Be careful your iPhone can call the police when you are skiing

Apple crash detection causes problems on ski slopes. How to prevent the accident detection system from erroneously alerting emergency services?

Your iPhone and Apple Watch want to take care of you, but sometimes these devices overdo it. To try and save your life in the event of a car accident, they may prevent you from calling emergency services. But sometimes this alarm system works by accident. Here you are skiing down the slope, and in a moment you explain to the police that no, you are not in mortal danger.

Apple Crash Detection Causes Problems on Ski Slopes

The default feature is, of course, crash detection, which is found on the iPhone 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro, and 14 Pro Max, as well as the Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch Ultra, and Apple Watch SE. The system analyzes your surroundings to determine if you have been involved in a serious accident. According to Apple, the devices take into account frontal, side, rear and rollover impacts. Unfortunately, the set is a bit very sensitive.

KSL reports several cases of Accident Detection being triggered not due to car accidents, but simply for users who were skiing. According to local emergency services, their services receive alerts three to five times a day for this false reason.

Apple thought and developed Crash Detection with a buffer period. When your iPhone or Apple Watch detects an accident, you have 20 seconds to determine if you really were the victim of an accident. When you are skiing you will probably miss this 20 second window and help will be alerted.

And the police aren’t the only ones who need to be alerted. If you’ve identified emergency contacts, your iPhone or Apple Watch will also notify them by sending them your location. Then they might wonder how a car accident could happen in the middle of a ski resort, but hey…

This is not the first time that Accident Detection has been caught in this way. Apple has already had to install a patch after iPhone owners saw their device contacting emergency services while on a rollercoaster ride. Thus, an additional example that any action at high speed, or at least with significant changes in speed, can cause the system to fire.

How to prevent crash detection from notifying rescue by mistake

That being said, you probably don’t want your mountain vacation to be constantly interrupted by emergency services. If you know you’re going skiing, you can disable the auto calls feature. On an iPhone, go to Settings > Emergency Call, then turn off Call After a Serious Accident. To turn off this feature on your Apple Watch, open the Watch app on your iPhone, select Emergency Call, and turn off Call After a Serious Accident. Be sure to reactivate the system before returning to the vehicle.