Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Maybe they'll be able to geolocate and say "That car crash is on a ski slope, so nope."
The problem with that idea is that plenty of people don't just ski at ski resorts. Backcountry skiing has become hugely popular, so there's really no way to just isolate ski resorts and ignore those calls.
 
  • Like
Reactions: NetMage
If it disrupts first response services, and if we really want to play "but it can save lives" card, let's not push it until some lives are lost because first reponders were busy checking false-positive calls made by this sort of half-baked feature.

They simply should turn this off by default and put a warning on it until it ready to perform as expected.
I feel like this is something where users need to take some responsibility. The feature should definitely be off my default. Emergency services should charge for false positives.
 
While I agree with you on principle, when you're skiing it's probably a lot harder not only to respond to the Watch, but to even feel it. You're pretty bundled up when skiing, so it wouldn't shock me if you don't even feel the watch vibrating (and extremely unlikely you'd hear it). Even if you feeling it vibrating, but the time you unbundle yourself it may be too late to prevent the 911 call.

I can definitely feel it vibrating - and it's not that hard to shuffle my sleeve down to view the Watch. Interacting with it is another matter - you would have to take off your gloves or hope the oversized fingers with capacitive tips are precise enough....
 
  • Like
Reactions: NetMage and noraa
Apple can resolve this issue by simply renaming it Ski and Roller Coaster Detection.

Hire me Apple.
 
"the two or three lives that were purportedly saved by an Apple watch," are you really serious? If this is the most intelligent argument you can come up with against this feature...

Comparing me having a medical emergency to getting money on bitcoin? I can't even entertain this level of stupidity.🤦‍♂️
You missed the point (well, hopefully you missed the point. The alternative would be worse but not unexpected).

Your story is an anecdote and such anecdotes suffer from survivor's bias. There are many types of situations where we hear the stories of one or two people who struck gold or were saved or.. whatever.. even though the same situation may have caused much more damage to many more people. This is what makes your story similar to Bitcoin millionaires' stories.
 
Apple has to determine the false positive rate. Decreasing it will likely increase the false negative rate and miss real crashes. The overlap with skiiing may be enough that apple needs to shut it off in certain contexts. These are tough decisions without easy tradeoffs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: NetMage
Obviously WWDC will debut the iSki that seamlessly integrates with the fall detection and turns it off whilst on the slopes. 😁




Which might be a problem if you actually have a skiing accident🧐
 
You missed the point (well, hopefully you missed the point. The alternative would be worse but not unexpected).

Your story is an anecdote and such anecdotes suffer from survivor's bias. There are many types of situations where we hear the stories of one or two people who struck gold or were saved or.. whatever.. even though the same situation may have caused much more damage to many more people. This is what makes your story similar to Bitcoin millionaires' stories.
OK since you're sort of giving me an intelligent argument, please give me a list of people or number people who died from or because of the Apple Watch and some sources. I can do this with bitcoin and that's your argument, so let's see you show any factual basis to this argument. They should be very simple if your argument has any basis in reality
 
This response from Apple is another example of their wretched communications efforts of late. Yes, you have identified some accurate emergencies, but if you're badgering emergency operators with unneeded calls worldwide, that's a big problem.

If these are the kinds of features Apple is going to release going forward, they need to step up their release cadence, issue rapid fixes, and just overall start acting more responsibly.
 
I feel like this is something where users need to take some responsibility. The feature should definitely be off my default. Emergency services should charge for false positives.
So you want it to be a feature that will only save the lives of rich jerks? Users have nowhere near enough information to predict the consequences of enabling this, so all you’re going to achieve is filtering people by their personality types.
 
  • Love
Reactions: compwiz1202
This will become like car alarms. Everyone hears them but everyone just assumes it’s a false alarm until there is really an emergency and no one believes it.

Anyway, this feature should only be enabled in combination with the driving focus mode

Also, what the heck is that condescending entitled response from Apple. Gross
 
Last edited:
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.
Agree, simple geofencing update with suggested action (a la "it looks like you are taking a walk" activity prompts) could solve this.
 
It's almost like they rushed this functionality out without testing it or thinking about it just to put a "new feature" in an iPhone to make it seem like it was different from the previous years and not just part of their great recycling program.
 
Sorry but Apple should roll this option back, and own any damage that has already been done. It's costing already-strained 911 response centers valuable time and resources. Enough w/ feel-good anecdotal stories about how one life was saved here and there, and how amazing this tech has been. Counties, townships are paying a real price for this poorly tested, flawed feature that's enabled by default. A THIRD of all calls are false positives?! Are you f'n kidding me? This is unacceptable. Shut it down.
 
That kinda goes with my point then. Why even wear it if you can do nothing but ignore it?

Because even when skiing/snowboarding it's useful to have a watch? Maybe you want to track a workout? it's not just the watch since all iPhone 14s have crash detection too.

When you're skiing you're not permanently on the slope. You take breaks, have lunch, snacks, use the lifts etc etc etc. There's plenty of scenarios where you have access to your watch or your phone -- just not right when you're going down a slope in a tumble or immediately afterwards.

Additionally, cancelling an emergency call from your watch might not be the first priority after you've fallen down. The first priority after a fall you can walk away from is to check whether you're in an unsafe position, whether you're on obstacle and how likely it is that your immediate situation will get indefinitely worse because someone crashes into you. Only then would I check my watch.
 
Absolutely absurd that this wasn’t tested more throughly. There should be ZERO false positives.

The thing is, this isn’t a bug. The system is working exactly as it was designed. Apple created a dumb feature to try to add value to a product that essentially plateaued five years ago.

False positives are putting MORE strain on already overburdened resources, often in rural areas. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to learn that this half-baked crash detection is costing lives.
 
So you want it to be a feature that will only save the lives of rich jerks? Users have nowhere near enough information to predict the consequences of enabling this, so all you’re going to achieve is filtering people by their personality types.
I don't agree. If you go skiing, you turn it off. If you go to the amusement park, you turn it off. If you forget to do that and you trigger a false positive, you pay a fine. You'll remember to turn it off next time.

If you don't want to charge the user, then charge the company who makes the product. Public emergency services shouldn't just have to deal with it and we, the public, shouldn't have to pay for it because that's exactly what will happen. Emergency services budgets will increase and those costs get passed on to the taxpayer while precious Apple maintains its 40% margin. No way. That should not be tolerated. Apple designed a flawed feature and there needs to be accountability.
 
  • Like
  • Disagree
Reactions: NetMage and zubikov
I don't agree. If you go skiing, you turn it off. If you go to the amusement park, you turn it off. If you forget to do that and you trigger a false positive, you pay a fine. You'll remember to turn it off next time.

If you don't want to charge the user, then charge the company who makes the product. Public emergency services shouldn't just have to deal with it and we, the public, shouldn't have to pay for it because that's exactly what will happen. Emergency services budgets will increase and those costs get passed on to the taxpayer while precious Apple maintains its 40% margin. No way. That should not be tolerated. Apple designed a flawed feature and there needs to be accountability.

Nah. How many people own an iPhone and don't even know this feature exists?
 
  • Like
Reactions: paradox00
It should be enabled only when Carplay is enabled. Sure, it would drastically cut down on the settings in which the feature is available, but at least then it will serve is purpose.

Driving focus isn’t sufficient. The iPhone and Watch get that wrong all the time as well.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: NetMage
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.