Recently, Apple's iPhone crash detection software came to the aid of a UTV driver after an accident in Kentucky. According to the local news station WSAZ 3, the Hayes Crossing-Haldeman Fire and Rescue team responded to "a UTV crash that had gone off a cliff in Rowan County," and while the passengers of the UTV weren't hurt, "the two were saved thanks in large part to an iPhone crash detection alert."
Furthermore, the Search and Rescue team posted after the fact, "Side note! If you are going to be out riding atvs or utvs, or even motorcycles or vehicles, PLEASE keep the iPhone and/or Apple Watch crash detection on! Let someone track your location! Life 360 also has a crash detection option! It truly helped us find these 2 tonight!"
Now, in the case of these two, I'm very glad they had their iPhone's crash detection on, as it helped ensure a speedy rescue and recovery. And for longtime readers of RideApart, you know I'm all for having a satellite beacon that you can trigger an SOS from. However, since Apple launched the crash detection software, it's had it's issue. Chief among them, triggering itself while riding motorcycles, something that's far less abusive than even the most middling of off-road trails around here.
And that's why I'd hazard against turning the software on if you're going to drive your UTVs, especially out West. But you should absolutely bring a satellite communicator with you.
Since it's launch in the iPhone 14, crash detection has had two issues that are interestingly, and rather notedly, diametrically opposed: either it detects too many "crashes" or it doesn't detect it at all. False positives have plagued the software, including being triggered by snowmobilers who have their phones in their pockets, as well as motorcyclists, and even skiers and snowboarders in Japan where one local emergency response network clocked 143 false distress signals.
Reddit is also full of failures for the software, including a motorcycle rider who crashed whose iPhone, nor Apple Watch, called emergency services. Something, however, is always better than nothing, and Apple has made changes to the software in further updates so that its crash detection is better at weeding our false positives and true crashes. And it should be lauded in the case of the above UTV accident.
But with the software still experiencing issues, I wouldn't personally put my continued health and safety into its hands and be like, "Yep, I'm good." Nor would I entrust it to not send out an SOS when I'm off-roading in the area I just was with my Can-Am on my elk hunt. I mean, I have my iPhone connected to a magnetic base on my side-by-side's windshield, and the rocky trail I was driving on was so severe that it knocked it right off and onto the floor. Likewise, some of the sharp hits from ruts sometimes feel like hitting brick walls.
Triggering an SOS, and then not being able to shut it off, well, that can get expensive quick. Or worse yet, if you actually have an incident like the above and it doesn't go off. Again, that's why I'll always tell folks they need some sort of physical, non-phone, SOS beacon whenever they go off on an adventure where cell service isn't a thing.
It really just comes down to entrusting your safety to something that breaks so easily, as well as doesn't work 100% of the time.
