When I had a Pixel4, I witnessed a car accident in which someone got hurt quite substantially.
Hard as a tried, the process of dialing 911 failed multiple times; the phone app simply crashed and left me with a blank screen or the home screen. I put a complaint in with my carrier but nothing was ever done. And of course Google could give 0 fucks with their customer support.
A few months later, I needed to call 911 for an emergency and it did work, but yeah... we got "Eventual Consistency" for an emergency.
Someone could put all of these reports together along with the paper trail of unresolved complaints to Google through discovery and likely end up with a great class action case or even a criminal negligence case.
911 is one of those things that absolutely must work and most phones will allow you through using any available network if you are out of range of your primary carrier.
The fact that this is unreliable on any mobile phone is completely unacceptable.
911 obviously doesn't have to work given the blatant disregard Google has had for 911 performance over multiple phone generations. I consistently had 911 calls fail on my Pixel 6, which led me to get rid of that device.
Some Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) also give zero shits about call answer time, NG911, 911 via text, or even consistently working E911.
E911 provides a static address to the public safety answering point when a 911 call comes in. NG911 enriches this with more accurate latitude longitude and height above ground level data, or for phones that are in a fixed location a room number or extension number can be provided to make it much easier for a routing emergency services.
We need a national system for 911, not this mishmash of 10 to 30-year-old proprietary systems serving the 5700 PSAPs put together for each department on a township, city or county basis, with minimal coordination across regions and states.
Well, how many times in your life do you call 911? I am in my forties and I maybe used my local equivalent 3 times and in every occurence someone else could have made the call.
And I've only used my mobile phone since my late 20's, it is not like I buy smartphones for emergency purposes.
My colleague once told me that the reason telecom providers took so long with Android software updates was because they had to verify that the phone meets regulatory requirements after the update. One of these requirements was being able to dial 112 (Europe's 911) very thoroughly. There was a legally prescribed process (by BNetzA, IIRC) for doing that in Germany. After a quick Google search, it seems like there is something like that mandated by the FCC in the US.
I wonder how the Pixel 4 passed it. Not just in the US, but in many countries.
The Pixel 4 probably reliably called 911 on the simplest network config, like GSM or CDMA, but when encountering WCDMA, VoLTE and all the fun ways you can configure these technologies, you ended up with situations where the phone would perhaps have data service, but no ability to dial 911.
T-Mobile has had manufacturers brick band 12 on phones like the Moto E because you would get rural data coverage with this band, but T-Mobile did not sell any Moto phones and did not want to write a software config for VoLTE for Motorola phones. Without band 12 enabled the phone will happily roam onto AT&T or Verizon in areas where T-Mobile doesn't offer GSM service instead of hanging out on a cellular network that can never provide calling or texting at that location.
You're down-voted because you kinda stopped short, but I think it's worth discussing: Many engineering disciplines deal with safety-critical stuff and often have robust process around validation of design and implementation as a result. There's heaps of non-safety-critical software written, and if the same processes, attitudes, and even personell, are applied to a safety-critical component of a generally non-safety-critical system (like mobile 911) then we get bugs like this that canget people killed. How does our field improve on this?
It will get mature like any other industry, however I cannot see how that happens before another century or two. The field's unfulfilled potential is just too big.
This article is about an incident from just last month, but the fact that there are 20+ failure reports over just Feb 2022-Jan 2023 (https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/y039zn/i_compi...), across multiple Pixel models, is insane. There’s something seriously wrong here.
Is there any data on how often this occurs with other brands, or what the failure rate was (i.e. how many attempts to call 911 succeeded in that time?) Otherwise 20+ reports certainly sounds bad but I don't really have a perspective on how bad it is. It could very well be that 20 failures across a year is within the expected failure rate due to unavoidable transient network issues.
Funny, because I have the opposite problem. My Pixel dials 911 out of random and I always have to race to disconnect the call.
Just last night my Pixel Watch started ringing out of random while I was eating dinner and it said it was dialing 911. I saw a phone call pop up on my Pixel 6 phone but fortunately canceled it before it connected. My watch didn't even tell me why it dialed 911, and once I disconnected the call it just disappeared from my watch. Totally useless!
There should really be a hard-to-accidentally-accept confirmation dialog for any kind of automated emergency dial feature. This is ridiculous because this is probably the 3rd time this has happened to me.
