iPhone 14 ‘glitch’: Warning to Gold Coast rollercoaster users as crash detection feature calls cops
Gold Coast theme park patrons are being warned not to take their new iPhone 14s on the thrill rides – or risk triggering a Triple 0 emergency. Here’s why.
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Gold Coast theme park patrons are being warned not to take their new iPhone 14s on the thrill rides – or risk triggering a Triple 0 emergency.
The latest Apple iPhone is fitted with a crash detection feature meant to alert authorities when a user is involved in a serious car accident.
But the newfangled smartphone appears to be proving too smart for its own good, with reports of people riding roller coasters sparking 911 emergencies in the US.
The false alarms are happening when the jarring of a rollercoaster mimics the jolt of a bad crash and tricks the crash detection feature, media outlets including the Wall Street Journal have reported.
Sara White, a 39-year-old dentist, told the WSJ her iPhone 14 Pro automatically called 911 as she rode the Mystic Timbers roller coaster at Kings Island amusement park in Ohio. The ride reaches speeds of up to 85km/h.
“The owner of this iPhone was in a severe car crash and is not responding to their phone,” an automated voice says in the call to 911, before providing longitude and latitude coordinates.
Emergency services responded to the call, the Journal reported.
Amusement ride website coaster101.com reported similar incidents at Dollywood in Tennessee, prompting the Dolly Parton-owned theme park to erect warning signs.
An Apple spokesperson told the WSJ that the crash detection feature was “extremely accurate in detecting severe crashes” but would be refined over time.
A spokesman for Village Roadshow Theme Parks, which owns Warner Bros. Movie World and Sea World on the Gold Coast, said guests were not permitted to take loose items, including mobile phones, on thrill rides for safety reasons.
“So we don’t anticipate a situation like this occurring,” he said.
“We will continue to monitor trends in technologies and look for opportunities to improve our guest experience.”
A Dreamworld spokeswoman said the Coomera theme park also did not permit loose items such as mobile phones on thrill rides.
“We continually monitor, review and take learnings from other members of our industry internationally,” she said.
Originally published as iPhone 14 ‘glitch’: Warning to Gold Coast rollercoaster users as crash detection feature calls cops
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