Apple addresses the issue of why Crash Detection doesn’t always activate during junkyard crash tests
Apple’s newly released iPhone 14 models come equipped with sensors and technology that may determine if their owners have been in a car accident. The iPhone will then ask if it should contact 911, and if the user doesn’t react, it will do so automatically.
Wall Street Journal reporter Joanna Stern and a demolition derby driver in Michigan tried to activate the iPhone X’s safety feature by working together.
The derby car was outfitted with a driver’s Apple Watch Ultra, along with a driver’s iPhone 14, and a Google Pixel. A stopped junk vehicle was set up to be crashed into, and inside was an iPhone 14 Pro Max and a Pixel 6. A derby vehicle (operated by a professional derby driver) was driven into the parked automobile to determine which sensors activated the Crash detection feature.
The Wall Street Journal contacted Apple for comment after crashing automobiles and getting varying results on iPhones and Pixels.
When I contacted Apple with the results, a company spokesman said that the testing conditions in the junkyard didn’t provide enough signals to the iPhone to trigger the feature in the stopped cars.
Crash Detection can only function if the gadget is found to be in a moving vehicle. According to WSJ, the feature is made possible by an algorithm that considers a number of variables. GPS readings can detect sudden decelerations in a moving vehicle (or detect that it is in a vehicle at all), and the presence of CarPlay and Bluetooth can more clearly signal whether the device is actually in a vehicle. Motion sensors detect sudden motion changes; microphones pick up loud sounds like the impact of the crash; the barometer detects changes in air pressure when airbags deploy.
