Activating Siri by accident can lead to some awkward situations
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A series of unfortunate events led to Australian police showing up in force at a Muay Thai gym after an inadvertent emergency call was made via Siri made an inadvertent emergency call on a trainer's Apple Watch.
Generally, when an Apple Watch or Siri are involved in a story resulting in accidental emergency services, fall detection or some algorithmic function is to blame. In this case, it seems an unlikely set of coincidences led police to believe gunshots were fired at a gym.
According to a report from an Australian news site, Muay Thai and boxing trainer, Jamie Alleyne, accidentally called emergency services via his Apple Watch. He was in the middle of training someone using strike pads when his wrist depressed the Digital Crown and activated Siri.
However, it wasn't emergency SOS or fall detection that made the emergency call. Instead, it was Jamie's voice yelling "1-1-2" during training to guide the student.
As it turns out, 112 is an alternative emergency services number in Australia. Siri dialed the number, and the responder heard Jamie yell, "good shot" or "nice shot." That, likely accompanied by the loud impact of the strike pad being hit, led the emergency responder to say there was gunfire.
Fifteen police showed up moments later expecting anything, only to find a confused Jamie.
Advanced sensors and wearable technology are commonplace, but users are still discovering their limitations and shortfalls. Even though this incident required quite a few coincidences to have 15 armed police officers show up at a gym, these kinds of false alarms are becoming common.
