The iPhone 14 has a new feature that most will hopefully never need: “Crash Detection”. A YouTuber wanted to find out exactly how accident detection works.
In many ways, the new iPhone 14 is disappointing. With one exception, hardly anything has changed compared to the iPhone 13. A few new features here, a few improvements there. One of the innovations worth mentioning is the “Crash Detection” function. Accident detection can use a new motion sensor in the iPhone 14 to detect car accidents and automatically make an emergency call including location.
Test crash with a remote-controlled car
But who would want to be in a car accident just to test a new iPhone feature? Many reviewers have understandably regretted this. Not so Taras Maksimuk, born in Ukraine and founder of the YouTube channel TechRax. The US-based channel specializes in smartphone destruction and now has more than 7.6 million subscribers. Among other things, smartphones at TechRax have already ended up in a waterfall, a pool filled with cola and in a lava flow.
Instead of subjecting the iPhone 14 to a similar ordeal, however, TechRax wanted to put the new accident detection system to the test first. For this, the YouTubers have modified an old Grand Marquis from the former Ford brand Mercury in order to be able to control it by remote control. For the test, an iPhone 14 Pro is taped to the driver’s seat headrest. Cameras are installed inside the cabin to be able to follow the process.
Does accident detection work in iPhone 14?
In two runs, the Grand Marquis is then crashed into a pile of scrap metal. The result? After the first frontal impact, it initially looks as if the iPhone 14 Pro did not recognize the accident. But then, after about ten seconds, there is an announcement that the iPhone has detected an accident and will make an emergency call if you don’t react. After that, a ten-second countdown begins. The Grand Marquis also rammed head-on into the scrap heap during the second run. This time even the airbags open. And the iPhone 14 Pro also reacts as intended with an emergency call countdown.
The YouTube crash video is in no way a scientific test of the iPhone 14’s crash detection. But it does at least give a glimpse of how the new feature works. In this way, others can better imagine how making the emergency call works and prepare for it in the event of an emergency.
Note: TECHBOOK expressly advises against imitating the content shown in the video. TechRax emphasizes that the “video was recorded in a safe and controlled environment”. However, there are no rescue vehicles or other safety measures to be seen. During the first test run, the YouTubers briefly lost control of the test car, which continued unabated after colliding with a wrecked car.