I don't understand why these devices can't even do the most core feature of a phone properly.
This will sound crass but the development teams (right up to CEO's) should be dragged out to the gallows and flogged.
If it was my product I would have made damn sure the 911 experience was perfect before shipping, and not rested for a minute until any bugs were solidly quashed - up to and including recalling all sold units and overhauling the flakey architecture if needed.
This is life safety we're talking about, not only for their users but also everyone else impacted by their blatent abuse of the emergency services system. Would we tolerate bridges that collapsed with equally ambivalent consequences for those who engineered them?
In any other field, engineers would be held responsible and after so many "mistakes" they would lose their license.
Software engineers will fight tooth and nails to keep their privilege is being called engineers whilst having none of the responsibility when it comes to the harm they're causing.
If it was my product I would have made damn sure the 911 experience was perfect before shipping
For what it's worth, every telco switch upgrade I performed ages ago, early days of GSM the first number I tested was 911. I made sure the dispatcher could hear me. I don't know whats going on with the phone development side of things. That seems like a QA and customer feedback review problem. It probably also does not help that wireless vendors are slow/hesitant to update phones. There is a fear of bricking phones and customer support nightmares their words, not mine. I could flash update a phone over the air but this was in the 90's. No idea what that process looks like now. I assume they stage an update on a CDN after hopefully testing it extensively. Do all cell phones have two boot partitions in the event the upgrade process is sub-optimal(c)?
I can hallucinate couple different explanations for that:
- Modern software is way too overcomplicated to take seriously.
- 911 is handled too specially, leading to oversights by implementers.
- Feature importance to you has nothing to do with implementation difficulties.
How are you doing this? Dialing an emergency has never happened to me by accident on Android or iOS.
It has happened to me many times on office phones where you need to use 9 to route your call. And you learn to just stay on the call if you dial me mistake because they will call back if you disconnect and telling them it was a mistake if much quicker. They must deal with it all the time
Happened to me twice with an iPhone. Both times I triggered it when the phone was lagging for some reason (eg it got too hot and throttled down). I guess iOS doesn't track the delay between button presses properly when it's overloaded. I was able to cancel the call in time, but it's a horrifying seeing the timer go down while mashing the non-responsive stop button.
After I retired my last smartphone, a Nokia something, the same thing happened. I used it purely as a mp3 player when walking the woods and it would randomly call the emergency line (not 911 in my country)
I barely could cancel the call before it went through as of course I was walking and had headphones in.
I figured it had something to do with a button... it got more annoying over time so what I did to fix it was: change the emergency number to my girlfriend`s
> How are you doing this? Dialing an emergency has never happened to me by accident on Android or iOS.
I wish I could tell you. As far as I can tell, there's no way, either on my watch or my phone, to figure out retroactively why it automatically dialed 911.
I know the Emergency SOS feature allows dialing 911 with some sequence of power button presses, but I don't think I was pressing the crown on my watch at the time.
I had this happen with my iPhone a few years ago. Basically there’s a setting where some combination of the side buttons pressed together calls 911. I was in a borrowed car and the cup holder was just the right width to do this when I hit a bump.
The very nice 911 operator told me it happened all the time. After the second time it happened I tracked down the setting to disable it.
Some 911 operator online once mentioned that most of the calls they get are “butt dials.”
And then when I called months back I got an answering machine and waited what felt like an eternity (was one minute) to be routed to someone who then routed me elsewhere after determining what my needs were.
This happened to me, it was the emergency shortcut on the phone. Press the power button four times and it calls the police. You can turn it off. It was the button that kept triggering rather than a software fault.
When you hold down the power button, there is a big red emergency button beside the restart button. I've gotten pretty close to accidentally pressing it.
I will say I have had plenty of similar issues across my iPhone devices. For a variety of reasons these phones fail to make calls. Drop calls or can’t dial 911. I suspect voice calling itself has become network deprioritized or still has trouble selecting between calling tech.
I worked on dialer for pixel and and am deeply familiar with these problems. Voice call tech is easily one of those mostly worthlessly convoluted spaces in mobile. That being said while I was there we put a huge priority on emergency calling — however the exec overseeing the space often complained about how hard dialer was and bemoaned all the required work because it never helped her promotions.
When did you have problems dialing 911 with an iPhone? It seems like something worth reporting - feedback to Apple, public posting, etc.
