Introduction

Last year, a biker stalked me on my way back from work. Initially, I did not notice him amidst the heavy traffic. Neither did I know from which place he started following my bike. Only when I turned towards a narrow road with fewer vehicles, I heard him calling me.

It was the usual, “Hey, I know you from somewhere” remark. To give you some context, my helmet and scarf covered my entire face. Even people from my close circle won’t recognise me from afar. There was no way this stranger knew me.

So, I ignored him and rode my bike a bit faster. He caught up quickly and asked me to stop my bike. At that point, I was just a minute away from my home. However, I did not want to risk revealing it to him. So, I overtook a mini-bus. As a couple of cars were following the mini-bus, the biker could not get past them. I slowed down in front of the bus. I was safely sandwiched between the mini-bus and other motorists in front of me. He thought I had gone ahead and rode past me.

I was relieved and went home. As I parked my bike, I saw him waiting on my street. He must have seen me and came back. He gave a thumbs up sign. I panicked and went inside my house. Luckily, I had my family who scared him away.

He left and never returned. That was the day I came to know about the ‘Kaaval Uthavi‘ app.

What is Kaaval Uthavi app?

It’s an app developed by the Tamil Nadu police to safeguard the public in emergency situations. It has over 100,000+ downloads on Google Play Store. The app has an emergency button that triggers an SOS call to the control room to get immediate assistance. The user’s live location is shared with the nearest police station. The user’s emergency contacts are also alerted.

How does the app work?

1. The user starts off by adding at least two emergency contacts and specifying his/her relationship with them.

2. Enable the shake trigger feature. When the user shakes the phone violently, an alert is sent to the control room. They will contact the user immediately.

3. Or you can press the red emergency button.

4. You can also share your location beforehand with your friends through WhatsApp or Google Maps.

Is the app efficient?

From my personal experience, the Kaaval Uthavi app is prompt and efficient. I tried the shake trigger feature. I received a call from the control room in less than a minute to assist me. If you are living in Tamil Nadu, I would definitely recommend having this app on your phone.

What are the major drawbacks?

1. If you are stuck in a place that is far away from a police station, it will take a while for them to reach your location.
2. You need an active internet connection to share your live location.
3. Exclusively for Tamil Nadu.

Can Google Maps overcome these drawbacks?

Do you know how Google shows real-time traffic updates? It crowdsources data from users who have turned on their mobile location. Since a lot of people using the same route share their location, it becomes easier for Google Maps to show traffic updates.

Now, let’s imagine Google uses this technology to help people in SOS situations.

Scenario:

1. You are stuck in an emergency situation in a deserted place.
2. Even the nearest police station is over 10 kilometres away.
3. Your emergency contacts don’t live in that area.
4. You are stuck in a new place outside Tamil Nadu.
5. You don’t speak the local language.
6. How will you ask for help?

Hypothetical Solution:

1. Imagine that Google Maps has an SOS button to alert people near you.
2. There are over a million users every day.
3. It uses the same methodology as traffic prediction.
4. Using crowdsourcing, it alerts the people closest to your radius.
5. They can come to your rescue by following your location.
6. You no longer have to wait for the police or emergency contacts.
7. You don’t have to speak the local language.
8. Using Google Maps’ 360° street view, the accuracy gets even better.
9. People will know that you are in distress and come to your aid on a humanitarian basis.

Challenges:

1. Again, you need an active internet connection to share your live location.
2. In case you are being stalked while you are driving, your location keeps changing. So, there should be a system to narrow down your radius and alert passersby accurately.
3. False alarms. Google Maps has millions of users in India. If people activate the SOS trigger by mistake, a lot of users are bound to be affected.

Conclusion

There are a lot of ifs and buts in technology. But for a tech giant like Google with ample money and resources, this isn’t far-fetched. It can run trial experiments in phases, get feedback from users and use the brightest minds to help people in distress.

At the end of the day, the whole point of technology is to make our lives easier. So, why not rely on technology to feel safer the next time we step out?

Disclaimer:
All views expressed in this post belong to the author. The post cannot be quoted or republished elsewhere without the author’s permission.