One of the best recent features launched by Apple and then followed by a few Android makers is ‘Emergency SOS.’ However, Apple’s Emergency SOS via Satellite takes this one step further.
Last week, an iPhone crash alert went off on Vancouver Island in Mosaic Forest Management’s Northwest Bay Division, offering the user’s location and their phone’s battery life. The Arrowsmith Search and Rescue attempted to call the phone back, but they were unsuccessful. They then dispatched 4×4 vehicles with chains and UTV with tracks, and the RCMP used drones with heat sensors over the area and found a heat signature.
When the SAR teams got to the location, they found two people with a 4×4 that slid off the road and fliped on its side.
The accident location didn’t have cell coverage, and the two people had no clue that one of their phones sent a distress signal by satellite. This could have ended up in a serious, potentially life-threatening large-scale search, but it didn’t due to the iPhone’s satellite SOS and ‘Crash Detection.’
The Emergency SOS via Satellite feature launched in 2022 and was first available on the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro series. Apple has stated that the feature will only be free for two years, so expect an update from the company regarding pricing is expected at the end of this year.