Dropped calls etc. do happen for a variety of reasons, but there have been next to no reports of iPhones being unable to dial 911 (assuming a decent cell signal, etc.), and that would be a much more serious issue.
I’m going to be the one to say that you definitely didn’t have the same issue with an iPhone. As much as people love shitting on Google they love shitting on Apple 100x more and it would be front page news for days if what you are saying is true.
I like using a heavily scrutinized phone. When Apple throttled my iPhone 6, there was so much media backlash that they responded by adding an option to disable the throttling. Android issues like this would likely get swept under the rug, especially with a non-Pixel device where someone else makes the hardware and both sides avoid blame.
> I suspect voice calling itself has become network deprioritized or still has trouble selecting between calling tech.
Whilst this may be true for normal voice, almost universally emergency calling is the highest network priority[0], knocking other voice and data sessions off another carriers tower if required.
All cell phones with 911 functionality should have a way to periodically test that the 911 feature is fully functional. The reality is that I rarely even make a phone call anymore... but I don't even know whether being able to make a call implies 911 works? And I don't know if its still true but there used to be pretty significant fines for calling 911 so I'm not just going to dial 911 and say "making sure this still works!" The phone should just be doing various deadman switch type tests on the network/911 health-checks and report to me whether it is working or not working. It has a freaking GPS and can identify cell towers, so it should be pretty trivial to maintain test data and schedule. Relying on life-critical devices that can't be tested seems really sketchy.
This is true for many young people. Turns out phone calls are pretty much the only time the earpiece speaker gets used on a phone. Lots of people have killed their earpiece speaker by filling it with sand, salt, water, lint, etc. Speakers seem to die more easily when never used, presumably because use vibrates dirt out. End result: When they call 911 they can't hear anything.
My phone currently has a dead earpiece speaker, and I just know that if I need to call 911, it better be on speakerphone.
I used to have a Pixel 2 XL and then later a Pixel 5a. Went through them really fast as the hardware was pretty bad and the phone would just decide to stop turning on at some point. Same thing happened to a relative I gave a Pixel 5a. Phone didn't last a year.
Don't get me started on the Pixel buds. I got tired of contacting customer support for replacements.
That's when I decided not to buy hardware from Google again, and also stopped using Android. Experience in iPhone has been great so far. Phone's fast despite being several generations behind, don't have to worry about not getting security updates.
Nexus 4, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 4 XL, Pixel 6 Pro – never had any issues whatsoever, all phones still alive and kicking at my grandparents' places. Yes, most of them tied to the wall now... but hey, they're fine for showing some photos and displaying current time or setting alarms.
Interestingly, I also used Samsung's Note 9 and 10+, iPhone 12, iPhone 14 Pro Max – daily, also with no issues... other than disliking Samsung's software.
(I was/am doing a lot of mobile work so I test a lot of phones)
After years of doing this kind of testing, it's hard for me to believe that the entire batches of phones are so fundamentally broken... I'd rather bet on software issues, but who knows.
I had two pixels suffer heat deaths on me (after random boot cycles) switching around iphone 8 time and haven't had a problem out of the 3 devices I've owned from them. Got tired of Android being weird plus relaying everything I did on the phone to google to share with 3rd parties.
Got gifted a pair of pixel buds gen 2. I liked them. Accidentally sent them through a wash cycle killing the left one. Eventually straight up lost the left one. Thought nothing of it until I changed phones and realized a hardware limitation meant you needed both to pair to a new device. Dumb but I needed a new one anyways so…
I contacted support after not seeing spares were being sold. They gave me an 25$ store credit… Ended up selling the case and working earbud and getting a different brand.
Recently changed phones and them pulling the headphone jack from the A series after the 5 was a non-starter for me. I still use wired headphones and plug my aux into my car and other places :/ kinda mind boggling
They are so lucky. My Samsung Phone already called 911 several times, while I had it in my pocket. And every time I have to explain why. I guess I'll get a Pixel next time.
Samsung makes some of the stupidest devices I've ever owned. Back when I had Samsung phones, they did all sorts of things while in my pocket. I experienced multiple butt-dials, music randomly playing, etc. Fortunately, mine never dialed 911. But I could have lived without those moments where death metal started blasting from my pocket because I leaned the wrong way. And let's not get me started on their TVs. Maybe it's not so bad now that their phones support fingerprint scanning, but I wouldn't put it past them to screw that up, too. I sincerely believe that most people who continue to own Samsung devices simply don't know better. Such flimsy bloated crap for products that are supposed to "compete" with Apple, Microsoft, and The Google.
