The Apple iPhone 14 (approx. 999 euros on Amazon), the iPhone 14 Pro, the Apple Watch Series 8 and the Apple Watch Ultra should automatically recognize car accidents and dial the emergency call. A feature that sounds useful, but does not always work as expected in practice. While car accidents aren’t always recognized, report that Wall Street Journal and Coaster101 well, that roller coasters sometimes trigger the car crash detection.
The Kings Island amusement park has so far recorded at least six erroneous emergency calls linked to the new iPhones and Apple Watches, while the Dollywood amusement park has even put up signs advising customers not to take their smartphones and smartwatches on roller coaster rides to avoid erroneous ones to avoid emergency calls. Joanna Stern’s tweet embedded below includes one of those erroneous emergency calls.
When asked, Apple did not comment on this problem, only stating that the car accident detection should be further improved in the future. If you ride a roller coaster, you should have your iPhone 14 and your Apple Watch Series 8 (about 500 euros on Amazon) so either don’t bring it with you, or at least put it in airplane mode to prevent the devices from dialing emergency services. It is currently unclear whether Apple can completely prevent accidental emergency calls in such situations with a software update.
Since 2009 I have been writing for various publications in the technology sector until I joined the Notebookcheck news department in 2018. Since then I have combined my many years of experience in the field of notebooks and smartphones with my lifelong passion for technology to inform our readers about new developments on the market. My design background as art director of an advertising agency also allows me deep insights into the peculiarities of this industry.
Tag: iphone design, iphone 14, apple iphone, iphone release