Reports say that Apple devices’ crash and fall detection features are flooding 911 emergency service and dispatch centers across the U.S.
Carbon County officials in Red Lodge, Montana, have to deal with this problem.
“When people crash up there and have these watches, they automatically call 911, but the line is always open. So, our dispatchers can tell if it’s a real emergency or just a mistake because they can hear rustling in the background. “We got our numbers from wrong calls to 911 from previous years, even last year, and they’re up 30% this year,” Carbon County Sheriff Josh McQuillan told KTVQ in January.
KATU said that on Mount Hood and Schweitzer Mountain in Oregon and Idaho, people had accidentally called 911.
She told the Times that Apple had sent people to watch Dummer and her team for a day. She said that Apple must set up its call center if it wants this feature.
As of September, Apple Watches and iPhone 14s came with technology that was meant to alert 911 dispatchers. In 2018, fall detection technology came out.
Apple didn’t answer Fox News Digital’s multiple requests for comment right away, but an Apple spokesman told the Times that the company was aware of the problem and that users are warned 10 seconds before a 911 call is made so they can stop it.
Alex Kirschner, a spokesman for Apple, said, “We have been aware that in some specific situations, these features had called 911 when the user didn’t have a serious car accident or hard fall.”
The tech giant also said that changes to the software at the end of 2022 were meant to cut down on false dials.
“Crash Detection and Fall Detection are designed to get users to help when they need it most, and they have already helped save several lives,” Kirschner said.