Had this issue awhile ago, out of nowhere it just started dialing 911 while in my pocket. Turns out some setting was re-enabled after a recent update. Went to Settings > Advanced features > Motions and gestures > Double tap to turn on screen > Disable and I think that finally fixed it. This is on a Samsung A71 5G.
Yes, I ran into the same problem and this "fixed" it. The issue doesn't come from the feature itself but from the fact that the lower end model uses "Virtual proximity sensing" instead of a real proximity sensor which is often faulty. It sucks that Samsung chooses to cut costs in these places.
If it's possible the power button is getting bumped repeatedly in your pocket. You could search your Android settings, and make sure "Emergency SOS" is turned off.
It’s also possible that there’s a hardware failure that is making the power button erroneously report button presses, leading to the Emergency SOS. This happened to me on a Pixel 3, which resulted in repeated calls to 911 with no user input.
* Can’t power it off for the night, because the flaky power button turns it back on.
* Can’t pull the SIM card, because emergency calls don’t require a SIM card to connect.
* Can’t consistently use the “slide to cancel” option, as the phone was also trying to initialize the camera at the same time. (IIRC,
3 button presses for the camera, 5 button presses for SOS. The flaky power button managed to trigger SOS while the camera was still initializing the GUI, so the camera GUI took focus.)
* Can’t access the settings, because the flaky power button either turns the phone off, opens the camera, or sends an SOS faster than I could search the settings.
This all started at about 10 PM. So, instead of going to sleep, I needed to spend the next two hours baby-sitting my phone as it mostly was repeatedly rebooting, with occasional calls to 911, until the battery finally died.
As in my other comment, this likely comes from the fact that lower end phones use "virtual proximity sensing" instead of a real proximity sensor, and they have a lot of issues when the phone is in a pocket. You need to either disable the double tab feature or upgrade to a "real" flagship like S23.
Do explain why! Is there a shortcut on the lock screen that you can't turn off or how?
Two or my four smartphones have been Samsungs and, while I could call 112 on purpose, I don't know what might cause pocket dialing. Your comment about this being a feature rather than a bug on Pixels is funny though =)
Yes, it's possible to dial 911 from a locked phone. I assume that's a legal requirement; on its face it's pretty reasonable.
I never used to lock my phone at all, but starting with the Pixel 3a I've been forced to do it by the fact that the phone interprets rubbing against my leg through my pocket as a stream of commands. I wish manufacturers would go back to the non-crazy screens they used to make. Anyway, since locking the phone doesn't disable the ability to call 911, this is a constant risk, though I don't believe I've made an accidental call yet. (Or maybe I would have, if my phones weren't Pixels!)
I have mangled a text note I was keeping on my phone beyond recovery when I once put my phone in my pocket without manually locking it first.
No, I can't turn it off and it was always from a locked screen, I think it's a legal requirement in the EU. I now keep my phone always with the screen turned away from my leg in my pocket and that seems to prevent it well enough, even though I still often get to almost calling 911 when I take it out of my pocket with my hand.
Well I have to now, because the screen also stopped working 90% of the time, except when I put it in the freezer for 15 minutes. Just 2 months that the phone is conveniently out of warranty. I guess it's the last Samsung Phone I'll ever buy.
There should be some kind of test number twin of 911 that works exactly the same (without SIM, supplying E911 data), but just plays a pre-recorded message optionally with some "debug" info.
That is such an obviously good idea I'm surprised it doesn't exist. Apparently the official way to test it in the UK is to email them and schedule a test. They say they use the real 999 because that's the best way to guarantee that it works, and that's true - but there's definitely utility in having an almost-real number that you can test at any time guilt free.
They probably just can't be bothered to set it up tbh.
The article says to test by calling the non-emergency number, but that seems like a really unrealistic test. Even if they offered a test version of 911, I wouldn't trust that it works exactly the same as 911.
If you follow the link you'll see the procedure is you call the non-emergency number to ask for a time and location slot where you're allowed to call the real 911 number for test purposes. This let's them schedule you for a time where they predict lower demand. Seems sensible to me.
I remember from my days building SIP clients that a lot of carriers support 933, which is exactly what you're asking about. You can try googling a bit to see if your carrier supports it.
