Iphone 14 | iPhone 14 car crash detection still triggers false emergency calls | apple iphone

The iPhone 14’s car accident detection feature still accidentally triggers 911 emergency calls, despite tweaks in iOS 16 over the past month.

This forces dispatchers to divert resources from real emergencies.

iPhone 14 car accident detection and false emergency calls

In the iPhone 14, the car crash detection feature works with sensors to call emergency services if it thinks a user is involved in a car crash.

Since the feature’s launch with the iPhone 14 series and Apple Watch in September 2022, dispatchers at US emergency services have noticed an increased flow of calls originating from iPhones accidentally triggering car crash detection when no car crash occurred.

Update didn’t solve the problem

iOS 16.1.2 was released a month ago, and it also included crash detection tweaks, but didn’t give any details on what those changes were.

Like the news agency “The Colorado Sun” wrote, 911 911 dispatchers in counties across the state have seen a spike in calls made by skiers after their iPhone 14 and current Apple Watch models misinterpreted ski falls as car accidents.

The 911 dispatchers weren’t trained to ignore a call, meaning accidental calls initiated by the iPhone 14’s 911 911 functionality were also resourced and managed by Trina Dummer, the interim director of the Summit County 911 Call Center explained. The false 911 calls put a strain on emergency services because they have to divert resources away from real emergencies.

Apple is said to be working on a fix, but according to County Sheriff Jaime FritzSimons, it feels like trying to turn a battleship into a bathtub. Against this background, it will probably take a while before the problem is resolved.