Apple's new Emergency SOS feature for the iPhone is blamed for no fewer than 1,600 false calls to 911 since October, according to dispatchers.
And suddenly, emergency teams in Elk Grove and Sacramento County in California say they are receiving at least 20 such 911 calls every day from what appears to be an Apple service center.
While it's unclear why iPhones that were supposedly brought in for repairs are now calling 911, dispatchers told CBS that the hoax calls were first noticed in the fall of last year. Apple released new iPhones in September 2017 and went on sale later that month and in November, but it's unclear if these new devices are in any way related to the increasing number of accidental 911 calls.
On the other hand, one of the reasons could be the Emergency SOS feature that Apple has developed for iPhones and Apple Watch. On the iPhone, calling 911 with this feature can only be done by holding down the side button and either volume button, and this feature is enabled by default.
Dispatchers complain that these false calls could increase response times for other emergencies, and Apple says it's investigating to determine exactly how so many iPhones end up accidentally dialing 911.
"The times that affect us a lot are when other emergencies are happening and we may have a dispatcher on another 911 call who may need to put the call on hold to triage the incoming call," a 911 dispatcher was quoted as saying by the cited source.
Since the calls are made from a service center, it is believed that the 911 call could be part of a post-repair validation process, although engineers should be able to cancel test calls.
