At a recent meeting on space policy a representative from Hughes/Echostar told us that, as they provide satellite connectivity to gas stations in the fire regions, they have been working with emergency services to give fire fighters directions to where they can go to get gas for their trucks, based on their knowledge of which stations are up and have not been sold out. Putting alerts (whether by landline or satellite) on screens at the pumps or in convenience stores does not seem like much of a stretch, but I can't see any indication that this is being done. Regards Marshall On Fri, Oct 13, 2017 at 4:59 PM, Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com> wrote:
Has anyone heard if the smart speaker companies (Amazon Echo, Google Home) plan to include emergency alert capability? An estimate 10% of households own a smart speaker, and Gartner (well-known for its forecasting accuracy) predicts 75% of US households will have a smart speaker by 2020.
Although most silicon valley tech nerds are still in the "invincible" years, were the california fires close enough to silicon valley that smart speaker developers might think an emergency could affect them. And an emergency alert capability in their smart speakers might be important?