Apple Responds to Yet Another Report About iPhone 14's Crash Detection Feature Triggering False 911 Calls

[MacRumors]

Emergency dispatchers continue to raise awareness about Apple's Crash Detection feature causing an influx of false 911 calls from skiers and snowboarders.

Crash Detection launched last year for all iPhone 14 models and the latest Apple Watch models, including the Series 8, Ultra, and second-generation SE. The feature is designed to detect a severe car crash and automatically call emergency services if a user does not respond to the device within 20 seconds, but it appears that iPhones and Apple Watches sometimes mistake a skier or snowboarder taking a tumble as a car crash.

A report from The New York Times today focused on Colorado's Summit County, where several ski resorts are located. There, a dispatcher and a police officer complained that responding to false 911 calls triggered by iPhones and Apple Watches has been a time-consuming task and threatens to divert resources away from legitimate emergencies.

The report quotes dispatcher Trina Dummer:

"My whole day is managing crash notifications," said Trina Dummer, interim director of Summit County'’s emergency services, which received 185 such calls in the week from Jan. 13 to Jan. 22. (In winters past, the typical call volume on a busy day was roughly half that.) Ms. Dummer said that the onslaught was threatening to desensitize dispatchers and divert limited resources from true emergencies.

Mark Watson, a sergeant with the local sheriff's office, also said the situation is impacting his ability to carry out his duties effectively.

In response to the report, an Apple spokesperson said the company is "aware that in some specific scenarios these features have triggered emergency services when a user didn't experience a severe car crash or hard fall." The spokesperson noted that Apple optimized Crash Detection with iOS 16.1.2 and watchOS 9.2 last year to reduce the number of false calls, and said the feature has "already contributed to saving several lives."

The report notes that Apple also sent four representatives to the Summit County call center to observe Dummer and her team for a day.

There have been several reports about the issue in other skiing areas like Colorado, Utah, New York, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and British Columbia, Canada since Apple introduced the feature last year. It's unclear if the optimizations that Apple made have led to a reduction in false 911 calls from skiers and snowboarders; in any case, it will likely take some time before all users update their iPhone or Apple Watch to the latest software versions. It's also unclear if Apple plans to make any further optimizations.

When a severe car crash is detected, the iPhone or Apple Watch displays an alert, which users have 10 seconds to act on. If the user is unresponsive, the device begins another 10-second countdown while sounding an alarm and aggressively vibrating or tapping, and then calls emergency services if the user remains unresponsive. But since skiers often wear thick outerwear, some are unaware when the feature is triggered.

Apple says the feature relies on sensors like the accelerometer and gyroscope in the iPhone and Apple Watch, along with "advanced Apple-designed motion algorithms trained with over a million hours of real-world driving and crash record data" for increased accuracy.

Apple did not respond to our request for comment.

Article Link: Apple Responds to Yet Another Report About iPhone 14's Crash Detection Feature Triggering False 911 Calls

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

The spokesperson noted that Apple optimized Crash Detection with iOS 16.1.2 and watchOS 9.2 last year to reduce the number of false calls, and said the feature has "already contributed to saving several lives."

Cringey 'my Apple watch saved me in a car wreck' keynote video confirmed.


A broken clock is right twice a day.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Dang! This backfired very badly. The good thing is ❄️ Winter is on its way to being over. So the crash detection feature won't be needed as much 😇

 

[russell_314]

Cringy 'my Apple watch saved me in a car wreck' keynote video confirmed.


A broken clock is right twice a day.

It's not cringy or cringey. People hate on Apple for everything they do, but the Apple Watch has saved many lives. I'm sure the people that are here today because of their Apple Watch wouldn't think it's cringey. My Apple Watch alerted me to a medical condition where I needed emergency treatment. I can't say for sure it saved my life because I don't have an alternate person to test the other outcome but it sure helped me. I appreciate what Apple has done with the watch and I wear mine all the time!

