Google wants to use drones to deliver emergency medical equipment

If you’re out in the park and someone has a heart attack, what do you do? Dialing 911 would be the most sensible option, but there’s no guarantee help will arrive in time. A new patent from Google suggests it may have a solution. A new patent awarded to Google today (April 5) outlines a device that can call for a drone to fly in with specific medical equipment. Last year, Google patented the idea of flying drones to medical emergencies with life-saving technology onboard, and now it seems the tech giant has a plan for how we would contact these drones. The device in today’s patent looks like a cross between an old HAM radio and one of the callboxes found on the sides of highways. Users would press a button for their specific medical emergency, and it would deploy a drone to the scene. According to the Google patent, this could save precious minutes in emergencies, such as an anaphylactic shock caused by an allergic reaction, or a heart attack. The autonomous drone could head right out to the emergency with a defibrillator or a shot of adrenaline on board.