Shortly after the iPhone 14 launched this fall, the new Crash Detection feature was found to be unintentionally triggered by roller coasters in some instances. Now with winter sports ramping up in the Northern Hemisphere, it turns out skiing can also trigger false positives.
As a refresher, Crash Detection is a valuable new safety feature that comes with the iPhone 14 lineup and the new Apple Watch Ultra, Series 8, and SE 2. But even though Apple uses all-new hardware, an advanced algorithm, and over a million hours of crash data, false positives are still possible.
Apple even released an update just today that should help with accidental Crash Detection. However, most users haven’t installed that update yet.
As reported by KSL via MacRumors, riders in Park City, Utah have been unknowingly triggering Crash Detection while skiing and snowboarding.
Summit County Dispatch Center supervisor Suzie Butterfield shared they are seeing “three to five of the emergency calls from the Apple technology per day. She said none of the calls she’s taken have been activated on purpose.”
She added that the owners of the iPhone or Apple Watch usually “have no idea that they’ve even called us.”
Notably, Butterfield sees Apple’s Crash Detection – even with the false positives – as a useful tool and recommends that users leave it enabled.
“We do not want you to turn the feature off,” Butterfield said. “We would rather have you be safe. We don’t mind taking that call because if something really did happen, we want to be able to get to you.”
MacRumors also noticed that reports of skiing accidentally triggering Crash Detection have been mentioned on Reddit.
I’ll be hitting the slopes soon so I’ll report back if the iOS 16.1.2 update seems to fix the Crash Detection false positives on the mountain 😁⛷️.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
