Apple Crash Detection Archives - Gizmochina

Apple Watches are Confusing Skiing for Car Accidents

Anubhav — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 04:13:02 +0000

Smart devices are a marvel of modern technology, capable of tracking a variety of metrics with remarkable accuracy. However, this convenience sometimes comes at a cost. Take for example, the Apple Watch, which has been causing headaches for skiers. The software in the watch sometimes confuses a downhill ski trip for a car crash and automatically dials 911.

This has become a real problem for the emergency services, who are inundated with false alarm calls, for the skiers, who are forced to deal with an annoying wrist companion, and for the software developers at Apple, who must tackle a difficult and complex issue. The system, which is designed to detect falls and collisions while driving, skiing, or snowboarding, will initiate a countdown that leads to an emergency services call. However, users may not always be able to react in time to alerts preceding the call and prevent it from being made.

According to a recent article in The New York Times, the emergency services department in Summit County, Colorado received 185 incorrect crash notifications between January 13 and 22. Apple has reportedly taken notice of this issue and is working to address it. A company spokesperson stated, “We are aware that in certain situations, these features may trigger emergency services even if a severe car crash or hard fall has not occurred.” Previously, the iPhone 14’s crash detection feature also caused a lot of turmoil for emergency services in Japan due to skiing accidents as well.

It’s worth noting that in some cases, the emergency alert features of the Apple Watch have worked as intended and alerted emergency services in actual emergencies. However, the story of a spin class leader whose watch mistakenly triggered an emergency alert highlights the potential for technology to both solve and create problems.

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iPhone 14’s Crash Detection is Causing Inconvenience For Emergency Services in Japan

Anubhav — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 06:54:25 +0000

The iPhone 14 series was launched with a new feature, Crash Detection. The emergency function can save the user’s life in case of an accident, say a car crash. However, it seems that the Crash Detection system is causing inconvenience in Japan. The Fire and Disaster Management Agency of the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry has requested that smartphone owners exercise extra caution when utilizing the crash detection feature in their devices, as there has been a recent increase in the number of automated emergency calls in situations where help is not actually required.

Fire departments near skiing areas, such as the Fire Department of Kita-Alps Nagano and Gujo City Fire Department, have reported an increased number of emergency call-outs due to these false alarms. From December 16 to January 23, the Fire Department of Kita-Alps Nagano received 919 emergency calls, with 134 of them being false calls triggered by the Crash Detection feature in skiing areas. Similarly, Gujo City Fire Department received 351 emergency calls between January 1 and January 23, with 135 of them being false alarms.

The system, which is designed to detect falls and collisions while driving, skiing, or snowboarding, will initiate a countdown that leads to an emergency services call. However, users may not always be able to react in time to alerts preceding the call and prevent it from being made.

It is possible to turn off the feature, but since it can be an effective tool in cases of serious accidents, it would not be reasonable for users to disable it. In December 2022, a couple was in a car accident, and their rescue was assisted by Apple’s Crash Detection, demonstrating the feature’s prowess. Should your iPhone make a false emergency call, it would be helpful to inform the local fire department of the mistake. It is also worth noting that this issue is not exclusive to Japan. Other ski-related areas, such as Utah and Colorado, have also reported similar problems, and the feature has been triggered in other non-skiing-related events like riding a rollercoaster.

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Apple iPhone’s Find My feature helps save woman involved in a Car Crash

Sean — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 11:28:54 +0000

Apple iPhone 14 series launched a couple of months prior with a slew of emergency SOS features to ensure it users’ safety. We covered various reports of this already helping people, and now, the latest news has found that the Find My feature has also helped saved a woman that was involved in a car crash.

For those unaware, the latest generation of iPhones come with Crash Detection and Emergency SOS via its Satellite connectivity features. These have helped people stranded or in other life threatening accidents. But in the latest report, rather that the crash detection, the Find My feature has helped save a woman that was a victim of a car crash. The accident took place in San Bernardino, California after a night of Christmas gathering.

The accident had her vehicle fall 200 feet down a hill on the side of the road. Although, her family had noticed that she had yet to make it home and was unresponsive. Thus, they used the Find My feature to track down her location. They found that her car was in a location over the side of the highway on the map and immediately contacted emergency services to get the relevant authorities involved.

The story was first broken out by the San Bernardino County Fire Department in a Facebook post. The woman had sustained severe injuries and had spent the night in the vehicle following the crash. Firefighter paramedics had to use advanced life support interventions and a rope system to retrieve the injured woman. Unlike the Crash Detection and Satellite SOS features, almost every iPhone universally supports the Find My feature. So another life was saved thanks by an Apple product.

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Apple Crash Detection feature announced: what it is, how it works, and more

Viraj Gawde — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 12:33:41 +0000

At last night’s ‘Far Out’ event, Apple unveiled its much anticipated flagship iPhone 14 lineup. The Cupertino-based brand also launched the Watch Series 8. Additionally, the company also introduced a new feature called Crash Detection for the newly announced devices. Apple says that it hopes that users will not need the feature but it should make them feel a little safer when they are travelling by car. Notably, Google has been offering car crash detection for some time on its Pixel smartphones.

The Crash Detection feature is a new Emergency function that can save the users lives in case of a car crash. Driving on the road is unpredictable and dangerous at times. Apple’s latest Watch Series 8 and the iPhone 14 lineup are capable of detecting the impact of a car crash and after 10 seconds, the feature will automatically notify the user’s emergency contact and provide them with the current location. It’s worth noting that the function only works when the user is driving.

For those wondering how the Crash Detection feature works, both the Watch Series 8 and the iPhone 14 lineup come equipped with two new motion sensors – an improved 3-axis gyroscope and a high-G-force accelerometer. The latter can measure up to 256 G’s and it has four times faster sampling rate of over 3,000 times a second. Apple has also built an advanced sensor algorithm to accurately enable the feature. In addition to the motion sensor, the Crash Detection also barometer, GPS, and microphone on a paired iPhone to detect whether a severe crash has taken place. All this enables to detect the precise moment of impact.

When a severe crash has taken place, the emergency services interface will appear on the Apple Watch Series 8 as well as the iPhone 14 series. Apple says that the emergency function can detect crashes in cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks. It also focuses on four types of crashes including front impact, side impact, rear-ends collision, and rollovers. The feature runs and processes data only while driving and around the time of a possible accident. Additionally, Apple does not collect the data and it stays on the device.

In the announcement, Apple said that it has studied vehicle impacts at state-of-the-art crash test labs for years and that its algorithm has been trained on over 1 million hours of real-world driving and crash data.

Apple iPhones could soon feature a crash detection feature: Report

Sean — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 08:54:47 +0000

Apple might be planning on bringing a new feature to its iPhones and its Watches. A new report has suggested that its smartphone and smartwatch could soon have a car crash detection feature that would notify authorities like the police or possibly even an ambulance.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Cupertino based giant is working on a feature that automatically calls 911 when it detects a car crash. The Google Personal Safety app on Pixel devices is a similar feature, while modern cars also offer a connected car services as well. This includes GM’s OnStar, Subaru’s Starlink, and Fiat Chrysler’s Uconnect. In other words, while certain modern vehicles does offer such a feature, iPhones getting car crash detection would allow more drivers to get help immediately.

Notably, CarPlay is already a in vehicle system from the brand that can be found in a number of new cars, especially in the US. So Apple could very well be building this new feature that will work with its car system and the iPhones to detect car crashes. Keep in mind that this is still an unconfirmed report so take it with a pinch of salt for now. Although, considering how the company has had years to collect data and analytics from its iOS and watchOS users, its crash detection feature might be quite accurate and save a lot of lives.