During the music festival Bonnaroo 2023which took place last weekend in Tennessee, there was a curious setback: many iPhone inadvertently called 911, the American emergency number, reporting a traffic accident. In reality, what the device, or rather the crash detection function of the Apple smartphone, detected was enormous moshpitthe rock concert custom of creating circles in which to mosh.
At the base is the fact that the iPhone’s crash detection feature recognizes crashes and automatically sends an emergency notification to the authorities. A very useful feature in case of real danger. However Apple has not considered the possibility of a music festival headlined by artists such as Foo Fighters, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Nas X e Knocked Loosecapable of unleashing crowds and even confusing iPhone alarm sensors.
What happened to the Bonnaroo? iPhone confuses a moshpit with a car accident
The local police discovered the problem after receiving several 911 calls. The authorities even posted tweets asking festival users to turn off the crash detection feature.
Heads up Bonnaroovians! Let’s work as a team to resolve this! You can take action by going Settings>Emergency SOS and deactivating the “crash” feature. https://t.co/11MqYk0JKE
— Bonnaroo (@Bonnaroo) June 15, 2023
Bonnaroo organizers also spread a similar message their Twitterexplaining how to disable the setting.