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crbnbrry t1_j1thjdm wrote

What I don't understand, and am very clearly misinformed in, is how they can't possibly detect this. If there's a sudden jolt and then sustained movement for minutes afterward, obviously a crash hasn't occurred. Car crashes that required automated dialing typically involve the user stopping completely right?

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Tulol t1_j1to0l8 wrote

Had cops at my house because of false call. Told the cops that I was vigorously using the iPhone as a dildo on my gf anus.

−36

pc_is_a_race t1_j1tvrrt wrote

Seems like a good solution would be to fine the individual who's phone is randomly calling emergency services

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Johnothy_Cumquat t1_j1u4vkr wrote

As an apple hater, this isn't something I'd criticise them for. Given the nature of the problem, false positives are bad but false negatives could be much worse. They have to be very careful when lowering the false positive rate that they don't raise the false negative rate. It's a very difficult line to walk. This is probably why no one else has come out with a similar feature (that I know of).

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cjeam t1_j1u8ydl wrote

It's evidently not, because there's numerous reports of it activating when someone continues moving. Motorcyclists have essentially all disabled it completely.

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OogumSanskimmer t1_j1uaybg wrote

Maybe they should copy the crash detection on the pixel 5. Haven't had any false alerts in the two years I've had it.

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DocPhilMcGraw t1_j1uejsp wrote

The crash detection supposedly gives around 20 seconds before it calls emergency services. Perhaps what they could do is increase this time to 60 seconds. While they increase the time period, they could also have the phone vibrate constantly and give a loud alert (similar to their SOS system) throughout the 60 second time period.

I know when I have accidentally activated SOS on the iPhone it vibrates constantly throughout the 10 second time period as well as gives a loud alert so that you know it's about to call.

It's not going to solve the underlying issues with the detection, but it possibly could cut down the amount of calls quite a bit.

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monchota t1_j1uhp8l wrote

Just turn the feature off, its not needed.Most modern cars do it already. Its just a "new" thing to try and make iphones looks new every year.

−4

FirstForFun44 t1_j1ul9ir wrote

If only there were a way to quantify how many actual crashes it detects vs the number of lives it costs on false positives. If only that were data that were able to be collected. What a cruel world we live in. Do you know how many 911 calls are lonely people or non-emergencies that are mental health related? A metric fuckton so the iPhone take is a bit....

5

Chenko0160 t1_j1um0jp wrote

So actually experienced this first hand last week when I fell while skiing. All of a sudden I had a alarm going off in my ear buds and when I looked at my watch it was counting down before it would call 911. I hit the slider to cancel it and all was good. Not sure how there’s so many false alarms from it.

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Toad32 t1_j1umefu wrote

Not sure? How did you check your phone with snow gloves on?

Who takes out their phone while skiing? It's not coming out of my zipper pocket until I am on the lift.

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Chenko0160 t1_j1umkju wrote

I was able to do it from the Apple Watch on my wrist. So I didn’t even have to take my phone out. I did quickly pull my glove off to swipe though since to your point it doesn’t work well with gloves on lol.

1

DocPhilMcGraw t1_j1unzjd wrote

Right, but I think there are many more circumstances happening of people that either may not have an Apple Watch or they may not be able to retrieve their phones in time.

I know that if I was skiing and I had on all these gloves and gear, my phone would probably be in my pocket (and it most likely would be a zipped pocket). Plus, you don't always recognize at first what is happening. While 20 seconds may sound like a long amount of time, it's really not. Sometimes it takes me 10-15 seconds just to realize my phone is vibrating in my pocket because it's a phone call and not just a bunch of texts being sent to me.

And honestly, there is not going to be that much of a difference in terms of your outcome whether 911 is called at the 20 second mark or the 60 second mark. It should just be defaulted to 60 seconds and they should have it alarm in the same way SOS alarms when it is about to call.

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cjeam t1_j1uoshj wrote

There's various circumstances where false positives can be much worse, and I'd say this is one of them. If this is overwhelming call handlers it means genuine emergencies can't be responded to. Given the impact of false positives in this example I'd say the feature should be turned off until it is sorted out.

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Johnothy_Cumquat t1_j1uuzyb wrote

Yeah sure let's turn it off in places where there's no ski slopes or rollercoasters just in case a mountain or theme park sneaks up on someone and prank calls the police. In fact let's block the number altogether so that no one makes a false call manually because those outnumber the genuine calls as well.

−4

words_of_j t1_j1uwu5m wrote

My iPhone 12 was about to call for help one day…. Because my paired Garmin watch was on my wrist while I was hammering something. I almost didn’t catch it. I like the idea, but I need a harder to ignore alert that emergency services are about to be called. Something like the emergency alerts I get now and then that are pushed to me.

4

lobster-overrun t1_j1vchn2 wrote

This is going to get pulled from the market, spend like five years being tweaked, then re-released later. In the meantime, there will be a lawsuit from customers who say they made their purchase specifically because of this feature and it was removed.

0

Karl_sagan t1_j1wdq2g wrote

Should detect when it's in a moving vehicle and only then activate the ability to detect crashes/call

1

M365Certified t1_j1wijtn wrote

No, because this is overblown. It will get tweaked until the numbers come down, but from the article - 71 false calls in a minimum of 48 hours, possibly 72 hours (is a weekend Fri-Sun or just Sat & Sun?). My bet is 72, so thats 1 call an hour. How long does a call take? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? Meanwhile, having an accident on the slopes can easily lead to a traumatic injury that leaves you incapacitated and in the middle of nowhere. Whats their regular call volume?

2

thejnorm t1_j1wkqkv wrote

My wife was t-boned by a drunk driver at 2am. Since I was her emergency contact, Apple crash detection prompted her to call 911 and sent me a text with her location. Thankfully she was still conscious and able to complete the call to emergency services, but if the situation was worse she may not have received the help she needed. Crash detection is awesome, I immediately went out and bought a Series 8 watch the next day.

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Anton_Cermak t1_j1wux7q wrote

The government should just ban it, or make Apple pay for every fake emergency call

0

Color_Hawk t1_j1wwn23 wrote

They should have an easy way to temporarily disable the function

1

v81 t1_j1xghwq wrote

Might lead to a new problem... Someone driving a car when a false crash alert goes off gets distracted by it and ends up having an actual crash.

Does this automated calling of emergency services have any kind of regulatory approval?

It's not a terrible idea, but without being thoroughly thought out it's not a great idea either.

1

DocPhilMcGraw t1_j1xzmnl wrote

That's a really dumb idea considering Apple is not about to pull this capability from the market.

And you had the audacity to call my idea dumb when you come up with an even worse idea that Apple is not going to take into consideration?

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v81 t1_j1yb27f wrote

Seeing that seen idea is dumb and saying so does not magically obligate me to invent a solution.

I can say that Trump and Biden are dumb without running for president.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that it's not smart thing to waste the resources of emergency services with a poorly thought out tech.

0