Apple executives explain in detail the iPhone 14 / Pro series "car accident detection" function: a set of dynamic algorithms that sometimes deliberately do not trigger

CTOnews.com, October 10 (Xinhua)-- Apple has introduced a "car accident detection" feature into its newly released iPhone 14 / Pro series and Apple Watch, which has attracted a lot of attention. However, the trigger conditions for this feature seem strange, with some users testing collisions that cannot be triggered, while others frequently warn when riding a roller coaster.

In an interview with TechCrunch, two Apple executives discussed the car accident detection features of the iPhone 14 / Pro series and explained some specific trigger conditions.

Kaiann Drance, vice president of product marketing for Apple's global iPhone, and Ron Huang, vice president of Apple Sensor and connection, revealed in an interview that the iPhone 14 / Pro series and the new Apple Watch are equipped with new sensors that can detect sudden changes in motion and pressure, and accelerometers can measure values up to 256g.

Ron Huang said that in the process of developing this feature, developers need to "have a basic understanding of what happened during a car accident." In a car accident, the acceleration is generally more than 100G. In addition to data from gyroscopes and accelerometers, iPhone uses a number of other variables to know whether the user is moving in the car and whether he has been in a car accident.

It's hard to say what conditions must be met to trigger, because it's not a simple equation. According to the previous driving speed, the data value after the accident is also different. The speed change of the equipment, plus the impact force, plus the pressure change, plus the sound, constitute a very dynamic algorithm.

For some cases where the alarm was not triggered after a car accident, Drance said the iPhone 14 / Pro series or Apple Watch may have deliberately failed to contact emergency services.

When I was in New York earlier, the rear fender did crash, but the car accident test was unsuccessful. It's just a small car accident. You can still move on. This is part of sensor fusion and accuracy, because we don't want to make a lot of wrong calls to 911 when it's not necessary.

CTOnews.com learned that despite Apple's efforts to avoid erroneous calls to emergency services, there are reports that iPhone 14 keeps calling 911 when riding a roller coaster. The false alarm call may be due to the fact that the iPhone 14 / Pro series sensors mistakenly interpret the acceleration of the roller coaster in order to collide with another car.

Huang also talked about how Apple tests the feature, which places the iPhone 14 around many cars, and Apple studied data from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to see what types of accidents are the main causes of injuries.

We put iPhone in different parts of the car, such as dummies, the car itself and brackets. Then, we collect all the raw sensor data from these devices in such collisions. We have cameras inside and outside the car, so from the video, you can determine the actual impact time and what the pressure sensor will measure when the airbag pops.

The car accident detection feature of Apple devices is available for the iPhone 14 / Pro series, Apple Watch SE (Generation 2), Apple Watch Series 8, and Apple Watch Ultra.

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