During the Christmas season and into the beginning of the year, emergency services, especially in the United States, had a lot of unnecessary work because the new vehicle accident detection in the four models of the iPhone 14, Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch Ultra It has failed . The problem has existed for several months, despite the fact that the manufacturer had already optimized the algorithm with an update. But apparently that wasn’t enough.
Stressful ski weekend for rescuers
So reported a local Colorado newspaper of 71 false alarms in just one weekend. What they had in common was that they were activated by people who were on skis and not by a vehicle that was in an accident. According to the head of the emergency call center, robocalls to the emergency number – in the US this is “911” – could not be ignored. “It’s not our habit to ignore calls.” The 911 calls required “an enormous amount of resources, from the dispatcher to the deputy sheriff to the ski patrols.” Worse, he doesn’t believe “that we’ve ever had a real emergency.”
There had previously been reports of roller coaster users in amusement parks where the crash detection feature was unwanted. However, they have long been advised to hand in their smartphones in advance. It’s unclear what exactly causes incident detection to give false alarms, especially on ski slopes. The algorithm can interpret fast descents as car trips. In addition to accident detection, the fall detection of the Apple Watch, which has been available for several years, also ensures unwanted emergency calls.
The user can intervene
In reality, users can still intervene before help is actually alerted: the clock or the iPhone shows a countdown that can be canceled. However, this is seemingly ignored or ignored. In this case, an automated call is made which provides the authorities with the geographical coordinates of the “victim”. Rescuers in Colorado are unnerved because they now have to devote resources to events that pose no threat, while actual victims could be reached later.
Other regions in the US are reporting similar issues. Apple has not yet commented on this, but has been notified. “We spoke to Apple this fall and they let us know that they are aware of the issue and are working on a fix they plan to release in the first quarter of 2023,” a rescue coordinator told the Colorado Sun.
(bsc)
