iOS 16.2 adds a way to report inadvertent Emergency SOS activations

Apple’s next major iOS update, iOS 16.2, will let you send a report to the company when Emergency SOS has been triggered on accident, according to 9to5Mac. That could be a useful way to share data back to Apple if the feature activates, say, after riding a roller coaster.

The iPhone 14 lineup includes a new crash detection feature that activates Emergency SOS if it believes you have been in a car crash and you don’t respond. Emergency SOS contacts emergency services and can send your location to selected contacts, so having it trigger automatically after a crash could be genuinely helpful. It alerted responders to a crash in Lincoln, Nebraska, earlier this month.

But the feature has been inadvertently triggering for some people on roller coasters, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, leading to 911 calls when there isn’t actually an emergency situation. It also activated for one person after their iPhone flew off their motorcycle; while the owner was fine, his family panicked after receiving texts that he was in a crash.

An unnamed Apple spokesperson told the WSJ that its crash detection algorithms were validated with more than a million hours of data and real-world driving and said that the crash detection feature is “extremely accurate in detecting severe crashes.” This new reporting feature, included in the first iOS 16.2 developer beta released on Tuesday, indicates Apple is open to data from iPhone 14 users that could help it refine its crash detection systems. If you’re on iOS 16.2, you’ll see the reporting prompt when you cancel Emergency SOS mode.

Based on this first developer beta, iOS 16.2 is shaping up to be a big update. In addition to the new Emergency SOS reporting prompt, Apple added the Freeform whiteboard app, a revamped HomeKit architecture, and in the iPadOS 16.2 beta, it reintroduced Stage Manager’s external display support for iPads with M1 chips.