There have been a number of reports about how emergency features on the iPhones and Apple Watches have been saving lives. With the iPhone 14 series, Apple introduced the crash detection feature, which has proved to be yet another life-saving feature from the Cupertino-based giant. But, it is turning out to be chaotic for emergency responders across the world.
The recent incident comes from Japan, where first responders are plagued with false crash alerts from the new iPhone 14s. In the Kita-Alps region, the local fire department says that it received over 100 false alerts “mainly” from the iPhone 14 crash detection system.
In a month-long period between December 16 and January 23, the Kita-Alps Fire Department of Nagano, Japan, reported 914 emergency calls, out of which 134 were false alarms, that the authorities attributed to the iPhone 14’s glitching crash detection that went off when skiers went down the slope.
In the area of Gifu Prefecture, the city fire department reported similar 135 false alarms out of the 351 emergency calls between January 1 to January 23.
The numbers might not seem high, but these false alarms stress the emergency responders as they, at times, have to go and check at the location because they cannot avoid a situation thinking it is not fatal.
A local agency official has asked the public to inform the fire department if their iPhone mistakenly makes a false emergency call.
Similar false alerts were reported in the ski resort counties of Colorado and Utah, US. The town emergency centres reported an overload of automated emergency calls from iPhone users that went skiing.
Also, there have been reports of crash detection being triggered during roller coaster rides.
So, when the iPhone detects a crash, it triggers a countdown, which, if not attended, will result in a call to emergency responders. It is suspected that in these cases, users have their iPhones deep inside their pockets, so they cannot stop the call.
Apple is said to be working with emergency responders to fix the issue, which might come by the first quarter of this year.
The recent incident comes from Japan, where first responders are plagued with false crash alerts from the new iPhone 14s. In the Kita-Alps region, the local fire department says that it received over 100 false alerts “mainly” from the iPhone 14 crash detection system.
In a month-long period between December 16 and January 23, the Kita-Alps Fire Department of Nagano, Japan, reported 914 emergency calls, out of which 134 were false alarms, that the authorities attributed to the iPhone 14’s glitching crash detection that went off when skiers went down the slope.
In the area of Gifu Prefecture, the city fire department reported similar 135 false alarms out of the 351 emergency calls between January 1 to January 23.
The numbers might not seem high, but these false alarms stress the emergency responders as they, at times, have to go and check at the location because they cannot avoid a situation thinking it is not fatal.
A local agency official has asked the public to inform the fire department if their iPhone mistakenly makes a false emergency call.
Similar false alerts were reported in the ski resort counties of Colorado and Utah, US. The town emergency centres reported an overload of automated emergency calls from iPhone users that went skiing.
Also, there have been reports of crash detection being triggered during roller coaster rides.
So, when the iPhone detects a crash, it triggers a countdown, which, if not attended, will result in a call to emergency responders. It is suspected that in these cases, users have their iPhones deep inside their pockets, so they cannot stop the call.
Apple is said to be working with emergency responders to fix the issue, which might come by the first quarter of this year.
