from the I-haven't-fallen-and-I-can-get-up dept.
Roller coasters are triggering iPhone 14's Crash Detection feature:
One of the iPhone 14 and Apple Watch Series 8's newest features is the new Crash Detection function, which can detect whether the user had been in "a severe car crash." While it has been reported that this feature had not worked when a person was hit by another car while parked, a report by The Wall Street Journal shows that some iPhone users had this feature activated while on a roller coaster.
The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern reports that the iPhone 14 Crash Detection feature was triggered by at least six different iPhone users while they were on a roller coaster ride at Kings Island rides.
[...] When Crash Detection is triggered, it shows a warning on the screen for ten seconds, then it starts a ten-second countdown accompanied by an alarm sound. After that, the phone calls 911 and an automatic message says that "the owner of this iPhone was in a severe car crash and is not responding to their phone" with the location of the accident.
[...] While at first, it could sound like just a little error from the iPhone algorithm, it's actually a problem for 911, which is sending teams to rescue people that are not in a "severe car crash." In addition to that, the Wall Street Journal reports that this function also sends an emergency alert to the user's emergency contacts, making them worry about the person that is actually fine.
[...] Apple's spokesman said that "the technology provides peace of mind, and Apple will continue to improve it over time." While the company doesn't acknowledge a system update to minimize these errors, the best is to avoid riding roller coasters with a brand-new iPhone 14.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Tuesday October 11 2022, @07:03AM (1 child)
Or... turn off crash detection for the time of the ride. Is it so hard to configure software that the best advice to give is to pass up on a particular activity to avoid conflicting with an annoying piece of code that doesn't like it?
Or (if people really are that lazy), Apple should implements geofences in which crash detection is automatically turned off - as in, you're unlikely to be involved in a car crash in the middle of an amusement park. It could be something as simple as the cell phone not being anywhere near a road.
Or don't buy an iPhone. Yeah it's a silly piece of advice, but it's not any sillier than telling people to avoid riding roller coasters with an iPhone.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Tuesday October 11 2022, @07:19AM
As an iPhone owner I have to say the user experience is pretty bad. Things that obviously should be tweakable aren't. Features that obviously should be present, aren't. The voice assistant does not assist.
Unfortunately I consider the overall Android experience to be even worse.
I miss my Windows Phone and Cortana in particular. It was easily the best* of the three in my view.
*) Not implying that either is actually good.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Tuesday October 11 2022, @10:18AM (2 children)
This is just a brain-dead stupid "feature", but perfectly illustrates how marketing brainwashes people in to thinking it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.
So some stupid little impact sensor is supposed to magically know what is going on in the world around it and make an important decision like calling 911 all on it's own? Really? I'd probably trust a car calling 911 more that a fucking phone because at least the car could detect damage and over a certain threshold massive deceleration IN A CAR would be a very bad thing regardless. Not that I'd ever want either watching me like that. Creepy tech is creepy.
But no, smart phones are magical and can do anything, and we have to have them do everything for us. There is a crapp for that! I'd hope Apple covers the bill for all those false 911 calls, and is liable when the feature doesn't work in an actual crash. Heck, where I normally drive if I crashed, I'd expect police would be all over it even if no one called 911. Pointless.
iPhone tossing contest, anyone? :)
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Tuesday October 11 2022, @11:24AM (1 child)
They do - and so do you: it's called taxes.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Tuesday October 11 2022, @01:08PM
I remember reading a few years ago that Google was looking into where all the false 911 calls were coming from and it turned out that a massive number of them were from Android phones. It's not surprising to me as you weren't allowed to disable the ability to call 911 from the lock screen and even putting the phone into airplane mode wasn't sufficient to prevent it from calling for emergency services. I do get that there is a need in some cases to get through to emergency services quickly, but when double digits percent of the calls to 911 are butt dials, that is a massive problem. I remember when my parents got their first cellphone in the late '90s it was possible to lock the keypad specifically so that you couldn't butt dial 911, but on a lot of phones it's not even possible to lock the keypad in any meaningful way as the buttons that you would need to unlock the screen are no longer there. The early iPhones even had an actual physical switch to put the thing into airplane mode so that you didn't even need to turn it on.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Tuesday October 11 2022, @10:41AM (3 children)
So they have to put in that it's an IPHONE even in a potential message of life and death? They couldn't just say that it's a phone or device of some nondescript version. Or cut that part out. Always be branding! Is it so that the emergency service people know they are saving a fellow Apple person instead of one those low class Android people? In that case they can instead take their sweet time in getting there or ignore the call.
I'm not saying it's not a good idea in general, but a bad idea I guess when it comes to amusement parks and roller coasters in particular, but why do they have to basically but a branding commercial in the message, why can't the function be turned off or tweaked.
Even if I was in a severe car crash (or massive roller coaster accident or whatever else can trigger it -- perhaps I just got angry with my iphone and tossed it over a cliff) I don't want my phone to start snitching on me and calling other people to tell them. What will they do about it? All that generates is more traffic and more problems. If the phone has already summoned help by calling 911 (or similar in other countries) why is it calling other people. Are those people nearby and can get there faster then the emergency services?
Also is it really a new feature? I have this memory that this have been talked about here previously.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Tuesday October 11 2022, @11:26AM (1 child)
Yeah, so coppers in the deep south have hints to decide whether the owner is worth rescuing.
(Score: 5, Funny) by looorg on Tuesday October 11 2022, @11:47AM
If they are cops in the deep south won't they get the call from the iphone telling them that their sister/cousin/wife (possibly the same person all in one) was in an accident when the phone starts to call up all the emergency contacts after it notified 911?
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Tuesday October 11 2022, @01:11PM
It's worth noting that most of the ways that people would commonly write cell phone are actually longer than iPhone, or are much less common in use. That, or they don't adequately communicate what the device is that's contacting them.
I'm sure there is some benefit to the marketing angle, but I wouldn't necessarily assume that it's the only reason why they worked the name of the product into the message.
(Score: 2) by Deeo Kain on Tuesday October 11 2022, @06:20PM
I'd actually say that the best is to avoid Apple iPhone 14. Or Apple altogether.