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iPhone 14's Crash Detection Mistaking Roller Coaster Rides for Car Crashes

My dog ran into the pocket in my shorts with his head and I got a 'You have suffered a severe fall, do you need us to alert the world so they can come and gawk?'. I was able to stop it, but was surprised that it happened because of that. I guess it was a 'sudden shock', but that is what they use as the threshold for activation: A large g-force 'shock'. So it would seem that *any* shock would activate it.

I have a bike helmet that has 'fall alert' technology in it. I dropped it when getting ready to ride, and the wife calls me all freaking out that I crashed. :rolleyes: 'No, not yet. Haven't even started yet'. Then when I got back, she showed me the notice. I stopped using that feature. Bouncing off trees and falling is all part of MTB riding. She'd be calling 4 or 5 times in a ride. *sigh* Then she might forbid me from riding my MTB! Boo!
 
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Personally I’d rather have it trigger too often than not enough. If I’m in a car crash in the middle of nowhere and it involved just me (sliding off the road, hitting an animal, etc) I want it to call every time. Especially if there’s a chance I’m unconscious.

That being said, I agree with some of the suggestions here. Geotagging theme parks would cut down on a lot of it. Doesn’t solve the issue of local state fairs/carnivals, but the established ones would cut down on a lot of false alarms. Especially over the next few years when more and more get phones equipped with crash detection built into the newer phones.
 
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fishkorp said:
Is this a serious reply? Of course they do. Parks like Disney and Universal are packed every day of the week all year round. Some rides have wait times of 1 to 2 hours in the queue.
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Some even more than that! The GM ride at Epcot is insane some days. And some rides have really amazingly long lines for what they are. Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and It's A Small World had really incredible lines. IASM is one ride that if you have done it once, it's not one to redo, but people seem to love it. *shrug*

I knew someone who lined up for Space Mountain, and rode it 5, 6, 7 times a day. 🤢🤢

Yeah, especially now, theme parks are LOADED...
 
scotterlememester said:
I am 100% sure theme parks would not allow guests to bring their phones onto the rollercoasters.
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I think I saw a couple on the ground inside a ride at Universal. Along with sun glasses, hats, etc... I'm sure people have lost hearing aids and hair pieces on rides. Cell phones are likely lost every day. I'd imagine iPods and other MP3 players too. Gravity sucks...
 
I personally would never bring my phone on a roller coaster, but I would bring my Apple Watch 😬

Im actually planning on getting the Series 8...
 
MajorFubar said:
No. Treating amusement parks as 'exclusion zones' for this feature IS a dumb idea, for a thousand and one reasons, not least of which being that you don't want it to ignore any genuine crash you might have within the 'exclusion zone'.

Also on the list of a thousand and one reasons is that a world exists outside of America, and this suggestion implies that someone somewhere is maintaining a database of where all the Amusement Parks are throughout the world in order to exclude them.

Not far from where I live is the UK's (debatably) most famous Amusement Park with a coaster track about 30ft from the main road. But this dumb suggestion would have crashes on that main road potentially excluded, depending on how accurate the GPS 'exclusion zone' is.

So yeah. It's a dumb idea. End of debate. I know most things are just down to opinion, but this is objectively dumb.
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Again, a geofence wouldn't limit things outside of the park (even in the case of your amusement park in the UK).
 
SnappleRumors said:
Yeah exactly. Put the control and responsibility into the user’s hands. I know personal responsibility is a foreign concept anymore but hey, I’m old fashioned like that.
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So it's the user's fault the software doesn't work right? Ah yes, personal responsibility, but only if it's not a huge company at fault, gotcha..
 
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In response to the false alarms, an Apple spokesperson said Apple tested the feature with over a million hours of car crash data and real-world driving analysis.
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"Hey you missed something when you designed this feature."
"Well, we tested it a lot."
 
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MajorFubar said:
I am 100% sure certainly where I live they don't stop you getting on rollercoasters with your phone.
They've got a sign up to clarify their vicarious liability (you carry your belongings on at your own risk).
That's it.
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They'll say something if you are holding or wearing things, but they won't search youi
 
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Stuey3D said:
Simple fix for most rollercoasters would be to have the iPhone pop up a notification that you are at a theme park and would you like to temporarily disable crash detection, then after the GPS detects you are leaving the theme park it auto enables again.
The only ones this wouldn’t work for would be the travelling fun fairs which don’t have a fixed location that can trigger said notification.

Also add to the above you could put a control centre toggle to temporarily disable crash detection which then auto enables again after a set time like the WiFi toggle, with the option to disable the feature completely still in the settings menu as it is now.
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Or do the same as with DND Driving. It activates by you car's BT
 
WilliApple said:
I personally would never bring my phone on a roller coaster, but I would bring my Apple Watch 😬

Im actually planning on getting the Series 8...
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And the people working a ride won't point out things unless they are egregious. I was allowed on a ride with a hat, and caught it just in time. On the Minions ride, I almost lost my glasses! (I'd be blind as a rock if that happened) I just caught them as they were leaving my nose, and they are not loose by any measure so I was surprised they nearly fell off. Some rides with full carriages will likely catch most heavier things that fall, but so many rides are now just seats in mid-air, so bye bye iPhone/glasses/etc...

Oh, and it's not like the parks have lots of lockers at the ride queues for securing things that you wouldn't want to potentially lose on a ride.
 
compwiz1202 said:
What crappy park has that? I'd never leave my cell sit amongst tons of strangers
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I can't remember which ride at Universal, but there were those coin op lockers right at the queue point. I think some people took it as a warning sign, and some likely got more excited. It's by far not the kind of thing that I've ever seen directly at any ride before. Maybe it was just coincidence, but interesting.
 
CarlJ said:
Scenario: you arrive at the theme park with a large group of friends, but decide to split up into several sub-groups, to go to different attractions first. How do you expect them to coordinate meeting back up later on? Mobile phones. So... what, do you expect them to designate one person to skip the ride and wait at the ride's exit to hold the phones for everyone?
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There was a time before cells when you just said meet at suchandsuch at ##:##. And everyone wore watches.
 
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