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Skiers Accidentally Triggering iPhone's Crash Detection Feature

Yep, mine triggered while skiing last week as well. Just in my pants pocket and I came to a reasonably quick stop, no fall, and my watch started making weird sounds I had not heard before. Took me a bit to dig to it, and it was ONE second from calling 911. Very far from the force of a car accident.
 
good for that person not minding it but over here that’s an offense to call 911 for no reason.

This feature reminds me of car alarms, most of the times it’s just false alarms so whenever it does go off for an actual reason, people will just not take it seriously. Have you ever heard an car alarm go off and people actually think it’s for a valid reason? I haven’t. People including myself are usually just walking past it like eh … false alarm
 
Maybe Apple can engage a workout mode and potentially a focus specifically tuned for skiing?

Beyond that if the AI becomes robust enough to actually detect serious falls the skiing mode could be set up with contact details to notify the local ski patrol with coordinates… Given their typically significant workload.., it would be prudent to iron out some kinks first.
 
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Between this and the roller coasters, this confirms to me that people at Apple are a bunch of homebodies that never do anything. Their testing of this stuff is terrible.

Meanwhile a few years ago on my Series 4 which has fall detection wasn’t even triggered when I fell down a flight of slippery stairs, bruised and battered so badly that I couldn’t get out of bed for a week. But then one time I pounded my hand on the armrest cushion of my couch when something exciting happened during a Chiefs game and it tried to call 911.
 
macduke said:
Between this and the roller coasters, this confirms to me that people at Apple are a bunch of homebodies that never do anything. Their testing of this stuff is terrible.

Meanwhile a few years ago on my Series 4 which has fall detection wasn’t even triggered when I fell down a flight of slippery stairs, bruised and battered so badly that I couldn’t get out of bed for a week. But then one time I pounded my hand on the armrest cushion of my couch when something exciting happened during a Chiefs game and it tried to call 911.
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Agree 100%. Find My left behind notifications are still not working properly for the APP. These are just untested KeyNote fluff talking points. Apple has changed over the past few years and nothing gets fixed unless reported on by the major tech media sites.
 
So basically the only tiny feature introduced with the Apple Watch 8 and iPhone 14 doesn’t work. Well done apple, you’re totally not going downhill.
 
Macintosh Quadra 840av said:
Maybe Apple will look to turn it off based on GPS location.
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Noooo! That’s really a stupid solution. They have to maintain a database of possible skiing locations and will end up ignoring actual skiing accidents.

The solution is really simple. If it detects a sudden, massive deceleration (which I guess is how this accident detection works) it should start a countdown. If the phone starts to move significantly again after eg 30 seconds it’s a false alarm and no emergency call is needed. Should work for the roller coaster false alarm as well.

If the phone is not moving then it is likely to be a real accident.
 
There’s a “boy who cried wolf” dilemma here. The more often that this feature gets activated accidentally, the less likely that it will be taken seriously in a real emergency.
 
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I'm a volunteer firefighter. Abruptly stopped after running to my locker inside the station a few days ago and the car crash detection feature on my AW Ultra set off an alert. Made for some good laughs then, but really if these alerts keep being set off, it ain't that funny.
 
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Obviously Apple has good intentions for this very meaningful feature.

However, not all unintended scenarios were probably taken into account for during its design and implementation.
 
crsh1976 said:
I expect an Apple Crash+ subscription is needed, somehow.

