Tesla vehicles might be able to call 911 in the future

CEO Elon Musk loves a good tweet, and he regularly engages with owners of his company's electric cars on the social media platform. One of his latest responses is a bit more than that -- it might actually help save lives in the future.

A Tesla owner this week asked Musk if it was possible for Tesla vehicles with network connections to be able to dial 911, to which Musk responded, "Absolutely." According to the tweet, the owner needed to call emergency services, but his phone's network was lacking signal. His Tesla's connection, however, was active.

An idea is just an idea until it's put into practice, and it's unclear when Musk intends to roll this feature out. Tesla does not operate a public relations department to field requests for comment, so we likely won't receive any sort of timeline before the feature is announced as part of a future update.

While firmly in the "good idea" corner, dialing 911 through a vehicle's network connection isn't in the "new idea" corner. GM's OnStar also uses its built-in network connection to route imperiled owners to the correct emergency service. OnStar is a subscription service, however, and that money helps pay for things like having a staff of advisors to help customers who press OnStar's overhead emergency button. It's unclear if Tesla, lacking similar infrastructure, will simply dial 911 on the owner's behalf and route the call to the car's speakers.

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