Last updated: January 30, 2023, 7:59 PM IST
iPhone 14 has this detection feature
The new feature is supposed to help people who get into an accident, but cases of false reports are widespread.
False alarms from the Crash Detection feature of Apple’s iPhone 14 series are causing problems in Japan, with fire departments near ski resorts getting more emergency calls than usual due to the automated calls.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency of the Department of the Interior and Communications has issued a warning to smartphone users regarding crash detection technologies in smartphones and other devices, due to an increase in automated attempts to seek help when it’s not needed, AppleInsider reports.
This issue has been a problem for the Kita-Alps Nagano Fire Department, which covers five municipalities in Nagano Prefecture.
The report stated that 919 emergency calls were made between December 16, 2022 and January 23, of which 134 were false calls, most of them caused by Crash Detection at a ski resort.
Similarly, the Gujo City Fire Department in Gifu Prefecture had received 351 emergency calls between January 1 and 23, of which 135 were false alarms.
It is possible to turn the feature off, but one firefighter explained that since it’s an effective feature in cases where a serious accident has actually happened, “we can’t ask users to turn it off.”
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and was published from a syndicated news agency feed)
