Siri, do not call 911.
Several new iPhone 14 users may have gotten a fright while on a roller coaster ride, but not for the reason you might expect. The Wall Street Journal reports that the iPhone 14's car crash detection technology, which automatically alerts 911 if it senses a collision, has been mistakenly identifying roller coaster rides for serious accidents.
The iPhone 14 and new Apple Watches use factors such as sudden stops or rapid decelerations to determine whether a user has been involved in an accident, per the outlet. Afterward, the iPhone shows a 10-second countdown accompanied by an alarm sound. If there's no response, the iPhone will call 911 and text emergency contacts that there's been an accident.
This has reportedly caused first responders to receive a message stating, "The owner of this iPhone was in a severe car crash and is not responding to their phone," and panic-stricken relatives to worry about their loved ones only for—luckily—no real danger being involved.
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E! News has reached out to Apple but hasn't received a comment.
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However, a representative for Apple told the WSJ that the company studied a multitude of crash data when developing their technology, and that the safety feature is "extremely accurate in detecting severe crashes."
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The WSJ recommends that users put their phones on airplane mode before boarding a ride, though some users on social media joked that Apple should implement a "roller coaster mode" on the next iOS update. If the company needs help with fine-tuning its iPhone, one person wrote that they knew people who would ride roller coasters "over and over again to help calibrate your detection system."
For one Bloomberg editor, the reported incidents reminded her an another occasion where the watch made an erroneous 911 alert.
"This reminds me of when my Apple Watch almost called 911 because I was saying my Labrador was 'attacking me'," Meg Ely tweeted on Oct. 11. "(She was just licking me a lot.)"
