Why is Garmin unable to implement crash detection for the mountain biking activity? Apple can do it, and their watches don’t have more sensors than Garmin’s — so it’s clearly just a matter of programming.
I work as an Emergency Medical Technician and have responded to several incidents where an Apple Watch actually helped save a life. Especially for mountain biking, this kind of feature is critically important.
It really shouldn’t be that hard to program an algorithm that also works for mountain biking. For example: a sudden lack of movement for a certain amount of time after a detected impact during an active workout. If someone is unconscious, they won’t move and need help. If they’re conscious, they can move and likely trigger an alert themselves.
Even in rare cases where someone stops moving after a downhill ride and the watch falsely thinks a crash occurred, a simple 60-second countdown could allow the user to cancel the alert. I’d much rather dismiss a false alarm than not have the function at all.
Just make it so that crash detection only kicks in after, say, 3 minutes of total stillness. If someone has hit their head hard, they’re likely to be unconscious for a while and won’t move at all. But if they’re still capable of movement, they can probably activate an alert themselves.
It’s really that simple.
As I said, Apple managed to implement this without false alarms — even on rough trails. The fact that Garmin still hasn’t done the same is extremely frustrating!
