There’s no “silver bullet” behind crash detection, Apple says

After issues like the roller coaster ride triggering the crash detection of the new iPhone 14, tech giant Apple’s executives said there is no “silver bullet” behind crash detection.

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

Now, two Apple executives have explained how crash detection works, and why these failures or false alarms can occur.

“It’s mostly G Force detection (the new gyroscope and accelerometer),” said Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of worldwide iPhone product marketing.

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

Vice President, Sensing & Connectivity, Ron Huang, said, “It started with our basic understanding of what we experience during a crash.”

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

While Apple didn’t detail all the different sensors, Huang emphasized that it must be a combination effort — and which sensors are combined will change depending on the situation.

“It’s not a silver bullet when it comes to 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.