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  Roller Coasters Can Trigger Crash Detection in the iPhone 14 and Apple Watch

   Josh Centers

   When Apple announced Crash Detection in the iPhone 14, Apple Watch SE,
   Apple Watch Series 8, and Apple Watch Ultra, we figured it'd only be a
   matter of time until some innocuous activity triggered it accidentally.

   Now we know what will do it: roller coasters. Since the iPhone 14
   launched, the 911 dispatch near the Kings Island amusement park has
   received at least six calls from iPhones that mistake the g-forces and
   sounds of a roller coaster for a car crash. (You can read the [1]full
   paywalled article at the Wall Street Journal for more details.)

     Since the iPhone 14 went on sale, the 911 dispatch center near Kings
     Island amusement park has received at least six phones calls saying:

     'The owner of this iPhone was in a severe car crash...'

     Except, the owner was just on a roller coaster.

     ð by me: [2]https://t.co/hp1fHZBIf6 [3]pic.twitter.com/i0lZPoWzGz

     -- Joanna Stern (@JoannaStern) [4]October 9, 2022

   The safest way to prevent this from happening before hopping on an
   extreme amusement park ride is to disable Crash Detection by turning
   off Call After Severe Crash, in Settings > Emergency SOS on your
   iPhone. If you have an Apple Watch that supports Crash Detection,
   turning the feature off on the iPhone also disables it on the Apple
   Watch. That also works in the other direction'toggling Call After
   Severe Crash in either the Watch app in My Watch > Emergency SOS or in
   Settings > SOS on the Apple Watch itself also disables the feature on
   the iPhone.

   Although it might be tempting to muzzle Crash Detection by enabling
   airplane mode on your iPhone and Apple Watch before embarking on a
   roller coaster ride, we've seen some claims that Emergency SOS can take
   an iPhone out of airplane mode to make an emergency call. We aren't
   about to test that, so we don't recommend assuming airplane mode will
   suffice.

   Why do we suspect Apple engineers are now clamoring for a team outing
   to [5]California's Great America? 'But boss, we need to ride the
   RailBlazer to finetune the Crash Detection algorithm! Over and over
   again.' Alternatively, Apple could geofence the locations of known
   roller coasters and automatically disable Crash Detection in those
   areas. But that would be way less fun.

   

References

   Visible links
   1. https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/the-owner-of-this-iphone-was-in-a-severe-car-crashor-just-on-a-roller-coaster-11665314944
   2. https://t.co/hp1fHZBIf6
   3. https://t.co/i0lZPoWzGz
   4. https://twitter.com/JoannaStern/status/1579106766704369667?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
   5. https://www.cagreatamerica.com/rides-experiences/railblazer

   Hidden links:
   6. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2022/10/RailBlazer.jpg

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