The new Crash Detection feature on the iPhone 14 series and the Series 8 Apple Watch (and Ultra) caused a 5x increase in accidental 911 calls.
It doesn’t appear that Android has a monopoly on making accidental calls to emergency contact numbers. Recently we told you that in the U.K., the cops are asking Android users to disable the Emergency SOS feature that automatically calls the emergency contact number (which is 999 in that region of the world) whenever the power button is quickly pressed five times in succession. Apple’s Crash Detection is responsible for a 5 times increase in the number of false 911 calls at a music festival
The National Police Chiefs Council in the U.K. said, « Nationally, all emergency services are currently experiencing record-high 999 call volumes. There are a few reasons for this, but one we think is having a significant impact is an update to Android smartphones. » Interestingly, it was recently learned that the huge « Super Update » coming to the Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S22 lines, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 will prevent those phones and others from disabling Emergency SOS. Now we switch to the iOS side where the feature found on the iPhone 14 series and the Apple Watch known as Crash Detection caused a ruckus last week at the Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee. When Crash Detection detects that a crash has occurred, the phone and watch will sound an alarm and the screen will display an alert.