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

It's not cringy or cringey. People hate on Apple for everything they do, but the Apple Watch has saved many lives. I'm sure the people that are here today because of their Apple Watch wouldn't think it's cringey. My Apple Watch alearted me to a medical condition where I needed emergency treatment. I can't say for sure it saved my life because I don't have an alternate person to test the other outcome but it sure helped me. I appreciate what Apple has done with the watch and I wear mine all the time!

I think Apple needs more time to research (R&D and test this feature more properly. Instead of just using car crashes as an example they need to test them on other things such as roller coasters, snowboarding, skiing, and so on.

 

[BeerDrinkerDan]

Dang! This backfired very badly. The good thing is ❄️ Winter is on its way to being over. So the crash detection feature won't be needed as much 😇

Cue the reports from water-skiers and wake-boarders!

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

It's not cringy or cringey. People hate on Apple for everything they do, but the Apple Watch has saved many lives. I'm sure the people that are here today because of their Apple Watch wouldn't think it's cringey. My Apple Watch alerted me to a medical condition where I needed emergency treatment. I can't say for sure it saved my life because I don't have an alternate person to test the other outcome but it sure helped me. I appreciate what Apple has done with the watch and I wear mine all the time!

The emergency services are on record saying that this feature is acting as a disruption to them saving lives.

 

[Lufthound]

It's not optimal, but a fair price for saving a life

 

[Realityck]

Crash Detection launched last year for all iPhone 14 models and the latest Apple Watch models, including the Series 8, Ultra, and second-generation SE. The feature is designed to detect a severe car crash and automatically call emergency services if a user does not respond to the device within 20 seconds, but it appears that iPhones and Apple Watches sometimes mistake a skier or snowboarder taking a tumble as a car crash.

A report from The New York Times today focused on Colorado's Summit County, where several ski resorts are located. There, a dispatcher and a police officer complained that responding to false 911 calls triggered by iPhones and Apple Watches has been a time-consuming task and threatens to divert resources away from legitimate emergencies.

Apple has a big problem, in which it designed a useful function but didn't consider all situations where it might create false positives.

 

[tonie walker]

…probably Apple did not test the feature in these scenario prior to release. They might be improving the algorithm at this stage but not enough data to be reliable.

 

[topdrawer]

It's not cringy or cringey. People hate on Apple for everything they do, but the Apple Watch has saved many lives. I'm sure the people that are here today because of their Apple Watch wouldn't think it's cringey. My Apple Watch alerted me to a medical condition where I needed emergency treatment. I can't say for sure it saved my life because I don't have an alternate person to test the other outcome but it sure helped me. I appreciate what Apple has done with the watch and I wear mine all the time!

do we have numbers on when the watch alerted emergency help that the user wouldn't have been able to do it themselves? or a bystander for that matter?

 

[dannyyankou]

Dang! This backfired very badly. The good thing is ❄️ Winter is on its way to being over. So the crash detection feature won't be needed as much 😇

Wait until the theme parks open...

 

[paradox00]

There’s a simple fix Apple could implement easily. It could just wait 30 seconds and see if the person starts moving on gps again before making the call. Or make the call then cancel it if the person is in motion.

 

[Jdalbo]

My whole day is managing crash notifications," I call BS. ALL DAY?? lets see there is 60 minutes in an hour. How many people with apple products are skiing and CRASHING hard enough to trigger. ALL DAY??? And everyone is deaf and can't hear or feel on their wrists the alarm. Apple is doing it right. Go there and watch I bet its not ALL Day!! Drama Queen.

 

[masotime]

I do a lot of snowboarding and this doesn't surprise me at all.

I believe the way the crash detection works is it assumes you are in a car if you are traveling > 20mph, and assumes a crash if you come to a sudden stop for whatever reason.

The problem is that on the ski slopes it is a very common to be going > 20mph and suddenly coming to a stop due to falls. Some of these could be genuine bad crashes on the slopes, but in the western US (California, Utah, Colorado), there's been a lot of snowfall recently. The ground is soft with all that excess snow and which consequently makes skiers / snowboarders more reckless (or otherwise just fall because they don't know how to ski / ride in powder). End result is a lot more "crashes" detected.

