Originally Posted by
I-Like-To-Bike
Your response makes much sense. I assume that the GPS function of smartphones and a suitable app that allows your wife to keep track of your real time location would meet both you and your wife's needs.
The "incident detection" function, given its unreliability and tendency to give false alarms (as described in several other posts on this thread), seems more likely to cause problems for both the bicyclist and those who either receive the false alarms, or are depending on being the first to be notified of a serious problem from a system that may or may not ever be reliable enough to be counted on in the unlikely event it is ever needed.
I have a question for you or anybody who is familiar with the operation of various incident reporting systems: Do they automatically send unfiltered "incident" notifications to 911 or other local emergency services whenever the system detects an anomoly that it interpets as an "incident"? If so, how do those agencies feel about responding to multiple false alarms?
Good question and I’m not 100% sure......but the applications I’ve seen don’t automatically contact emergency services. You have the ability to enter the information for the people you’d like contacted. In my case I’ve entered my wife and also my brother who is also a cyclist. I’m not sure if the devices actually make phone calls or just do texts and emails. The ones I’ve looked at don’t do phone calls. My wife and brother know to first attempt to get in touch with me should they receive an alert text. I told my wife that I was going to ride my gravel bike on some bumpy roads so she might get a false alarm. I haven’t tested the incident detection, like throwing it down so we’ll see what happens over time.