iPhone and Apple Watch Crash Detection activating while riding rollercoasters - reports

[Jan]

Apple's Crash Detection calls emergency services while riding rollercoasters

Apple's Crash Detection feature, which rolled out with the iPhone 14 in September 2022, has a problem — it calls emergency services when iPhone 14 users ride rollercoasters.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the feature mistakes the sharp turns and hard braking on rollercoasters for real emergencies, resulting in emergency services being dispatched to amusement parks on several occasions.

 

[UrBaN963]

It's an interesting problem.

Solution is perhaps to note theme park locations and then disable the feature if you're there? Or to do more testing and tune it to detect crashes more reliably? Interesting one.

 

[SilverCode]

It's an interesting problem.

Solution is perhaps to note theme park locations and then disable the feature if you're there? Or to do more testing and tune it to detect crashes more reliably? Interesting one.

You could also look at the data over time. In a valid crash scenario, you will have a sudden stop followed by no further momentum. On a roller coaster you have a sudden slowdown, followed shortly by rapid acceleration. Cross referencing it with known park location is a good idea though.

 

[UrBaN963]

You could also look at the data over time. In a valid crash scenario, you will have a sudden stop followed by no further momentum. On a roller coaster you have a sudden slowdown, followed shortly by rapid acceleration. Cross referencing it with known park location is a good idea though.

Depends though. You could have an accident that causes you to roll, potentially off the road and down a hill with wild variations in acceleration in multiple directions.

I think they'd have to factor in other data in order to determine a crash. Tough one to solve from an engineering perspective, must be quite a nice challenge to be involved in.

 

[FiestaST]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1579228157353160704