iPhone 14 mistakes rollercoaster ride for car crash and calls emergency services

The new iPhone 14 models that were released last month have a bunch of new technology and sensors installed that improve the safety of the user. They can detect when the user has been in a car crash and automatically call emergency services, something the user might be unable to do in such a situation.

This new feature has aroused curiosity among enthusiasts, who, in turn, have run tests to check whether it works by creating a similar situation to a car crash. The results were inconsistent, with some of them being detected and triggering an emergency call, and some not.

However, in a non-controlled environment, the iPhone 14 should not call emergency services without a real crash, which unfortunately occurred during a rollercoaster ride.

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iPhone 14 uses various sensors to detect a car crash before calling the emergency services

The sensors that the iPhone uses to detect a crash include a microphone to detect screams and loud noises such as an impact, motion sensors to detect sudden changes in motion, a barometer that detects changes in air pressure, GPS readings to detect whether the user is still in a moving vehicle, and CarPlay and Bluetooth status to confirm whether the user is in a vehicle.

With all of the sensors working together to confirm a car crash, one would expect it to never go wrong and only trigger during a real accident. Well, in an amusement park outside Cincinnati, Ohio, a wrong call was made by a two-day-old iPhone 14.

The iPhone was kept safe in a fanny pack during the rollercoaster ride, which went up to 50 mph and was more than 100 feet high. After the user got off and checked their iPhone, they were greeted with multiple missed calls and voice mails from an emergency dispatcher asking if they were alright.

Moreover, a police team was dispatched to the area to locate an emergency. The user called back the emergency services too late to let them know that everything was fine.

Such instances of false alarms by the iPhone 14 make it unreliable and also a huge inconvenience for emergency services as workers will be dispatched for nothing.

As more and more people buy the iPhone 14 and Apple Watch Series 8, the number of accidental emergency calls made will only increase. However, the devices have a warning screen for 10 seconds before a call is made, all while a loud alarm sound is being played.

There have been recorded instances where the feature has worked perfectly and emergency services have been called in when the user passed out from the impact of the crash. Still, false alarms reduce the trust of emergency workers in automated calls made by an iPhone 14, and Apple should work on a software update to improve the Car Crash Detection feature.