Things got pretty rowdy at Bonnaroo.
Epic Mosh Pit
Local authorities in Coffee County, Tennessee saw a huge spike in 911 calls at the music festival Bonnaroo after countless iPhones started mistaking dancing for car crashes.
A feature dubbed Crash Detection, which was introduced in the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro and the latest Apple watches last year, is designed to alert the authorities if it detects sudden and forceful movements. The idea is to help somebody out in the case of an emergency such as a mountain bike crash or car collision.
But as it turns out, the devices were a little too eager to call the authorities after Bonnaroo festivalgoers triggered the feature seemingly just by dancing, as local news station WKRN reported over the weekend. If the user doesn't react to an on-screen Emergency Call prompt for 20 seconds — tough to notice in the chaos of a concert — the device contacts emergency services by itself, and even shares live location data.
In other words, it's a classic unintended consequence. Sure, the feature might end up saving lives — but cluttering first responders with false positive 911 calls is bound to cause mayhem.
Calls of Duty
In response to the flood of calls, local authorities sent alerts to users in the area, encouraging them to deactivate the feature on their phones and smartwatches.
"It reduced the amount of calls that we were getting," director of Coffee County 911 Communication Center Scott LeDuc told WKRN. "It probably reduced it 40 to 60 percent."
Despite the flood of false calls, "our employees really stepped up, as first responders always do really step up in the line of duty and they did," LeDuc said.
And that can only be a good thing: you never know if somebody is actually in distress — or simply dancing their heart out at Bonnaroo.
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