One of the most important additions to the iPhone 14 lineup, and the new Apple Watch range, is car crash detection. It can be a life-saving feature when it works, but right now it's flooding 911 call centers with calls from riding roller coasters.
The sudden turns, brakes, and movement of roller coasters can apparently make an iPhone 14 or 14 Pro think that the owner was in an actual car crash. When the phone's car crash detection feature is triggered, it will call emergency services and notify emergency contacts that you were in a crash unless you're fast enough to stop it. The issue has been reported by several people across amusement parks in the United States.
When it comes to car crashes, you absolutely need the feature to work in an actual car crash. However, having it triggered by things such as a roller coaster ride can make your emergency contacts worry unnecessarily, and could actually get you in trouble as well, as your phone is calling emergency services to make an erroneous report.
Apple told the Wall Street Journal in a statement that car crash detection is "extremely accurate in detecting severe crashes," and the company has already optimized it to avoid false positives -- but apparently, not well enough. For the moment, try to remember to turn off Crash Detection before you get on Space Mountain.
Source: WSJ