False 911 Calls Were Being Made Because Apple’s Crash Detection Was Being Tricked Into Believing That an Actual Accident Took Place
A pattern was recently noticed by Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern in amusement parks like Dollywood and Kings Island, where an iPhone 14 or the latest Apple Watch triggered the Crash Detection feature by accident. Six separate emergency calls were made from Kings Island when visitors hopped on board and left the feature enabled. Dollywood also reported incidents like the one described above, and according to Coaster101, the amusement parks had to put up signs with the following written to prevent any such false alarms.
Due to the dynamic movement you will experience on this ride, Apple Watches and similar devices may activate their emergency call function. To prevent your device from making unintended 911 calls, please turn it off or enable airplane mode.” — Coaster101.com (@Coaster101) September 28, 2022 One Reddit user, u/Rationalspace787, described his experience in a thread, concluding that Apple’s Crash Detection feature should be disabled when sitting on a roller coaster. Apple’s Crash Detection feature uses audio data picked by the iPhone 14’s or Apple Watch’s microphone, along with other sensors, to determine if a crash has occurred. A roller coaster moving at a high velocity most likely tricks the feature into an immediate trigger. It is recommended that owners enable Airplane mode before getting on the ride to avoid unnecessary hassles. It only takes a single tap and can save you and a bunch of others a boatload of time. We would not advise you to completely turn it off by going into the Settings app because unforeseen events can happen, and the feature might save your life one day.
