The somewhat controversial feature, crash detection or accident detection on the iPhone 14 and Apple Watch now has a new controversial situation of a large increase in calls to 911 with location from the Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee a week ago. According to the first responders, from the beginning of 2023 until now there are around five times more false calls to 911 than in years past.
the bonnaroo festival in 2023 it was held just one weekend ago in Manchester, Tennessee and with a crowd of up to 80,000 in attendance. The problem stems from the number of people that complicated 911 teams, although Apple’s Accident Detection feature has only further complicated these cases.
Another controversy regarding the iPhone 14 Accident Detection
After the increase in calls, the local news channel WKRN He mentioned his talk with Scott LeDuc, who is director of the 911 Communications Center in Coffee County. It seems that the fake calls to 911 arose as a result of the festival attendees who, when dancing and celebrating, their iPhone detected this as an accident.
After this event, the services had to go directly to Apple in the middle of the festival to indicate the situation of false positives in calls to 911 due to Accident Detection. LeDuc mentioned that the Cupertino company offered its support with engineers at the festival to manage the situation and verify that it is happening.
Bonnaroo Guests:
MPD has responded to multiple accidental 911 calls at Bonnaroo. It’s likely that these calls are a result of “Crash Detection Mode”, a new feature on Apple iPhones. Please be mindful and consider deactivating this feature on your phone until Bonnaroo concludes. pic.twitter.com/pHJMsQtPgs
— Manchester Police (TN) (@ManchesterTNPD) June 15, 2023
Support for this case was from the Manchester Police Department who told the attendees that it was better to completely disable Accident Detection. LeDec reported that thanks to this, the calls received were reduced by up to 40 and 60 percent.
The fact of increasing up to 5 times the calls to 911 after this function, is a significant increase, to which LeDuc says that the first calls are perfectly attended in each case and that there is no real risk in most cases.
The reception and attention to each message received proper attention from each part of the team, they mention in the conversation. Noting that there was no emergency situation for help to someone who called 911, ensuring that there was always the care protocol and guarantee that everyone was safe before hanging up.
Accident Detection first arrived on the iPhone 14 and Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch SE, and Apple Watch ultra a year ago.