Readit News
Hard as a tried, the process of dialing 911 failed multiple times; the phone app simply crashed and left me with a blank screen or the home screen. I put a complaint in with my carrier but nothing was ever done. And of course Google could give 0 fucks with their customer support.
A few months later, I needed to call 911 for an emergency and it did work, but yeah... we got "Eventual Consistency" for an emergency.
911 is one of those things that absolutely must work and most phones will allow you through using any available network if you are out of range of your primary carrier.
The fact that this is unreliable on any mobile phone is completely unacceptable.
Some Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) also give zero shits about call answer time, NG911, 911 via text, or even consistently working E911.
E911 provides a static address to the public safety answering point when a 911 call comes in. NG911 enriches this with more accurate latitude longitude and height above ground level data, or for phones that are in a fixed location a room number or extension number can be provided to make it much easier for a routing emergency services.
We need a national system for 911, not this mishmash of 10 to 30-year-old proprietary systems serving the 5700 PSAPs put together for each department on a township, city or county basis, with minimal coordination across regions and states.
I’m surprised you kept the phone. I would have gotten a new phone if I discovered my current one couldn’t dial 911 properly.
And I've only used my mobile phone since my late 20's, it is not like I buy smartphones for emergency purposes.
Dead Comment
I wonder how the Pixel 4 passed it. Not just in the US, but in many countries.
T-Mobile has had manufacturers brick band 12 on phones like the Moto E because you would get rural data coverage with this band, but T-Mobile did not sell any Moto phones and did not want to write a software config for VoLTE for Motorola phones. Without band 12 enabled the phone will happily roam onto AT&T or Verizon in areas where T-Mobile doesn't offer GSM service instead of hanging out on a cellular network that can never provide calling or texting at that location.
Small point, but many (most?) countries support 112, and it's definitely worth knowing as "911" likely won't work outside of the US.
Dead Comment
I was manually entering the number on the dial pad, and the call would never initiate.
Finally, I created a dummy contact with the number and then it finally worked.
I now have a phone that isn't a phone.
Just last night my Pixel Watch started ringing out of random while I was eating dinner and it said it was dialing 911. I saw a phone call pop up on my Pixel 6 phone but fortunately canceled it before it connected. My watch didn't even tell me why it dialed 911, and once I disconnected the call it just disappeared from my watch. Totally useless!
There should really be a hard-to-accidentally-accept confirmation dialog for any kind of automated emergency dial feature. This is ridiculous because this is probably the 3rd time this has happened to me.
I don't understand why these devices can't even do the most core feature of a phone properly.
This will sound crass but the development teams (right up to CEO's) should be dragged out to the gallows and flogged.
If it was my product I would have made damn sure the 911 experience was perfect before shipping, and not rested for a minute until any bugs were solidly quashed - up to and including recalling all sold units and overhauling the flakey architecture if needed.
This is life safety we're talking about, not only for their users but also everyone else impacted by their blatent abuse of the emergency services system. Would we tolerate bridges that collapsed with equally ambivalent consequences for those who engineered them?
Software engineers will fight tooth and nails to keep their privilege is being called engineers whilst having none of the responsibility when it comes to the harm they're causing.
For what it's worth, every telco switch upgrade I performed ages ago, early days of GSM the first number I tested was 911. I made sure the dispatcher could hear me. I don't know whats going on with the phone development side of things. That seems like a QA and customer feedback review problem. It probably also does not help that wireless vendors are slow/hesitant to update phones. There is a fear of bricking phones and customer support nightmares their words, not mine. I could flash update a phone over the air but this was in the 90's. No idea what that process looks like now. I assume they stage an update on a CDN after hopefully testing it extensively. Do all cell phones have two boot partitions in the event the upgrade process is sub-optimal(c)?
not absolving Google, but this is easier said than done
There's enough 911 calls for everyone, they're just not distributed equally.
It has happened to me many times on office phones where you need to use 9 to route your call. And you learn to just stay on the call if you dial me mistake because they will call back if you disconnect and telling them it was a mistake if much quicker. They must deal with it all the time
I barely could cancel the call before it went through as of course I was walking and had headphones in.
I figured it had something to do with a button... it got more annoying over time so what I did to fix it was: change the emergency number to my girlfriend`s
I wish I could tell you. As far as I can tell, there's no way, either on my watch or my phone, to figure out retroactively why it automatically dialed 911.
