In the deserts of eastern California, that blank stretch of sand striped with asphalt between Needles and Barstow, there are emergency telephones spaced out for people in need. The desert is hot and sparse, and sometimes cars breakdown, and people need to call for help as soon as they can. It's a bleak place to lose a tire, and an even worse one to lose a tire and urgently need some antiseptic and a bandage. A new patent awarded to Google yesterday could someday bring a robotic savior to these exact situations: a medical emergency call box, which summons a drone carrying the needed supplies to the person in need. Users would press a button for their specific medical emergency, and it would deploy a drone to the scene.