Apple recently released the latest iOS version, iOS 16, in sync with the launch of the new iPhone 14 series. One of the new software version's features is called "Crash Detection," which is meant to do what it is called: to detect if the user is involved in an accident.
While the feature is promising and would be helpful in the event of a crash, no average consumer would actually want to try and drive his car to the wall or some other hard thing just to check if Apple's new safety feature indeed works. And there are some of reasons to avoid testing it.
First off, cars are more expensive than iPhones, and second, no one would want to incur any injury from testing a safety feature.
Thankfully, a YouTube channel called TechRax did what the average person won't do and went out of their way to get a car and crash it into other vehicles in order to find out if the iOS 16 Crash Detection feature indeed works, Jalopnik reported.
Here's what the people involved in the testing did: they used a new iPhone 14 Pro and attached it to a sedan, which they rigged to be driven remotely. This means no one was inside the car when the experiment was being done.
They conducted the testing in an open field devoid of any house or any structure whatsoever, save for electric posts located far away. They placed a burned car body in the field, and remotely drove the car to ram it into the junk car.
The testing was not without some mishaps, however. The testers were unable to create some sort of steering mechanism for the car, which meant that it can only go forward without deliberately turning to the left or the right. The car would simply turn towards the direction the terrain would turn it.
After numerous tries, the car successfully hit the car body, but the collision wasn't strong enough for the iPhone to consider it a "crash."
The testers eventually added more junk car bodies to widen the potential crash area, and successfully rammed the car into the scrapped cars two times. In both instances, the remotely-controlled car was stopped as a result of the collision.
One would expect the Crash Detection feature to immediately appear on the iPhone's display, but it didn't. The test video reveals that it would take at least 10 seconds before the iPhone starts responding, displaying a message on the screen and starting a countdown before making an emergency call for help.
TechRax's experiment simply proved that Apple's new safety feature for the iOS 16 works as intended. This new feature just might save lives, especially when it's most needed.
