Apple Executives Offer Closer Look at iPhone 14's Crash Detection

In a new interview, two Apple executives have offered a deeper dive into the iPhone 14's new Crash Detection feature, which can detect if a user has been involved in a car accident and automatically contact emergency services and contacts.

iPhone 14 Pro Car Crash Detection Ad
During the interview with TechCrunch's Brian Heater, Apple's vice president of worldwide iPhone product marketing, Kaiann Drance, and the company's vice president of sensing and connectivity, Ron Huang, shed some light on the technical aspects of how the latest ‌iPhone‌ and Apple Watch models actually detect a car crash.

The latest devices include updated sensors that can detect sudden changes in motion and pressure, along with other data types from the ‌iPhone‌, to trigger an alert. The updated accelerometer in the latest ‌iPhone‌ models can measure G-force measurements of up to 256Gs. As Apple was developing the feature, it required a "fundamental understanding of what is experienced during a crash," said Huang in the interview. "In these crashes, you see impact forces over 100Gs. We started around 256Gs. Any time you try to increase that range, there are trade-offs, in terms of precision at the higher range and the power costs. It took the team a lot of work to build the sensors in this way."

Alongside data from the gyroscope and accelerometer, the ‌iPhone‌ uses multiple other variables to understand if a user is moving in a car and if they've been involved in an accident. "There's no silver bullet, in terms of activating crash detection," said Huang, adding that there is no set number of factors that must be present before Crash Detection is triggered and emergency services are contacted.

It's hard to say how many of these things have to trigger, because it's not a straight equation. Depending how fast the traveling speed was earlier, determines what signals we have to see later on, as well. Your speed change, combined with the impact force, combined with the pressure change, combined with the sound level, it's all a pretty dynamic algorithm.

There are some car accidents in which the ‌iPhone 14‌ or newer Apple Watch models may deliberately not contact emergency services. "I actually had a rear-end fender bender when I was in New York earlier. My crash detection did not go off," Drance said. "It's just one of those minor things where you just get out of your car and keep going. That's part of the sensor fusion and accuracy, because we don't want to be doing a lot of false calls to 9-1-1 when they're not necessary."

Despite Apple's efforts to reduce false calls to emergency services, reports have emerged that ‌iPhone 14‌ devices are calling emergency services when users are riding a roller coaster. The false alarm calls are likely a result of the ‌iPhone 14‌'s sensors falsely interpreting the sudden braking and movement of the ride as a collision with another vehicle. Other factors the ‌iPhone‌ uses include noise, such as engine or road noise, as well as Wi-Fi routers near an ‌iPhone‌ rapidly changing as a result of being in a moving vehicle.

Huang also touched on how Apple tested Crash Detection, noting the company placed the ‌iPhone‌ in many places around a car, equipped with cameras to analyze the impact. Apple also looked at data from the Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to understand what types of accidents are the leading causes of injuries.

We put iPhones in many different places throughout the car — on the dummies and the car itself and mounts and so forth. And then we collect all of the raw sensor data coming from these devices during such a crash. We put cameras inside and outside the cars, as well, so from the footage, you can time the actual impact, what the pressure sensors see when the airbag goes off in slow motion. We're able to look at data in high fidelity. We also look at DATA from the Department of Transportation or the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) to understand what kinds of crashes are the leading causes of injuries.

Crash Detection is available on the ‌iPhone 14‌, iPhone 14 Pro, Apple Watch SE, Apple Watch Series 8, and Apple Watch Ultra.

Related Roundups: iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro
Related Forum: iPhone

Top Rated Comments

Expos of 1969 Avatar
23 weeks ago

If it's not a "straight equation" why offer it? At this point, it will be best to offer users to manually toggle the crash detection off more easily. It seems like this feature is still in the pre-mature stages. It needs work!
There was so little for Apple to promote as a reason to buy the iPhone, they were grasping at straws and a half-baked crash detection feature seemed like a good idea at the time.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ? Avatar
23 weeks ago
If it's not a "straight equation" why offer it? At this point, it will be best to offer users to manually toggle the crash detection off more easily. It seems like this feature is still in the pre-mature stages. It needs work!
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
roncron Avatar
23 weeks ago
A couple thoughts.

1. False positives causing erroneous calls to emergency services are a cost. Notifying emergency services when an actual crash happens is a benefit. If false positives are relatively rare, then maybe that's an acceptable cost. But the feature is so new that we don't yet know. But Apple will accumulate more data every month on the frequency of correct vs. false positives so it can better assess the actual usefulness of the feature. (Hopefully it will share this information with us.)

