Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
If I'm in an accident I would want a fast response too, and not have to wait for reponders busy trying to help an iPhone crying wolf.

That’s not the case

Any more than the Karen’s calling the cops over their fast food order missing the fries, or the frequent fliers to the ED

Real world though, having a trauma kit and being able to at least somewhat self rescue is useful
 
  • Angry
Reactions: Shirasaki
I just turned mine off. I don't want my iPhone and Apple Watch calling 911. I'll do that if I need to do it.


2-BDFCDE0-132-C-4-BBD-92-DC-206210-BDE403.gif
 
Accidentally dialing 911 IS NOT A CRIME, please please don’t scare people into turning of safety features
Can you still call it "accidentally", if it can even be triggered by a roller coaster ride? Accidents are rare. You do things right 99.9% of the time - like driving your car to work - but sometimes accidents happen.

If emergency services are complaining, the majority of all calls seems to be false. They would not complain if their is one false call for every five legit calls. That would still mean many lives saved and emergency services would not complain. If they complain, there are likely 20 or so false calls for every legit call.
 
This is precisely why I didn't spend the extra $100 on an iPhone 14 and instead got an iPhone 13. By the time it matures, I will be totally fine moving off of an A15 Bionic based iPhone and onto something newer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: miq
If I'm in an accident I would want a fast response too, and not have to wait for reponders busy trying to help an iPhone crying wolf.

You mean an iPhone owner intentionally letting their iPhone send an emergency message when there is no emergency, and then choosing to not talk to the 911 operator responding to the call and letting them know.

Personal responsibility. Apparently a rare quality/attribute with some people.
 
Why not create a sports mode that would also detect crashes but using an adjusted algorithm?
This way, if a skier has an accident and gets covered in snow, he/she could also be saved.
That feature drives me nuts. How about a “bob the builder” mode because every time I use a hammer it triggers fall detection or a “ broadway mode” because if I applaud too excitedly at a local theater it triggers fall alert. i guess if I fall off my seat while applauding I’ll appreciate it. :) Funny part is, the one time I actually fell off a ladder while getting to the roof of my car to wash it it did NOT trigger fall mode. At my age (75) I hesitate to disable it but it is annoying. Fortunately, only one time I didn’t notice the warning and did let them know there was no issue.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Wackery
And that's the point. It's an argumentation foul to say this feature definitely saved more lives than it killed by overloading the emergency services, because you don't have and can't have all the data backing such claim. Either way can be valid.

But we can indeed prove it's saved lives. And since you can't prove that false alarm calls have cost lives, the feature should not be banned or discontinued based on a hypothetical.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: 3530025
There's a difference between making a false call and making an accidental one.
False positive call is exactly what Apple's SOS is doing. Accidental call is when you accidentally push 112 with your butt. Not when you program your device to automatically call 112. This is also why IT IS ILLEGAL to sell devices calling emergency services automatically in the Europe (not just 112, this applies to local police, firefighters etc.).

But we can indeed prove it's saved lives. And since you can't prove that false alarm calls have cost lives, the feature should not be banned or discontinued based on a hypothetical.
No, we can not prove it saved lives. Not a single case happened somewhere out of civilization when no-one could call emergency themselves without automatic Apple SOS call.

Emergency call centers can quite simply see the increase of the false positive calls after the release of this feature and they indeed know how negatively it affects the call queue. However this information is not available for public. The fact that some statistics are not available for public does not mean it did not cost some lives.
 
False positive call is exactly what Apple's SOS is doing. Accidental call is when you accidentally push 112 with your butt. Not when you program your device to automatically call 112. This is also why IT IS ILLEGAL to sell devices calling emergency services automatically in the Europe (not just 112, this applies to local police, firefighters etc.).

Let's say you mistake firecrackers for gunfire and call your country's emergency number to report what you believe to be gunfire. Is that illegal? Certainly not in the US. If it is in Europe, then that's a terrible law that needs to be changed, otherwise people will be afraid to call when there may be a true emergency. I don't know why the same wouldn't apply to automatic calling in crash-detection situations. Better safe than sorry. And it does have an audible alarm that lets you know it's about to alert emergency services.

On the other hand, calling emergency services to report your McDonald's fires are cold or as a prank SHOULD be punished.

