In an unfortunate turn of events, an iPhone 14’s crash detection was put to the test in a real-life situation, alerting responders to a fatal car crash.
One of the main features highlighted during the launch of the iPhone 14 series was crash detection. It uses device sensors and motion algorithms to trigger pre-set conditions to determine if a vehicle has indeed crashed.
Unfortunately, that’s what happened in Lincoln, Nebraska in the US. According to this report from AP News, a car crash killed six occupants. One of them had an iPhone 14, which detected the accident and called responders automatically after the owner did not respond to alerts. The car crash was dubbed “the worst crash in Lincoln.”
In this case, Apple’s Crash Detection works as intended despite some members of the media having tested the feature in a simulated environment with various results.
Crash Detection is enabled by default. Apart from the iPhone 14 series, the feature is also available in the latest Apple Watch SE, Apple Watch Series 8, and Apple Watch Ultra. You can find it under Settings> Emergency SOS> Call After Severe Crash.