Apple has released a new iPhone update — iOS 16.3.1, including “optimizations” for the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro’s Crash Detection feature, which has been criticized by some search and rescue personnel for causing false alarms during winter sports activities.
A few other fixes are included in this update, including those for iCloud settings and Siri requests for the Find My app, and the tech giant also released new software for tvOS, HomePods, and the Mac, reports The Verge.
On new iPhones and Apple Watches, the Crash Detection feature alerts emergency services if users are unresponsive after a “severe car crash” and is enabled by default, however, some officials have said that the feature has caused several false reports that have logged the time and resources of first responders.
In December last year, Apple devices of skiers in the US state had sent automated crash warnings to dispatchers at the Summit County 911 Center.
None of them was involved in an emergency, but they took time to handle and required ski patrollers to go to the location of the automated call if the skier did not answer a call from dispatchers.
This isn’t the first time Apple has optimized crash detection, according to the report.
Following reports of it triggering false alerts while iPhone users were riding rollercoasters, Apple released iOS 16.1.2 in November, which also included system changes.
The report further mentioned that the company did not explicitly state that the update was intended to address false positives, nor did it state that the latest update is intended to address issues with snow sports, but there haven’t been many reports of rollercoasters triggering crash alerts since it was released.
