Mountain rescuers have questioned the accuracy of using the location app what3words in emergencies, citing dozens of examples where the wrong address was given to their teams. W3W said human error was “a possibility with any type of tool”. Reasons for the errors were not given, but were likely to be things such as mispronunciation or spelling errors.
What3Words (W3W) divides the world into three-by-three metre squares, each with a three-word address. It is free and used by 85% of UK emergency services. The mapping system was created by an algorithm which assigned three words to each square in the world.
