Each year, Apple introduces new iPhone series, promising more features than the predecessors.
And in this 2022, Apple announced the iPhone 14 series. While the phones look similar to older iPhones, unless its the Pro versions which have the Dynamic Island, the phones pack a better camera, a satellite communication capability, and among others, also include a Crash Detection system.
Crash Detection is designed to detect "severe car crash", which according to Apple, includes front-impact, side-impact, and rear-end collisions, and rollovers—involving sedans, minivans, SUVs, pickup trucks, and other passenger cars.
When an iPhone 14 series detect "a severe car crash," the phone can sound an alarm and display an alert.
And because Apple knows that during accidents, users may be immobilized or in shock, the phone can automatically call emergency services for help.
Here, a bug apparently made Crash Detection to consider a rollercoaster ride a life-and-death incident worth reporting.
The Crash Detection, which is a feature embedded to the the iPhone 14 series and some Apple Watch versions, reportedly caused problems when the phones repeated registered false-positives when users ride rollercoasters, and made multiple calls to emergency services.
The Warren County Communications Center has been the recipient of a number of iPhone crash-detection calls, all since the iPhone 14 went on sale in September.
According to the center, a number of them were caused by passengers of rollercoasters at the Kings Island amusement park near Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S..
Kings Island has collection of thrill rides. And apparently, sufficient change in momentum and severe, fast movement was triggering Crash Detection.
"The owner of this iPhone was in a severe car crash and is not responding to their phone," an automated voice said in a call to 911, before also providing longitude and latitude coordinates.
In a short recording that the feature also provides, screams (of people riding rollercoasters) could be heard.
Emergency services who thought that the calls were life-threatening incidents, responded by dispatching a team to the park.
But when they got there, they didn't see any such incident.
The park was lively with so many pleased people, and no crash whatsoever.
This isn't just happening at Kings Island.
The website Coaster101.com reported that other amusement parks, like the Dollywood and Six Flags Great America, have posted warning signs at their most high-octane rides.
"Cell phones and other devices should not be brought aboard any attraction," the signs read. "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."
The Crash Detection feature uses onboard sensors that include a gyroscope and accelerometer, and an AI that has been trained on crash data to detect whether or not its user is involved with a car accident.
What happened here was that, the devices misinterpreting ride movements and noise as collisions.
While the iPhone and Apple Watch doe offer a ten-second warning before placing the call to emergency services, this may not be cancellable in time. Park visitors may not notice this alert if the ride is still in motion.
False positives happen occasionally in everyday life, and are arguably better than not being triggered at all
An Apple spokesperson responding to inquiry said that the feature is "extremely accurate in detecting severe crashes." The spokesperson added that the technology provides peace of mind, and work will continue to improve it.
