Apple's Elk Grove Repair Facility Makes ~20 Accidental 911 Calls a Day

[td2243]

My mom did it about 30 seconds after the Verizon person handed her New phone.

 

[elpamyelhsa]

How would the repair facility be activating this and not realizing it?

The way to restart an iPhone 7 or newer is to hold both buttons, this means keep holding it past the emergency noise and call. I think Apple forgot to allow for a restart when they designed this feature.l and now us techs are left making emergency calls even without a SIM card.

 

[s15119]

The ignorance with this one is strong. If you don't know the difference between monitored alarms going off and contacting an alarm company's dispatch (who may in fact reach out to the police) vs accidentally dialing 911, log off and go educate yourself.

Your insult changed my mind. Grow up.

 

[fischersd]

+1 for blocking the signal in the lab - or, if they really need to have the call connected for the testing, get the carriers to put mobile base stations permanently in their lab and have the calls terminated to an IVR that Apple pays for (could just be an asterisk box playing a message).

Get the FCC to fine Apple for this and see how quickly they fix it.

 

[smoledman]

Trust me... Apple is possessed by negligence. What a huge pile of garbage that company is. One of my best friends works there as a manager of whatever. He is actually the one who oversees the entire OS and iOS interfaces. When I talk to him, he keeps his mouth shut because he knows what I am saying is true. He is there because of the money and the reputation of the company but he knows the guts of Apple is pure garbage today.

Agreed. The only reason I use iOS is because of the apps, not the interface. Android UI is way better, but the hardware and apps are inferior.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Trust me... Apple is possessed by negligence. What a huge pile of garbage that company is. One of my best friends works there as a manager of whatever. He is actually the one who oversees the entire OS and iOS interfaces. When I talk to him, he keeps his mouth shut because he knows what I am saying is true. He is there because of the money and the reputation of the company but he knows the guts of Apple is pure garbage today.

Ok I trust you, mr anonymous Internet personality stating only subjective opinions with no specific details of anything whatsoever.

Seems sensible.

 

[npmacuser5]

Eating lunch, nice beer, iPhone rings....911 what is your emergency. None! Apple Watch dialed. Expressed my most sincere apologies and No emergency. Might need a second are you sure touch.

 

[smoledman]

Misusing emergency services is NOT COOL.

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

Weird, I've never had this happen to me. What I've had happen multiple times is accidentally initiate the SOS feature on my watch. Usually I notice and am able to stop... but one time it went through to 911 when I was fooling around with my girlfriend #awkward #truestory

 

[5105973]

I hate this feature on the Apple Watch. My 18 month old accidentally called 911 when grabbing at my watch a few months ago—and I even have the slide to call feature turned on! I apologized to the operator and she said "It happens all the time." Bad design!

When I work outside I'll often wear my Apple Watch in a case with work gloves so I can track my fitness which I get reimbursed for through my insurance at work. The case recesses the button deeper so it's harder to press but it still gets pressed all the time against my gloves when bending my wrists while working on things. That was when I changed the behavior to the swipe thing but there have been several times where I nearly activated it even without a baby grabbing at it. I wish I could just turn it off! It's such an awful design.

Last year my uncle, in his early 50s, died on his driveway by himself while wearing Apple Watch and even he couldn't activate it in time. He was very much aware of the feature and was a huge tech geek—he was instrumental in getting me interested in technology at a young age. What it really needs is heart attack/fall detection that will automatically alert a spouse or somebody so you're not just right outside your house dying on the ground with your wife and teen boys inside unaware of what is happening. That would be actually useful!

Oh my goodness that’s horrible. I’m so sorry for your family’s loss. My husband and I are at that age with enough health issues we periodically check up on each other throughout the day. He texts me when he’s at work to make sure I’m okay. My Samsung has him programmed as an emergency contact if I push down the power button three times fast. Problem is I sometimes activate the emergency dial when I’m taking a picture which is two presses on the same button. That’s why I don’t have it set to dial 911. It sends a video stream and dials my husband instead.

In a real emergency I can’t keep straight in my head all the button sequences I’m supposed to push on my iphone. It’s easier just to bring up the keypad and dial 911 myself. As far as I know I don’t have emergency services set up on my phone or my watch. I guess it’s set up by default.

 

[PictorGuy]

Hello Apple Repair Facility, let me introduce you to Mr. Faraday. He has a cage for you.

Seriously, this is almost a requirement for developing new phones and I find it hard to believe that Apple doesn't already have a room somewhere else on campus with a Faraday cage for testing new phones.

 

[ManOfMystery]

Trust me... Apple is possessed by negligence. What a huge pile of garbage that company is. One of my best friends works there as a manager of whatever. He is actually the one who oversees the entire OS and iOS interfaces. When I talk to him, he keeps his mouth shut because he knows what I am saying is true. He is there because of the money and the reputation of the company but he knows the guts of Apple is pure garbage today.

Dude, why are you even on this website. Go away.

