New Apple Watch and iPhone 14 detect car crashes and calls for help

US tech giant Apple has unveiled its latest products at an event held overnight, along with new features with the ability to save lives.

All iPhone 14 models, along with the Apple Watch Series 8, have been given the capability to recognise when the user has been involved in a car accident – and can call 000 on their behalf.

The new high G-force accelerometer within the iPhone 14 and Apple Watch can detect crashes up to 256 Gs – plenty enough, considering the Guinness World Record for the highest G-force endured by a person comes in at 214 Gs, recorded in 2003 when an IndyCar racing driver crashed while travelling at 354km/h.

A three-axis gyroscope also monitors “drastic changes in a car’s orientation,” while the internal barometer can detect when airbags have been deployed due to the sudden change in air pressure within the vehicle’s cabin.

Apple also says the microphone monitors “extreme sound levels” that occur when a collision takes place, while the GPS can determine sudden changes in speed.

If the phone or watch is within mobile reception or on Wi-Fi it will make a call to 000, advising emergency services of its location, before notifying the emergency contacts stored on the device.

The company says it used one million hours of real-world driving and crash data to develop the feature, and tested it by performing head-on, rear-end, side-impact, and roll-over crash tests in a laboratory environment.

Apple has also introduced new technology which will allow the iPhone 14 to send SOS messages via satellite, in circumstances where the phone is in a remote area with no mobile tower coverage.

However, this feature will only be available in North America from November 2022, and there’s no word yet on whether it will be rolled out to Australia.