Following issues such as roller coaster triggering new iPhone 14 collision detection, Apple executives have been revealing more information about how it works. There are real crashes, and there are also false reports of mobile phones calling crazy alarms when riding a roller coaster, plus independent testing shows that crash detection will not always work. Now two Apple executives have come forward to respond to how collision detection works, why these failures, or false alarms occur.
"Judgement mainly comes from the [new] gyroscope and accelerator's gravity acceleration detection," said Kaiann Drance, Apple's vice president of global iPhone product marketing. "It can detect G-force up to 256G. This is one of the key differences between new watches and new accelerators that phones have," said Ron Huang, vice president of sensing and connections at
. "This starts with our basic understanding of what we've experienced during the collision. In these collisions, you can see the impact force over 100 [Gs], and we start at around 256. When you try to increase this range, there are trade-offs in terms of accuracy and power costs over the higher range, and the team has spent a lot of work building the sensors in this way."
But, in addition to the improved gyroscope and accelerometer, Apple says there are many other sensors involved. It is the information combination of these sensors that ultimately trigger the collision detection function.
Although Apple did not specify all the different sensors, Huang Xiaoming emphasized that this must be a combination effort-and which sensors will change depending on the situation.
"In terms of activating collision detection, there is no 'silver bullet' (Silver bullet is a bullet made of silver, sometimes called silver bullet . As a weapon in Western religious beliefs and legends, it is the only weapon that can fight against werewolf , witches and other monsters. Silver bullets can also be used as a metaphor for a powerful and once and for all solutions.)," he explained. "It's hard to say how many of these things are to be triggered, because it's not a direct equation."
" triggers an alarm depending on how fast the previous driving speed is, which determines what signal you see later confirmation, speed changes, combined with impact force, pressure changes, and sound level, which are all quite dynamic algorithms."
Huang and Drance said, for example, air pressure will change in collisions, but if the car's windows are open, this change is too small and will not become an important factor. Again, there are many ways to detect that you are driving, such as not connecting to a Wi-Fi router, traveling "very fast -- faster than when you walk or ride a bike."
Drance said the company does not want to "do a lot of error alarms without need." She reported that she had a minor traffic accident collision, but her phone did not prompt a collision detection function.
She said: "My collision detection did not sound because it was just a small matter of scratching. Keep moving forward after solving the problem," she said. "This is part of sensor fusion and accuracy."
The two also explained more about the situation when the iPhone or Apple Watch attempted to call for help after the collision detection was triggered. They first "try dialing" through the owner's network, and then if they can't dial, "we'll try to route to any other available carrier."
Kaiann Dranc, Apple's vice president of global iPhone product marketing.
Two Apple executives are reluctant to explain the accuracy differences between iPhone 14 and Apple Watch Series 8, but they do admit that they are different.
"is different," Huang said. "The impact that Apple Watch perceives on your wrist when it crashes will be very different. For example, the barometer is very similar to iPhones and watches, so there are differences based on how devices are used, placed, or worn."
Apple previously published an overview video explaining how collision detection works.
