Iphone 14 | False alarms from iPhone 14 put a strain on emergency call centers at ski resorts | apple iphone

With the iPhone 14 Apple has car accident detection in its smartphones and the apple watch integrated. The idea is that an emergency call will be initiated automatically if the cell phone thinks it has detected a crash. However, this feature causes problems with false alarms.

The background is that the crash detection, among other things, via accelerometers is working. For activities like To ski or snowboarding you often move quickly and make sudden braking or steering manoeuvres. This is likely to confuse the iPhone systems and trigger false alarms, which is now putting a strain on the emergency call centers. A report of New York Post according to US ski resorts report one 15 to 25 percent increase in emergency calls.

hours of effort

Another problem is that the skiers usually do not notice that the emergency call has been made. The emergency call staff would then pass on the location data sent to the slope personnel, who would then check whether everything was OK. In the worst case, this could happen hours last. An emergency response center in the state of Pennsylvania reports 20 automated calls per day. This puts a strain on the team.

Just a few weeks ago, another ski area reported that the calls are not a big problem. However, the presumably higher number of skiers and snowboarders has meanwhile aggravated the situation.

It is not the first incident of this kind. Roller coaster rides can also activate emergency call recognition. Apple itself is the problem according to 9to5Mac deliberately. They are currently working with emergency call centers to collect feedback and reduce false alarms.

disable function

If you want to make sure that your iPhone doesn’t trigger a false alarm before you go on a skiing holiday, you can also deactivate the feature. This works on the iPhone according to Apple as follows:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap on “Emergency SOS”.
3. Disable the “Call me after a serious accident” option.

On the Apple Watch you turn off the feature as follows:

1. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.
2. From the My Watch tab, tap Emergency SOS.
3. Disable the “Call me after a serious accident” option.