How a car crash helped Queensland woman discover life-saving iPhone feature

A TikToker who crashed her car in Queensland has said the accident helped her discover a potentially life-saving iPhone feature.

The crash detection feature on her phone engaged, texting emergency contacts and triggering a triple-0 call.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Woman explains iPhone 14 crash detector after smash.

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Lilli Newman was in a car accident in Nerang last month, triggering the iPhone 14 and Apple Watch Series 8 feature.

“I was unfortunately in a car accident recently, and I actually learned about this really cool feature in iPhone 14s,” Newman said.

The SOS feature engaged, asking if she would like the device to call emergency services, and giving her 20 seconds to respond before initiating the call automatically.

“It looks like you’ve been in a crash. iPhone will trigger Emergency SOS if you don’t respond,” the Apple prompt reads.

Newman said: “If you are unable to respond, your phone will play a looped message to emergency services and send them your location.

“It will also send a text message with your location to all your emergency contacts.

“Your medical ID will also appear on your phone screen, so please keep this updated.”

Apple confirmed it sends “latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates with an approximate search radius”.

In many countries, Apple will attempt to engage the feature even outside Wifi or cellular coverage, by connecting via satellite, however this is not available in Australia.

The crash detection feature is turned on by default, using a high dynamic range gyroscope and a dual-core accelerometer capable of detecting G-force measurements of up to 256G.

Apple says it has trained motion algorithms with more than a million hours of real-world driving.

It also used data collected from motion sensors at professional crash test labs, where cars were put through head-on, rear-end, side-impact and rollover collisions.

- With CarExpert