In the United States, emergency dispatch centers receive around twenty calls daily for “false accidents” misinterpreted by the iPhone 14 and the latest Apple Watches from the Apple brand.
Going downhill on skis and having a car accident, it’s the same according to the latest products from the apple brand. Several media report that rescuers in Colorado where ski resorts are located are harassed with automatic calls by iPhone 14 or Apple Watch SE, Series 8 and Ultra.
Automated calls
Skis on, users of the products concerned sometimes go down the slopes at exorbitant speeds before stopping suddenly for any reason. Then the accident detection systemsupposed to notify only car accidents, is deceived and automatically triggers a call for helpprecise 01 Net.
A notification is then sent on the skiers’ connected phones and watches and gives them 20 seconds to cancel the call. But in most cases, snow sports enthusiasts simply have their device in their pocket and thus cannot avoid sending this useless call for help. The precise GPS coordinates are then sent to rescuerswhich invade ski slopes for nothing, explains BFM TV.
15 to 30 calls per day
The main State affected by this problem is that of Colorado. The 911 call centers (the equivalent of 15 in France) in different counties (Grand, Eagle, Pitkin, Routt and Summit) receive between 15 and 30 calls per dayspecifies the local media of the Colorado Sun. On the only Christmas weekend, 71 accident reports automated messages were dispatched to the Summit dispatch center.
Trina Dummer, acting manager of one of the call centers, complains about repercussionsin the columns of the American newspaper: “These calls involve a huge amount of resources, from dispatchers to assistants to ski patrollers. We divert essential resources people who really need it because of a feature on a phone.”
Apple will modify its system
According to 01 NetApple would have committed to make improvements to the accident detection function next year, after being alerted by Brett Loeb, the manager of the Pitkin dispatch center in Colorado. In the Colorado Sun, the latter admitted to having had “a conversation with Apple about accident detection this fall”.
“They told us that they were aware of the problem and thatthey were working on a fix they hoped to have in the first quarter of 2023″, he says. The Cupertino giant had promised that the latest iOS update (16.2) would reduce the number of calls to emergency services. However, the problem persists, much to the misfortune of the rescuers.