Seriously, I get that false positives happen and the AI needs to learn a bit more to tell a real accident from an intended/natural situation, but it sounds a lot like this was released a little too early (not only because of false positives, but also when it doesn't detect anything in cases where it should).
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It is not about AI. If you are not on a road, you cant be involved in car crash (except if you do offroading). Apple Watch has GPS. It is simple addition to the existing algorithm. Skiing is not some extraordinary activity that only a few people practice. Apple should have done more extensive testing and fine tuning before releasing half-baked, non-reliable features.
 
flanders.jpg


Ned Flanders uses iPhone/Apple Watch
 
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Apple should make it easier to turn off the feature, and it should automatically turn back on within say a 24 hour period. Because when you turn it off, to go skiing say, most likely you won't remember to turn it back on.
 
falkon-engine said:
Apple should make it easier to turn off the feature, and it should automatically turn back on within say a 24 hour period. Because when you turn it off, to go skiing say, most likely you won't remember to turn it back on.
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This feature along with other factors should use the gps to understand if you are in a road.
 
This is a user problem, not an apple one. How can people not realize their phone is going crazy and vibrating that it’s dialing 911.
 
ninecows said:
Noooo! That’s really a stupid solution. They have to maintain a database of possible skiing locations and will end up ignoring actual skiing accidents.

The solution is really simple. If it detects a sudden, massive deceleration (which I guess is how this accident detection works) it should start a countdown. If the phone starts to move significantly again after eg 30 seconds it’s a false alarm and no emergency call is needed. Should work for the roller coaster false alarm as well.

If the phone is not moving then it is likely to be a real accident.
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That's what it does now. There's a countdown. The issue is that people don't notice it while skiing and doing other activities, especially with their ski gear on.

If you’re unable to respond, your device automatically calls emergency services after a 20-second delay.
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Use Crash Detection on iPhone or Apple Watch to call for help in an accident - Apple Support

If your iPhone or Apple Watch detects a severe car crash, your device can help connect you to emergency services.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
 
Wackery said:
This is a user problem, not an apple one. How can people not realize their phone is going crazy and vibrating that it’s dialing 911.
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Because when skiing it's buried deep inside an inner pocket of a heavily-insulated jacket, combined with wearing an insulated helmet over the ears. It can take over 20 seconds to unzip/unsnap/unbutton various layers and reach the phone. Additionally, if you've had a non-injurious fall but are in deep snow, it can take minutes to get into a position to be able to reach the phone.
 
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Wackery said:
This is a user problem, not an apple one. How can people not realize their phone is going crazy and vibrating that it’s dialing 911.
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Nowadays it is strongly recommended to put on a helmet, I haven't been without one in a decade now, first it was only recommended for some snowboarders, then it basically became mandatory for all new snowboarders taking official courses and now younger kids skiing also start using them. (I didn't have a helmet in the 90s, and there were much less people skiing that you could get in an accident with than nowadays.) These helmets really impair hearing, then add to that the noise you make going down a hill fast (breathing, the skis/board on the snow) and you can easily overlook a ringing phone in your pocket.

I turn the fall detection off when I am mountain biking because I know jumps and harder bumps can trigger it, that is something users can easily be aware of. But no iPhone user can expect a car crash detection alarm to go off when there isn't even a car in sight. And I don't turn off the car crash detection when I am mountain biking either, because I don't expect that to go off unless I am in a car. Is that an unreasonable assumption?

Keep in mind the Call After Severe Crash feature is separate from the fall detection and according to Apple here https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213225 is specifically meant for car crashes. It's on by default too, so if you aren't an enthusiast on an Apple forum you might not be aware your phone has this enabled. My older family members certainly don't have any idea and in their early 70s they still strap on skis over the winter holidays.
 
nikaru said:
It is not about AI. If you are not on a road, you cant be involved in car crash (except if you do offroading). Apple Watch has GPS. It is simple addition to the existing algorithm. Skiing is not some extraordinary activity that only a few people practice. Apple should have done more extensive testing and fine tuning before releasing half-baked, non-reliable features.
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Determining context with GPS alone is not good enough tho, this is where AI is supposed to make the difference between road and ski slopes.

I'm more concerned for those who are in cars, in cases where conditions are not within the parameters set for this detection to go off, then I really wonder how Apple can justify this by saying the car was not going fast enough (seems stupid, what if you're stationnary and a car runs into your vehicle then?).
 
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