, it's going dark, your phone was in the car, you're 30km from the nearest habitation, and there are large carnivores in the vicinity. |
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This works for anyone with a cellphone and/or an email address. |
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+ Once up and working the system could expand to cover: |
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Don't go Dates as in horrors movies |
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Scuba divers of the recreational or geologist sort. |
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Repairmen/women sent into the underbelly of the big city |
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A lonely road is more a state of mind, than a road sometimes. |
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// Scuba divers of the ... geologist sort. // |
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If you go cave diving without a full backup team on the surface, you deserve to die. |
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Actually, you're also clinically insane, and dying swiftly is probably the best for all concerned. |
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// Hikers and backpackers // |
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... often leave planned route and schedule info at trailheads. |
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... can notify the Coastguard and Harbour Masters. |
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// Repairmen/women sent into the underbelly of the big city // |
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... should have their employer overseeing their health and safety. |
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My freedive mentor was making his way home in bad weather, and he called up the Coast Guard. They asked if he needed rescue, and he told them " No, but this is my position, and you know my destination. I'm going to call you every five minutes with an update. If I miss a call, you have a clue where to look for me ". |
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When he got to the dock he thanked them, and they said they were happy to be of service. |
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My first impression was that this was kind of redundant
since I generally tell family/friends when going on any
sort of major trip. I gave it a bun because maybe there
are enough situations where you don't want to bother
anyone unless something goes wrong. |
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One nice option on this service could be that it can
optionally inform someone other than the police or
rescue personnel. That makes it useful for many
additional purposes: kind of like deadmansswitch.net.
speaking of which, you could probably use that service (or
a very slightly modified one) to accomplish the same goal
as this idea. |
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One add-on feature: Enable your cell phone to log GPS
locations to the server. That data would be private
unless of course your dead man switch got triggered. In
that case, your route and last recorded position go to the
police or whoever you specified. For the paranoid,
encrypt the position data and log to one server. Use two
different services like deadmanswitch.net with a two-
part encryption key. For the less paranoid, you could
probably just use an existing position logging solution and
send your username and password to someone if you
disappear. |
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So it seems to me that all of the needed functionality is
available, but where existing solutions may be lacking
(unless someone can find the web site) is an integrated
solution that is highly convenient. If this was as easy to
use as tapping a few buttons after planning my route on
Google maps, it could be quite attractive. |
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//It's cold, it's going dark, your phone was in the car, you're 30km from the nearest habitation, and there are large carnivores in the vicinity.// And so, after finishing his glass of port and donning a fetching cape, Natural Selection steps out into the night to continue his work. |
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Isn't the fear of going off the road and never being seen
again part of the fun of driving a lonely, remote road? |
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// I generally tell family/friends when going on any sort of major trip. // |
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That will work for many. For others, business associates would raise an alarm. But for some, it could literally be a life-saver. |
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// as easy to use as tapping a few buttons after planning my route on Google maps, // |
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./I generally tell family/friends/ |
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The lonely driver may be unable to acquire these in a timely manner. |
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^ They can just nip up to that crumbling, isolated old castle, the one with perpetual sheet lightning and try and make friends. Could this explain the number of people who go missing? |
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Anyway, how can roads be lonely? They often join with other roads. |
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With the ubiquitousness of speed cameras and other road
surveillance cameras it should be a doddle to create an app
which performs this function. Your licence plate is snapped
at Point A and should expected to be seen again in "X" hours
at Point B according to your uploaded travel plan. If it is
more than a couple hours overdue then the relevant
authorities (police, EMT, S&R, Coroner or whatever) are
notified. |
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How did we ever all survive before apps? |
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Harvesting wild grasses, following the herds on their annual migrations, and picking seasonal fruits and berries. |
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// How did we ever all survive before apps? |
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<Luddite>It would be interesting to map one culture that hasn't worked out the transistor, against one which has,then see just how much Pokemon Go holds back our development.<
/L> |
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Pokemon Go on a machine using thermionic valves is about as much fun as you think it would be. |
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ie none, but with transistors equally none. |
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With transistors, the unit might be miniaturized to, say, the size of a small truck. In theory, that might make a "mobile" game possible. |
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