There is no single ‘silver bullet’ behind crash detection: Apple

(Apple file photo)


Following issues like roller coaster rides triggering the new iPhone 14 crash detection, tech giant Apple’s executives have said there’s no single “silver bullet” behind crash detection.

According to AppleInsider, there have been real crashes, as well as erroneous rollercoaster reports, plus independent testing has shown that crash detection won’t always work.

Now two of Apple’s executives have explained how crash detection works, and so why there can be these failures, or false positives.

“It’s mostly the G Force detection (of the new gyroscope and accelerometer),” Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPhone Product Marketing, was quoted as saying.

“It is able to detect G Force up to 256 Gs. That was one of the key differences for the new accelerometers that the new watches and phones have,” it added.

Vice president, Sensing & Connectivity, Ron Huang, said: “It started off with our fundamental understanding of what is experienced during a crash.”

“In these crashes, you see impact forces over 100[Gs],” continued Huang.

While Apple did not detail all of the different sensors, Huang stressed that it has to be a combination effort — and that which sensors are combined will change depending on the situation.

“There’s no silver bullet, in terms of activating crash detection,” he explains.

“It’s hard to say how many of these things have to trigger, because it’s not a straight equation,” he added.