Police were called to a fatal car crash that emergency responders said was the “worst in recent memory”, after a new iPhone feature detected the impact.
Apple released its new iPhone 14 and 14 Pro phones last month, and one of their marquee features was “crash detection”. The tool uses new sensors in the phone as well as software algorithms to detect when the owner of a device appears to have undergone the impact of a car crash.
If the iPhone does detect such a crash, it will show an alert and give users the option to call emergency services. If they do not respond, it will automatically call them.
Police in Lincoln, Nebraska said that they had been called to a crash by that automated system over the weekend. When officers arrived, they found what local newspapers reported was the worst crash in recent memory.
Six people died in the crash, seemingly all of those involved in the incident, police said.
Local police said they had initially “responded to a 911 call from an iPhone recording indicating the owner of the phone was in a severe crash and was not responding to their phone”. It appears to be an early example of the feature being used to call emergency services to a crash.
The crash detection feature is built into both the new iPhone and Apple Watch. Apple says that it is “designed to detect severe car crashes – such as front-impact, side-impact and rear-end collisions and rollovers – involving saloons, minivans, 4X4s, pickup trucks and other passenger cars”.
If such a crash is detected, the phone shows an alert noting that they appear to have been in a crash. It tells them that it will “trigger Emergency SOS” if they don’t respond.
That happens after a 20 second delay. It will then call emergency services and play a looped audio message, telling the responder that the phone has detected a severe crash and that its owner is unresponsive, as well as sending its approximate location.