2. Apple could make the crash-detection feature "opt-in," and require anyone who opts in to first read some splash screens about the importance of disabling the feature when you visit amusement parks, and how to disable the feature. Of course, some people will forget to do this, so...

3. Apple could automatically disable the feature while a user is in an amusement park. Apple knows where all the amusement parks are (because Apple Maps) and location services are required to be enabled to use crash detection, so this seems an easy way to eliminate many false positives.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
goonie4life9 Avatar
23 weeks ago
I love it when a good Project Titan comes together….
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Wildkraut Avatar
23 weeks ago
„We put iPhones in many different places throughout the car — on the dummies and the car itself and mounts and so forth.“

Yeah, but not in a roller coaster!
Yeah Tim, you could have tested it on the Oktoberfest, instead of drinking ? all day long.



Attachment Image
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
goonie4life9 Avatar
23 weeks ago

A rollercoaster?
”For the full crash detection experience, upgrade to the Apple Car.”
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iPhone 15 Pro Buttons CAD Leak

iPhone 15 Pro Leak Reveals Unified Volume Button and Mute Button

Monday March 20, 2023 8:33 am PDT by
As previously rumored, the next-generation iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will feature a unified volume button and a mute button, according to leaked CAD images shared in a video on the Chinese version of TikTok and posted to Twitter by ShrimpApplePro. Instead of separate buttons for volume up and volume down, the iPhone 15 Pro models are expected to have a single elongated button for...
iOS 16

iOS 16.4 for iPhone Nearing Launch With These 5 New Features

Monday March 20, 2023 11:50 am PDT by
Apple says iOS 16.4 is coming in the spring, which began this week. In his Sunday newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the update should be released "in the next three weeks or so," meaning a public release is likely in late March or early April. iOS 16.4 remains in beta testing and introduces a handful of new features and changes for the iPhone. Below, we have recapped five new features ...
original iphone auction

Factory-Sealed Original iPhone Sells for $55,000 at Auction

Friday March 17, 2023 1:08 pm PDT by
A first-generation iPhone still sealed inside its box sold for $54,904 at auction, which is more than $54,000 over the original $599 price tag of the device when it was released in 2007. The original iPhone was put up for sale by RR Auction on behalf of a former Apple employee who purchased it back when it first came out. Back in February, an original, sealed iPhone sold for over $63,000,...
voice isolation

iOS 16.4 Adds Voice Isolation for Cellular Phone Calls

Tuesday March 21, 2023 11:01 am PDT by
The iOS 16.4 update that is set to be released to the public in the near future includes voice isolation for cellular calls, according to notes that Apple shared today. Apple says that Voice Isolation will prioritize your voice and block out the ambient noise around you, making for clearer phone calls where you can better hear the person you're chatting with and vice versa. Voice...
iPhone 12 Pro vs iPhone 15 Pro Feature

iPhone 12 Pro vs. 15 Pro: New Features to Expect if You've Waited to Upgrade

Friday March 17, 2023 10:29 am PDT by
While year-over-year iPhone upgrades are not always groundbreaking, new features can begin to stack up over multiple generations. For example, the iPhone 15 Pro will be a notable upgrade for those who still have a three-year-old iPhone 12 Pro. If you are still using an iPhone 12 Pro and are considering upgrading to the iPhone 15 Pro when it launches later this year, we have put together a...
top stories 18mar2023

Top Stories: iPhone 15 Pro Pricing, New iOS 16.4 Beta, Siri vs. ChatGPT, and More

Saturday March 18, 2023 6:00 am PDT by
Apple's high-end iPhone models have started at $999 in the U.S. since they first launched back in 2017 with the iPhone X, but could this finally be the year that starting price sees an increase? This week also saw some more rumors about Apple's upcoming headset and the company's explorations in the booming AI industry as well as the release of a new round of beta updates, so read on for all...
smart monitor m8 samsung

Deals: Samsung's iMac-Like Smart Monitor M8 Drops to Lowest Price of Year So Far With $250 Discount

Monday March 20, 2023 8:27 am PDT by
Samsung today kicked off a special "Discover Samsung" event, which will be a week-long savings event focusing on Samsung monitors, smartphones, TVs, appliances, and more. While some deals will stick around the entire week (through March 26), others will refresh every day. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Samsung. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small...