New iPhone crash feature said to be calling 911 for people on roller coasters

This feature has been around on Android for three years. Can't say I've ever heard of those phones triggering the call.

This would have been considered good news if the feature existed when Son of Beast was still operating.

My Pixel 4 called 911 when I was on the Ring Of Fire at SFA. It was appropriate.

But seriously, I got off the ride and my phone kept ringing with a number I didn't recognize so I finally answered it and it was the 911 dispatcher saying that they got an automated call from me. It wasn't the motion detection, but rather a safety feature on the Pixel (or maybe all androids?) where if you press the power button over and over quickly it auto-dials 911, presumably so you can do it without anyone noticing.

Yeah, the iPhone has that too, probably implemented a few years after Android and touted as brand new cutting edge tech.

I just experienced the Ring of Fire this weekend. Guess the bran muffins finally worked.

The iPhone also has a revolutionary always-on screen now. (My Windows Phone had that... that should tell you how long ago that was a thing.)

I miss Windows Phone.

Proud former Nokia member here. Bought it thinking it would be part of the club, but nope. Still the best user interface.

Android has borrowed from it quite a bit. When you navigate settings especially. Neither platform really uses a unified design language anymore.

Just pick a platform and be a dick about it. Whether it’s Android or iOS, Xbox or PlayStation, Trek or Specialized or one of a dozen boutique brands. They’re all good!

Worst case scenario a few engineers might get a week out of the office riding roller coasters. Best case they already have the data from the false positives. Those are probably backwards depending on who you ask.

I saw a comment somewhere askign whether the engineers ever went to Great America.

Then I realized that's probably the problem: they've been to Great America, and for "riding a roller coaster" their standard is the "beloved" Grizzly*. No wonder they're getting false positives! Recall the Grizzly is the ride that tries to kill off its riders by boring them to death.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

* 14 straight years as the Worst Wood Roller Coaster in America per the Mitch Hawker Internet Coaster Poll.

--DCAjr

We went to Cal Great America a couple years ago and I simply couldn’t wait for Grizzly. I needed in on exactly what made it so bad. Now I know. And truth told, in the end I could identify coasters that I thought were worse. Son of Beast is probably at the bottom of my list and so is Magic Mountain’s Psyclone.
But now that I think about it both of those rides are destroyed now, aren’t they? Hm.

Never rode the west coast’s Grizzly, but Judge Roy Scream sits at the bottom of my list (below SoB). The only excitement I got was the surprise at how incredibly mundane it was.

I never understood the Grizzly hate. It's not great, but it's also not actively bad. There are at least 10 wooden coasters that I would rather not ride than ride and Grizzly isn't one of them.

Grizzly > RRR.

I guess it could depend on the reasons one would rate it low. Like I said, Judge Roy Scream is dead last but not because it inflicted pain. I'd certainly ride it again over Son of Beast. Although the latter is probably more ridable in its current state.

When I rode the Grizzly, to the extent that it actually ran (more like "walked" actually) it ran reasonably well. But those Fiberglas trains had no energy to them, so when it got to the high turnarounds...the ones that are slow on the one at Kings Dominion...it crawled. For a ride that didn't try to send its riders to the nearest trauma center, it's a surprisingly bad ride. All the other bad wood coasters I've ridden (Son of Beast and Psyclone being the obvious examples) were actively violent and awful that way. Grizzly ran decent, it was just a lousy ride. And the day I was there I had to extend my stay in the park to ride it because it opened late. Such a shame; I would have liked to have more time at Gilroy Gardens that day.

I understand that GCI have done some work on the Grizzly, and it is supposedly improved, but I don't know what that means; I haven't been back since that work was done.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

eightdotthree:

Trek or Specialized

You spelled Wars wrong

And then there are a few lone freaks like me who enjoy a nice scenic slow curve. I miss Colossus.

Gemini.

Where each new season you get a scenic view of yet another restaurant that replaced a ride.