In the classic science-fiction movie Alien, the heroine Ellen Ripley battles not only a hideous creature that had stowed away on her space ship before killing all of her crewmates, but also a defiant, dangerous on-board computer.
On May 30th we attended a crash at McKenzie/Glanford in #Saanich #yyj. A witness was trying to call 9-1-1 via Siri however, as you can see, had some difficulties. We’d like everyone to know that in this situation you CAN pick up your phone #yyjtraffic. #ThanksSiri 🙄 pic.twitter.com/RAmIyhzMEQ
— Saanich Police (@SaanichPolice) June 7, 2018
While nothing as horrible happened to the male witness of a recent collision at the corner of McKenzie Avenue and Glanford Avenue, his voice-actived digital assistant, well, failed to follow orders, as a tweet from Saanich Police revealed.
The driver asked Siri, Apple’s voice assistant, to call 9-1-1. ‘Her’ response? “I don’t know who your mother is.”
It is not clear how many times the driver asked Siri to call 9-1-1.
Sgt. Jereme Leslie said Saanich does not keep records of such digital communication breakdowns. However, Saanich Police did use the incident to remind people in the tweet that they (still) have options other than their mobile devices to call in collisions.
“We’d like everyone to know that in this situation you CAN pick up your phone.”
The crash itself happened on May 30th at around 6:00 p.m., said Leslie. A Toyota Prius was travelling south on Glanford Avenue when an Isuzu SUV turned west on McKenzie Avenue, cutting in front of the Toyoto, he said. “The vehicles crashed and we attended. The driver of the Isuzu was issued a ticket. No major injuries to anyone.”
One final thing though. The name of the computer on Ripley’s spaceship? MU-TH-UR 6000.