 

[julesme]

Trust me... Apple is possessed by negligence. What a huge pile of garbage that company is. One of my best friends works there as a manager of whatever. He is actually the one who oversees the entire OS and iOS interfaces. When I talk to him, he keeps his mouth shut because he knows what I am saying is true. He is there because of the money and the reputation of the company but he knows the guts of Apple is pure garbage today.

Your friend is Craig Federighi?

 

[imationlh]

I had no clue this feature existed until I accidentally activated it one night. It was a mad scramble to cancel it before the 911 call was placed. I immediately disabled the feature after discovering that night that it existed.

 

[adamjackson]

I can relate. Since this feature was introduced, I've called 911 three times and all 3 times I was unable to hang up due to a bug.

I was riding home on my motorcycle, received a call from a tele-marketer. My bluetooth headset in my helmet automatically picks up on the 2nd ring and I'm trying to hang up and I click the power button a few times and it calls 911...but I'm wearing gloves so I can't hang up. Here's a video:

The other 2 times were unique and a very specific bug. Raise to wake has been the bane of my existence. As I dock the phone in my car which has CarPlay, the screen wakes up and twice my thumb has swiped across the screen right to left activating the camera as I dock it which sends the phone into a complete locked screen...no response at all. On two occasions I tried to reboot the phone using the old method (side button + home) but on iPhone 8, you have to click power up, then down then hold those 2 buttons. well, 911 would be called doing this the old way so now I know it's calling 911 and my screen is still not responding so I have to talk to a person and beg them to hang up on me because my phone is locked up and not responding to taps.

One day, this feature will save my life but I've spoken to 911 3 times in the last 6 months.

 

[Cycling Asia]

“Hello this 911 what’s your emergency?”

“We need better software!”

"My power button and volume buttons are stuck"...

"OK, speak to you again soon".


or Gangsta:

"Hey Siri, *** da police"
...
"This is 911..." *click*
...
"This is 911..." *click*
...
"This is 911..." *click*

 

[CarlJ]

IF you have a "friend" who works for Apple, if he keeps his mouth shut about things, it's because he's probably under a DNR, not because he agree's with your belligerent rants.

DNR = "Do Not Resuscitate" order, as seen sometimes in living wills and such. NDA = "Non-Disclosure Agreement". Perhaps you meant the latter? They're not exactly interchangeable.

 

[StevieD100]

Just think of the size of the lawsuit that would be slung at Apple if a refurb phone could not make the call when needed.
Perhaps Apple could fund an extra 911 operator or three (As a civic gesture). It would be good PR and help protect them from a whole shed load of lawsuits and bad publicity.

 

[BvizioN]

“Hello this 911 what’s your emergency?”

“We need better brain!”

Fixed for you.
[doublepost=1519368042][/doublepost]

Trust me... Apple is possessed by negligence. What a huge pile of garbage that company is. One of my best friends works there as a manager of whatever. He is actually the one who oversees the entire OS and iOS interfaces. When I talk to him, he keeps his mouth shut because he knows what I am saying is true. He is there because of the money and the reputation of the company but he knows the guts of Apple is pure garbage today. Written from my Samsung Note

Of course we trust you. You speak "the truth"
Btw, we did a little fix for you as well at the end of your little comment.

 

[Robert.Walter]

I think that not having a consistent way to trigger the 911 call on different generations of iphones is a bit stupid on Apple’s part.

This is like a carmaker not putting vital controls in a consistent location or varying the symbols.

This is an ergonomics failure.

As to the 911 issue, perhaps the tests can be made in a suitably equipped Faraday Cage like room.

 

[Spendlove]

I have done it by mistake from the watch and iPhone X!

I was in a proper panic trying to turn it off and just made it worse. Sorry Cambridgeshire Constabulary

 

[IJ Reilly]

Emergency SOS is a feature that's enabled on every iPhone and Apple Watch by default, and it can't be disabled.

Oxymoron alert.

 

[Bacillus]

"...we are working closely with local law enforcement to investigate the cause and ensure this doesn't continue."
=> PR fluff, understatement for agencies just forced to take every call - unable to do anything else than count.
[doublepost=1519371891][/doublepost]

Your friend is Craig Federighi?

Chances diminish with the minute - with all the friends he's losing

 

[iMacC2D]

Removed.

 

[Bacillus]

My mom did it about 30 seconds after the Verizon person handed her New phone.

I think that not having a consistent way to trigger the 911 call on different generations of iphones is a bit stupid on Apple’s part.
This is like a carmaker not putting vital controls in a consistent location or varying the symbols.
This is an ergonomics failure.
As to the 911 issue, perhaps the tests can be made in a suitably equipped Faraday Cage like room.

Apple service probably lost touch itself with their myriad of different button sequences across all models, for even the most common things. Or with the manual, they blew it...
[doublepost=1519372574][/doublepost]

+1 for blocking the signal in the lab - or, if they really need to have the call connected for the testing, get the carriers to put mobile base stations permanently in their lab and have the calls terminated to an IVR that Apple pays for (could just be an asterisk box playing a message).
Get the FCC to fine Apple for this and see how quickly they fix it.

Better start with charging $ 1Billion/logarithmic scale-up for erroneous calls, to address them in their own language and force them onto the necessary re-alignment of the UI/UX