Iphone 14 | iPhone 14 accident detection: False alarms annoy rescue helicopter pilots news | apple iphone

Apple has equipped the iPhone 14 (Plus) and iPhone 14 Pro (Max) with accident detection, which can save the lives of car occupants in an emergency. The technology is anything but trivial, it is based, among other things, on GPS and WLAN as well as the acceleration sensors and microphones of the devices. Sophisticated algorithms evaluate the information provided and, according to Apple, recognize both collisions and vehicle rollovers. If the iPhone registers an accident, an alarm signal sounds. If the user does not respond within ten seconds, the smartphone automatically makes an emergency call.

Accident detection sometimes reacts too sensitively
However, there are some situations that look like a car accident to the smartphone, but are in fact commonplace and harmless. This became apparent shortly after the market launch of the iPhone 14: The “Crash Detection” triggered an alarm when riding a roller coaster, for example. Overly sensitive and not as intended by Apple, the system apparently also reacts to other movements. At least some rescue helicopter pilots in the Canadian province of British Columbia are now complaining about this. They flew a report in the Toronto daily newspaper The Globe and Mail according to several times on operations where there was no emergency.

iPhone in snowmobile glove compartment triggers alarm
At least twice, the rescue workers found nobody at the reported alleged accident site. The pilots suspect that skiers’ iPhones made an emergency call without their owners noticing and consequently continued skiing. In another case, it turned out that a smartphone from Cupertino, which was in the glove compartment of a snowmobile, had triggered the alarm while driving. The driver was very surprised when the rescue helicopter arrived, the report said. According to the pilots, such false alarms are not only annoying and endanger human lives because they unnecessarily tie up capacities. They also place a significant financial burden on the rescue system, as an operation costs up to 10,000 Canadian dollars (almost 7,000 euros).

Rescue workers: Apple should improve “Crash Detection”.
Rescuers believe Apple failed to take into account everyday life in British Columbia when developing accident detection. Dwight Yochim, of the British Columbia Search and Rescue Association, told The Globe and Mail that many people in that region engage in outdoor activities such as skiing and mountain biking. According to Yochim, the rescue organization informed Apple a few days ago about the accumulation of false alarms and asked the Californian company to improve accident detection.