Apple introduced an important novelty in the iPhone 14 and the latest generation of its Watch smartwatch: the traffic accident detector. As the American company explains, when the device detects that you have suffered an accident, it will display a warning and automatically initiate an emergency call after 20 seconds – unless you cancel it. If you do not respond, this mobile function will send a message to the emergency services informing them that you have been in a car accident and giving them the latitude and longitude coordinates with an approximate search radius.
This has been key for a driver to save his life after suffering a serious accident in Los Angeles (United States). The motorist lost control of his vehicle and plunged down a ravine of more than 120 meters. The car was practically totaled and he was seriously injured with head trauma. His injuries prevented him from alerting emergencies. But instead, he made it from the iPhone 14 that he was carrying at the time of the accident.
“I think if we hadn’t had that good location information, he probably would have bled out,” said Mike Leum, one of the members of Montrose Search and Rescue, who has shared images of the rescue and the state of the vehicle on Twitter. . To evacuate him, it was necessary to resort to a helicopter from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
To know that a traffic accident has occurred, the phone equips a dual-core accelerometer, capable of measuring up to 256 G of force, and a “high-range” dynamic gyroscope. Both sensors are combined with a barometer to sense pressure changes, a microphone capable of identifying loud noises, and a GPS unit that detects sudden changes in speed.
In any case, the technology is not infallible and has sometimes misinterpreted the data, making calls to the emergency services in situations that were not really risky. Cases have been recorded, for example, in people who were enjoying a ride on a roller coaster, where the acceleration, deceleration and turns are abrupt.
Although this alert system from Apple is useful, it should be remembered that it is not necessary to have an iPhone 14 to have the automatic emergency call. Since April 2018, all new cars marketed in Europe have been equipped with an accident warning system (known as “eCall”).
This technology automatically alerts emergency services when the car’s sensors detect that a collision has occurred (for example, if the airbags deploy). It can also be activated manually, if one of the occupants presses the button that notifies a serious situation. At that moment, vehicle information and its geolocation are sent.