Probably the simplest solution is to just disable the alert if the user is in a known inbounds ski area via geofencing. Alternatively, a delay could work by waiting to see if the user starts moving again after a minute or so - and register a call if the user doesn't.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Apple has a big problem, in which it designed a useful function but didn't consider all situations where it might create false positives.

That’s why the engineers at Apple who designed this feature should not be allowed to work from home. They need to report to the Apple Campus and work on this feature in person and physically. ⭕️

 

[DogHouseDub]

Options
1. Default to crash detection disabled
2. Watch uses gps to disable crash detection when wearer is at ski slope
3. Leave it as is and remind the users to disable manually when skiing

 

[russell_314]

do we have numbers on when the watch alerted emergency help that the user wouldn't have been able to do it themselves? or a bystander for that matter?

If you're talking about the car crash detection, no it's just came out. The body count isn't out yet, sorry dude. There is a such thing as a crashes that are serious enough where someone is unable to call for help. Over 30.000 people in the USA alone died in car crashes in 2022. Those crashes were severe enough that this could have been useful. When you're dying in a car I'm sure you'll appreciate first responders getting there a few minutes sooner.

I was mainly referring to the other features that have saved multiple lives where the user is unaware of a problem.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

I wonder if a possible solution might be to use location to detect if the user is at a ski slope (or amusement park), and react accordingly.

Seems odd that these these venues wouldn’t have already posted signs and imposed restrictions on having the feature on while engaging in these activities. This would probably eliminate 99% of the problems, because I can’t imagine why someone would intentionally want emergency services called for nothing.

Maybe another solution would be a message popping up on the device saying that crash detection is off while they are at a specific location. To override this, the user would have to go into settings and choose to do so in each instance. This wouldn’t eliminate the issue completely, but it should help. I just don’t see how they can adjust the algorithm without negatively impacting the real usefulness of the crash detection function.

 

[russell_314]

Options
1. Default to crash detection disabled

This would not work because most people don't think to change a default. That's like having a device where the default setting is unsafe

2. Watch uses gps to disable crash detection when wearer is at ski slope

I think this is the answer. It's new so these bugs will get ironed out. When the iPhone first did the emergency dial feature there were lots of pocket dials till Apple fixed it. I expect this is going to be the same way.

3. Leave it as is and remind the users to disable manually when skiing

People don't pay attention to notifications.

 

[Realityck]

…probably Apple did not test the feature in these scenario prior to release. They might be improving the algorithm at this stage but not enough data to be reliable.

In a way this reminds me of trusting technology too much, example an autonomous car needs a human to resolve situations that it might get wrong. Apple was doing fine with the health monitoring/emergency assistance with the Apple watch, but the crash algorithms are tripped in too many non-accident situations. Just think of someone wearing a watch on a roller coaster.

 

[paradox00]

It's not optimal, but a fair price for saving a life

Can also cost a life if emergency responders are responding to a false alarm and are unavailable for the real emergency.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

Can also cost a life if emergency responders are responding to a false alarm and are unavailable for the real emergency.

Yep, there were similar complaints about the ECG feature on the watch.

The Apple Watch heart monitor sends too many people to the doctor

False positives can be expensive

www.theverge.com

 

[Timster83]

I came off a rollercoaster a few years back to discover that my watch had triggered fall detection protocol.

My emergency contacts all got an emergency notification, my watch had called emergency services and I had a missed call from a local number (presumably police or similar).

It’s a great idea in theory, but if Apple can’t sort it and quick then as the responder says, the staff will become desensitised and the initiative will unfortunately crash and burn.

 

[The Cappy]

The unfortunate thing is that solving this problem will probably also lower the watch's ability to detect genuine crashes. Last Summer (or maybe it was the one before that), my watch tried to call 911 for a fall after I slapped a mosquito. I was able to stop it before it made the call. But sometimes two things just look alike to a watch.