I know the Emergency SOS feature allows dialing 911 with some sequence of power button presses, but I don't think I was pressing the crown on my watch at the time.
The very nice 911 operator told me it happened all the time. After the second time it happened I tracked down the setting to disable it.
you can turn it off in settings. it's a good idea but sadly too easy to do if you're trying to turn the volume down instead for example.
also, even if it's awkward, stay on the line and explain. they usually appreciate it.
And then when I called months back I got an answering machine and waited what felt like an eternity (was one minute) to be routed to someone who then routed me elsewhere after determining what my needs were.
I worked on dialer for pixel and and am deeply familiar with these problems. Voice call tech is easily one of those mostly worthlessly convoluted spaces in mobile. That being said while I was there we put a huge priority on emergency calling — however the exec overseeing the space often complained about how hard dialer was and bemoaned all the required work because it never helped her promotions.
Dropped calls etc. do happen for a variety of reasons, but there have been next to no reports of iPhones being unable to dial 911 (assuming a decent cell signal, etc.), and that would be a much more serious issue.
Whilst this may be true for normal voice, almost universally emergency calling is the highest network priority[0], knocking other voice and data sessions off another carriers tower if required.
0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_telephone_number#Eme...
This is true for many young people. Turns out phone calls are pretty much the only time the earpiece speaker gets used on a phone. Lots of people have killed their earpiece speaker by filling it with sand, salt, water, lint, etc. Speakers seem to die more easily when never used, presumably because use vibrates dirt out. End result: When they call 911 they can't hear anything.
My phone currently has a dead earpiece speaker, and I just know that if I need to call 911, it better be on speakerphone.
Dead Comment
Don't get me started on the Pixel buds. I got tired of contacting customer support for replacements.
That's when I decided not to buy hardware from Google again, and also stopped using Android. Experience in iPhone has been great so far. Phone's fast despite being several generations behind, don't have to worry about not getting security updates.
Nexus 4, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 4 XL, Pixel 6 Pro – never had any issues whatsoever, all phones still alive and kicking at my grandparents' places. Yes, most of them tied to the wall now... but hey, they're fine for showing some photos and displaying current time or setting alarms.
Interestingly, I also used Samsung's Note 9 and 10+, iPhone 12, iPhone 14 Pro Max – daily, also with no issues... other than disliking Samsung's software.
(I was/am doing a lot of mobile work so I test a lot of phones)
After years of doing this kind of testing, it's hard for me to believe that the entire batches of phones are so fundamentally broken... I'd rather bet on software issues, but who knows.
I contacted support after not seeing spares were being sold. They gave me an 25$ store credit… Ended up selling the case and working earbud and getting a different brand.
Recently changed phones and them pulling the headphone jack from the A series after the 5 was a non-starter for me. I still use wired headphones and plug my aux into my car and other places :/ kinda mind boggling
* Can’t power it off for the night, because the flaky power button turns it back on.
* Can’t pull the SIM card, because emergency calls don’t require a SIM card to connect.
* Can’t consistently use the “slide to cancel” option, as the phone was also trying to initialize the camera at the same time. (IIRC, 3 button presses for the camera, 5 button presses for SOS. The flaky power button managed to trigger SOS while the camera was still initializing the GUI, so the camera GUI took focus.)
* Can’t access the settings, because the flaky power button either turns the phone off, opens the camera, or sends an SOS faster than I could search the settings.
This all started at about 10 PM. So, instead of going to sleep, I needed to spend the next two hours baby-sitting my phone as it mostly was repeatedly rebooting, with occasional calls to 911, until the battery finally died.
Two or my four smartphones have been Samsungs and, while I could call 112 on purpose, I don't know what might cause pocket dialing. Your comment about this being a feature rather than a bug on Pixels is funny though =)
I never used to lock my phone at all, but starting with the Pixel 3a I've been forced to do it by the fact that the phone interprets rubbing against my leg through my pocket as a stream of commands. I wish manufacturers would go back to the non-crazy screens they used to make. Anyway, since locking the phone doesn't disable the ability to call 911, this is a constant risk, though I don't believe I've made an accidental call yet. (Or maybe I would have, if my phones weren't Pixels!)
I have mangled a text note I was keeping on my phone beyond recovery when I once put my phone in my pocket without manually locking it first.
They probably just can't be bothered to set it up tbh.