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iPhones and Apple Watches Could Detect a Car Crash and Auto-Dial 911 Starting Next Year
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Not new. My 2013 Ford Escape can call 911 using a bluetooth connected cell phone, if it detects a collision. And, no subscription is required.
Any cars that your iPhone has a bluetooth connection with, the phone already knows that you're in a car and driving. Apple could use algorithms based on speed and proximity to a road (because, you know, maps?) for anyone that doesn't have CarPlay in their car. Would be advantageous to protect passengers, who, no fault of their own, are riding in an Android owners car. 
btw - the watch understands exercising - it's one of the core features.
btw - the watch understands exercising - it's one of the core features.
Yeah but after awhile it gets old telling your watch or phone your good. Fall section is horrible. Driving sets it off constantly for me.
Only if you were doing it at over 15 MPH. It really isn't too hard to rule out things that aren't while driving, especially when they already have all the roads mapped out.
For everyone worried about false positives from fair rides, rough sex, etc. there are a number of options but they've generally already solved this issue. Have you noticed your phone happily tells you where you parked your car? They clearly knew you were driving a car. Haven't ever had my phone tell me hey, you parked on a ride at Six Flags...
If your phone/watch have a hard impact while driving, then don't move for 60 seconds, it could start alerting that it is going to call and give you another 10-30 seconds to cancel it.
Now, I'd also love to see them add a pothole detection feature. If a high enough percentage of devices hit a bump at the same spot in the road, collect the info, then once a week or so, send an email to the city to ensure they know about it and can send a repair crew...
Thanks, but no thanks. If this turns out to be true, I'll do everything in my power to deactivate it or avoid buying a phone with the hardware in it to begin with. Enough with this non-stop monitoring and surveillance. Hang up the phone and drive.
Those figures have gone though several rounds of telephone before reaching this article and don't make a lot of sense. I wouldn't take it to mean anything more than that being the dataset they're starting out with.
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In WW2, the US was looking at bullet holes on planes coming back and was re-inforcing the damaged areas, until someone realized the damaged areas on returning planes were actually the parts that didn't need reinforcing — rather, the parts without damage were the critical parts: if a plane was hit there, it never came back, so those areas were always free of damage.
If Apple is focusing on detected events with a 911 call (since they have confirmation it's a 911 event), they're actually focusing on accidents where the occupants are fine enough to call themselves. If they base their algorithm on this, it might actually be ignoring fatal and especially near-fatal accidents, which are specifically the kind this is meant to help — cases in which the occupants can't call 911 themselves.
For your pothole idea - GPS isn't accurate enough
. Also, with how litigious the US is, how long before there's a class action lawsuit by municipalities / states against Apple for all of the time they waste on the nuisance letters Apple would be sending them? 
That's good & dandy....how about fixing the iPhone to watch and vice versa SIRI communication ?, cant seem to get SIRI to tell me the battery status ...anyone else ?
I really wish Apple would add a reboot slider in the shut down screen. Based on my personal experience I bet that would get a lot of use.
If Apple really wants our phones to analyse what we do and report to the authorities, THIS is a great and positive way to do it! At least this is a useful and materially beneficial feature that could save a lot of lives. Just, please, no scanning our photos, we are not potential criminals that need to be vetted.
Surely many accidents occur at 15 mph and slower? A typical example might be someone hitting your rear-end while you are stationary. Could be enough for you to be trapped or otherwise need urgent help.
As others have pointed out, very new cars in Europe all have this, required by law.
In the US, it's not mandatory, but most car manufacturers offer similar features (e.g. it's a part of GM's OnStar service). Sometimes for free, sometimes as an option and sometimes requiring a subscription.
If I remember correctly (based on descriptions of the Watch's fall detection), it first asks you if you need assistance. If you say yes or don't respond within some threshold period of time, then it auto-calls emergency services.
So, if this service works the same way, I would expect your phone (or watch) to present a screen along the lines of ("Collision detected, do you require emergency assistance?"), so you have the option to answer "no" if (for example) it mistakenly activated after you stopped short or if you were in a minor collision with no injuries.
Will IOS dial the appropriate number depending on your location? In the UK, 999 (or 112) are used. I'd like to think that a US iPhone would know it was in the UK and choose 999 rather than 911.
Or is it literally US-only? It would be good to know for sure.
Or is it literally US-only? It would be good to know for sure.
I have a 2013 mustang and it has this built in via the Microsoft sync system it has. It works as long as the phone is paired via Bluetooth