Iphone 14 | False alarms from iPhone 14 accident detection: Apple calls emergency services for help | news | apple iphone

Apple has unwittingly given several emergency services across the United States and Canada a pretty busy winter sports season. The reason for this is the innovation called “Crash Detection”, which all versions of the iPhone 14 have. This should recognize car accidents and automatically make an emergency call if the smartphone owner is no longer able to do so. However, the function has undesirable side effects, because it is sometimes extremely sensitive and is also active in certain situations that have nothing to do with a car, such as roller coaster rides (see ). Shortly after the beginning of the cold season, false alarms increased when skiing or on snowmobile tours in remote areas (see Fig ).

False alarms in winter sports regions are increasing
Rescue workers in various US regions have repeatedly complained about the false alarms triggered by iPhone accident detection. The British Columbia Search and Rescue Association, for example, asked Apple to fix it in mid-December last year because it incurred high costs from unnecessary emergency calls. Emergency services in the US states of New York and Pennsylvania have also recorded a significantly increased number of false alarms in some ski areas in recent weeks. This is reported, among other things, by New York Post. There have also been complaints from Colorado, Minnesota and Utah about the phenomenon, which causes stress and annoyance for rescue workers.

Apple is asking affected emergency services for feedback
In Cupertino, they are aware of the problems that accident detection brings with it. Apple already revised the emergency SOS function in iOS 16.1.2, further changes were made in the iOS 16.3 beta (see ). In addition, the Californian company wants to collect more information about the occurrence of false alarms. An Apple spokesman told the New York Post in this context that they are currently gathering feedback from rescue organizations that have recorded an increased volume of false automatic emergency calls. However, the company did not give any details. Apple did not want to say when improvements based on the experience of the emergency services will be incorporated into iOS.