The Wall Street Journal reports that visitors to a number of US theme parks have reported their iPhones summoned emergency services while they were on rollercoasters.

Since the iPhone 14 went on sale, the 911 dispatch center near Kings Island amusement park has received at least six phone calls saying:

“The owner of this iPhone was in a severe car crash...”

Except, the owner was just on a roller coaster.

?? by me: https://t.co/hp1fHZBIf6 pic.twitter.com/i0lZPoWzGz

— Joanna Stern (@JoannaStern) October 9, 2022

Apple's iPhone 14 series and the new Apple Watch Ultra, Series 8, and SE 2, have a new safety feature called "crash detection".

According to Apple, if an iPhone determines that the user has been in a "serious vehicle crash," it will display a warning and, unless you stop it, make an emergency phone call after 20 seconds. 

"If you are unresponsive, your iPhone will play an audio message for emergency services, which informs them that you’ve been in a severe crash and gives them your latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates with an approximate search radius," explains Apple’s website.

The feature was likely activated by the sudden acceleration and shocks experienced on a roller coaster, fooling the phone's sensors into believing a collision had occurred.

Metro