I hate car problems

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William Bray - 30 Sep 2003 03:29 GMT

Sunday, 1:30 AM, my car died. It blew a spark plug from a recent tune
up. Later on that day I called a tow truck. Not only did they know
that I was on a cell phone but they knew my location before I even said
anything.
Does anyone know if towing companies are also on the city GPS? I know
they get called upon by cops to tow cars but how did this guy know where
I was?
In all honesty he did me a great service but since when do tow outfits
get a technology that is for 911 calls?

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Jer - 30 Sep 2003 04:32 GMT

> Sunday, 1:30 AM, my car died. It blew a spark plug from a recent tune
> up. Later on that day I called a tow truck. Not only did they know
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> [posted via phonescoop.com]

Was this an actual 911 call? or a regular call directly to the tow
company?

A number of commercial entities have expressed interest in location
based technologies. But, each cell carrier uses their own system and
could only offer what's available from only their own network users.
And that's the rub... if cell carriers could team together to offer a
comprehensive service through a third party, it would likely work
well. In all fairness, cell users would have to be offered some way
of opting out of being tracked, either permanently or on an adhoc
basis. And we all know that cell carriers would love to recover their
costs for the E-911 location mandate - not that they aren't doing this
already.

I'd be interested to know who your carrier is and what part of the
country this "miracle of service" occurred in.

And next tune up, torque those puppies a little tighter. I can barely
imagine what that must've sounded like.

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jer email reply - I am not a 'ten' ICQ = 35253273
"All that we do is touched with ocean, yet we remain on the shore of
what we know." -- Richard Wilbur

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William Bray - 30 Sep 2003 05:43 GMT

No 911 call was made. I have Cingular and this was in Bellevue WA.

Jer <gdunn@airmail.net> wrote in article
<blatfr$v18@library2.airnews.net>:

> > Sunday, 1:30 AM, my car died. It blew a spark plug from a recent tune
> > up. Later on that day I called a tow truck. Not only did they know
[quoted text clipped - 32 lines]
> "All that we do is touched with ocean, yet we remain on the shore of
> what we know." -- Richard Wilbur

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Harry - 30 Sep 2003 10:34 GMT

> Not only did they know
>that I was on a cell phone but they knew my location before I even said
>anything.

Call them back and ask them. They must get calls from distressed
motorists all the time and are probably up on which local exchanges
are used for cell phones. How they knew where you were is more of a
mystery. I suppose someone may have already called in about your
situation and location or they might have recognized some unique
background noise at your location.

The easiest way is to ask them.

I don't think I like the idea of Bubba's Towing having that kind of
technology. I wonder if it is available to anyone. regulated at all?

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