One district in the US state of Ohio alone reports six false alarms in just one month. US media are now reporting on a roller coaster ride that triggers a false emergency call.
The one introduced with the iPhone 14 accident detection apparently triggers false alarms in certain situations. This reports, among other things Wall Street Journal. Accordingly, an emergency call was triggered in at least one case, although the owner of the Apple smartphone was not in a dangerous situation – during the 911 call, she was enjoying herself on a roller coaster at an Ohio amusement park.
The 911 operator, meanwhile, recorded an automated message from the iPhone in question stating that “the owner was in a serious car accident” and was unable to answer his phone. Meanwhile, the employee at the emergency call center heard the background noise of the roller coaster ride through the switched-on microphone of the iPhone.
However, the alerted emergency services could not identify an emergency situation at the transmitted location. The owner of the iPhone also only noticed the emergency call in the queue for another ride.
According to the report, it wasn’t the first false alarm triggered by an iPhone 14 in Warren County. A total of six false alarms have been received by the emergency call center there since the market launch of the iPhone 14 around a month ago.
The accident detection uses, among other things, the new acceleration sensors, the barometer and the microphone to recognize a potentially dangerous situation. The data is compared on the smartphone with a motion algorithm that, according to Apple, can distinguish between different car accidents such as a head-on collision or a rollover. Users only have 20 seconds to cancel the automatic emergency call.
From the factory, accident detection is too active. Apparently, however, it seems advisable to switch off the function before activities that can cause high G-forces to act on an iPhone.
Tag: iphone design, iphone 14, apple iphone, iphone release