After an Apple watch update that confused skiing with vehicle accidents, emergency personnel have been deluged with erroneous panic calls from skiers.
Apple updated its most recent IOS system in September with a feature that instantly summons emergency personnel in the event of a vehicle accident.
But when skiers are hurtling down a mountain, the system seems to be readily misled when a wipeout is unintentionally recorded as a serious casualty even if they are entirely unhurt.
The sensitive technology is said to have sent hundreds of inaccurate calls to emergency phone operators as the ski season picks up in resorts throughout the US. 911 dispatchers have been overwhelmed by the bogus distress calls.
The device also sends a frightening message to skiers’ loved ones, informing them that they have been in a serious vehicle accident, for those who have stored emergency contacts on their phones.
A representative for Apple said: “We have become aware that in certain particular instances these capabilities have notified emergency services when a user didn’t suffer a serious automobile collision or hard fall.” Apple has acknowledged that the issue exists.
The business said that a gadget buzzes and sounds a warning to the user when it makes an emergency call, giving them an opportunity to cancel the signal.
Although users are given a 10-second warning to end the distress call, it seems that the temporary fail-safe method hasn’t prevented dispatchers from receiving a large number of bogus calls.
Law enforcement officials who were upset with the situation told KTVQ that since Apple published the update, the problem has become much worse.
According to Carbon County Sheriff Josh McQuillan, “We took our figures from 911 misdials from past years, even last year, and they’re up 30% this year.”
The watch doesn’t know whether you fell and broke your back or if you slid on some ice and are getting up, said Jeff Schmidt, general manager of a nearby ski resort.
But I see an issue if the watch is set to that and dials 911. It diverts 911 resources to something else.
According to a 911 dispatcher who spoke with KSL News, all of the calls she has gotten from ski resorts as a result of the technology have been false alarms.
But they said that receiving the distress call was preferable than the alternative.
‘It’s a good thing if we can prevent crises. We prefer that you stay protected, thus we don’t want you to disable the function.
Although the problem costs emergency responders valuable time, a different dispatcher advised skiers to maintain the system since the alternative would be far worse.
God forbid you leave the mountain without turning it back on and have an accident.
We’d prefer not even take that chance, and I’d rather have a few 911 calls that were misdials or false alarms rather than anything truly happening and us not being made aware of it.
For Apple customers who have the most recent software, the crash detection mechanism is already switched on by default.
With the most current release of iOS, it is accessible on the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models. It is also accessible on a number of recent models of the Apple Watch with the most recent release of WatchOS.
The software includes a new high dynamic range gyroscope and a dual-core accelerometer that can detect G-force readings up to 256Gs.
These are combined with elements from earlier iPhone models, such as the barometer, which can detect changes in cabin pressure.
The system can also monitor GPS and speed variations in addition to using the microphone on the smartphone, which may identify loud sounds typical of serious auto accidents.
To reliably identify when an accident has occurred, Apple has trained its algorithms on more than a million hours of real-world driving and crash record data.
While the malfunctioning system has irked some, skier Karl Farnsworth praised Apple’s software on Facebook last year after suffering a terrifying 350-foot fall.
He said, “I shattered 11 vertebrae.”
The ski patrol was quickly sent out after my Apple Watch alerted 911 to a “hard fall” situation! Well done, Apple!
»Skiers’ bogus automated distress calls bury 911 dispatchers«