How does crash detection work and how to turn it off on iPhone 14? With the release of the iPhone 14 and the new Apple Watch models, Apple has introduced a new safety feature called Crash Detection. Read on to find out what this feature is, how it works, and how to turn it on or off.
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What is accident detection?
Crash recognition is designed to detect serious car accidents in passenger cars. If you’re in a major accident and don’t answer, your Apple device can automatically call emergency services on your behalf.
How does crash detection work?
For accurate crash detection, your iPhone or Apple Watch uses a motion sensor with high dynamic range gyroscope and high-level accelerometer, GPS, barometer, microphone, and advanced motion algorithms.
When a serious accident is detected, an alert appears on the Apple Watch or iPhone display for 10 seconds. If you’re still unresponsive, you can swipe the screen to call emergency services immediately, or dismiss the alert if you don’t need to contact them. If you haven’t interacted with your Apple device within 10 seconds, a 10-second countdown will begin. At the end, the emergency services will be called.
When the emergency responder picks up the phone, they will start playing the following audio message from Siri in a loop with five seconds of silence between each repeat: “The owner of this iPhone has been in a severe car accident and is not answering his phone.” Siri will then broadcast your estimated location with latitude and longitude and search radius to both emergency services and through your device’s speaker.
The loudest message will be on the first playback, subsequent playbacks will be at a reduced volume in case you can talk to the emergency services. The message continues to repeat until you click the Stop Recorded Message button or the call ends.
If you have emergency contacts set up, they will also be notified of the accident after another 10-second countdown, and if you’ve set up medical identification information, a slider will appear on the lock screen for quick access.
What accidents can be detected?
Crash Detection is designed to detect major vehicle crashes, including frontal, side, rear, and rollover collisions involving sedans, mini vans, SUVs, light trucks, and other passenger vehicles.
Which devices support crash recognition?
Crash detection is supported on the following iPhone and Apple Watch models.
- iPhone 14
- iPhone 14 plus
- iPhone 14 Pro
- iPhone 14 Pro Max
- Apple Watch SE (2nd Generation)
- Apple Watch Series 8
- Apple Watch Ultra
How to enable accident detection
No setup required. Crash detection is enabled by default on the above supported devices, so you don’t have to do anything. If you are concerned that the feature may mistakenly log an accident and call emergency services, you can turn it off by following these steps.
How to disable crash detection
- Launch the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Scroll down and click on Emergency Call – SOS.
- In the Crash Recognizers section, turn off the toggle next to Call After Serious Accident.
If you ever want to enable this feature, just turn the toggle back on in settings.
