A report by the Wall Street Journal has suggested that Apple is now working on a new iPhone and Apple Watch feature that detects if you’re in a car crash and automatically dials 911.
Rumored to make an entry with the iPhones that will be released next year, the car crash detection feature will allow more drivers to get the help they need in an accident as long as they have one in their pocket or mounted to their dash.
To accurately detect a crash, Apple would use the accelerometer on the devices and measure if there are any sudden spikes in acceleration. For example, if you’re going 60km/h down the highway and your speed suddenly drops to 0km/h, that’s probably not a good sign and your phone would call emergency services to get help.
Source: The Verge (Nilay Patel)
As it stands, Apple has actually been testing the crash detection feature in the past year with anonymous iPhone and Apple Watch data. The documents show that Apple has detected more than 10 million potential vehicle impacts, with 50,000 of them leading to a call to 911.
But this is not the first time that Apple is experimenting with a safety function. A few years ago, the Cupertino company implemented ‘fall detection’ into the Apple Watch which alerts an emergency contact or calls emergency services if you have taken a hard fall. It has proven to be somewhat useful, as it recently saved a motorcyclist in Singapore after a hit-and-run.
In the end, building a new crash detection feature into the iPhone alongside CarPlay could bolster Apple’s rumored “IronHeart” project to connect its phone with car settings in the same way HomeKit controls smart speakers and lighting.
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