No, we can not prove it saved lives. Not a single case happened somewhere out of civilization when no-one could call emergency themselves without automatic Apple SOS call.

Here are just two examples:



And another:

 
Last edited:
Here are just two examples:



And another:

Maybe try to actually read the articles before using them in the argument. Victims were the ones initiating the call. First two articles are actually about satellite SOS message (initiated by the victim itself). And yes, satellite emergency is a great feature and I never said a word against it. What we argue about is the automatic emergency dial.

And in all three of them victims were conscious and able to place call even without automatic call.

First two do not use automatic call at all.
 
Maybe try to actually read the articles before using them in the argument.

Thanks for the condescension, but maybe take your own advice?

From the first article:

The victims had an iPhone 14 model in the car, which triggered the Emergency SOS via Satellite after the Crash Detection feature did its job.

And from the third article:

"I was in the car fighting to stay conscious, and I heard the voice say 'Hello, are you there?" Abell said to ABC News.

But when Abell was unable to slide or move, his smartwatch automatically dialed the emergency services within 20 seconds and sent an Emergency alert with location to first responders. And within minutes the emergency medical services were able to reach the accident spot and saved Abell's life.

If you insist on continuing to be cynical, that's on you. I'm done responding to you. Good day.
 
Thanks for the condescension, but maybe take your own advice?

From the first article:



And from the third article:



If you insist on continuing to be cynical, that's on you. I'm done responding to you. Good day.
From your own article:
The victims used the feature to send a text message to Apple's relay centers, which eventually got in touch with the LA County Sheriff's department.

And to even further confirm this I searched for other sites covering this exact case:
Fortunately, the pair inside, a man and woman in their 20s, had mild to moderate injuries and could pull themselves from the vehicle.
According to a Twitter thread by the Montrose Search & Rescue Team, the victims had no cellular service in the canyon. Using their iPhone 14's Emergency SOS via Satellite, they contacted one of Apple's emergency call centers via text.

Source: https://appleinsider.com/articles/2...cue-feature-prompts-challenging-canyon-rescue

Sorry but no. I'm still right. Still no automatic call which would've saved unconscious who otherwise couldn't call help himself. They were clearly conscious and able to call the help themselves. Just like in the last article where iPhone actually did call automatically yet the victim was conscious and could've call the help himself if such feature would not exist.

So clearly still no saved life count. My point stands.
 
Last edited:
Let's say you mistake firecrackers for gunfire and call your country's emergency number to report what you believe to be gunfire. Is that illegal? Certainly not in the US. If it is in Europe, then that's a terrible law that needs to be changed, otherwise people will be afraid to call when there may be a true emergency. I don't know why the same wouldn't apply to automatic calling in crash-detection situations. Better safe than sorry. And it does have an audible alarm that lets you know it's about to alert emergency services.
No, people are not afraid to call emergency services in the Europe. I think you did no read my previous messages correctly. It's okay to call emergency services mistakenly. But you have to make the call manually. It's illegal to create those calls automatically. And that's totally all right.

It's not okay to program your alarm to call cops automatically, that's what private security services are for. Same applies for other emergency services. Yes, better safe than sorry. Better to have your emergency verified by human than have local emergency services overloaded with your broken personal device which creates automatic calls by mistake. (which current iPhones are doing)
 
Last edited:
Just standard 911 expectations. The same is true if you accidentally dial 911. You should wait for them to answer then explain it was an accidental call. Otherwise, they will assume you're in need of help and the phone died or someone attacking you forced you to hang it up. So they'll respond accordingly. That's a bigger waste of resources than a few seconds on the phone letting them know.
Accidentally dialing 911 is very different to automatically dialing 911. One is a human instigated accident, the other a software bug.
 
Can you still call it "accidentally", if it can even be triggered by a roller coaster ride? Accidents are rare. You do things right 99.9% of the time - like driving your car to work - but sometimes accidents happen.

If emergency services are complaining, the majority of all calls seems to be false. They would not complain if their is one false call for every five legit calls. That would still mean many lives saved and emergency services would not complain. If they complain, there are likely 20 or so false calls for every legit call.

Define emergency services?

Dispatchers are some of the most dysfunctional and separated from logic people you’ll find

That’s as someone who worked EMS
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.