Apple’s Siri, the voice assistant that commands many of the company’s devices, reportedly saved three boatmen from drowning this weekend.
The men, according to a Fox 4 news report published Monday, were around six kilometres off the coast of Florida when they encountered choppy water.
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The conditions soon overwhelmed the little boat, forcing the men to don life jackets as the vessel took on water.
This is where Siri comes into play.
Police suggest that the fishermen were unable to use the device’s screen because of cold hands, but the “Hey Siri” voice command was still available as on option.
Boaters that ran into trouble off the coast of Florida used ‘Hey Siri’ on an iPhone 7 to request help
One of the men used the command, requested her assistance, she obliged, phoned 911, and coast guard helicopter soon found the trio. All three were rescued with the help of a diver and Miami police.
Remarkably this isn’t the first time the assistant, which has been available on iPhones since 2011, was used to request emergency personnel.
In March, a four-year-old boy in the UK was able to use TouchID to log into his mom’s iPhone, and request help through Siri.
“He firstly managed to unlock it by pressing her thumb on the phone and then used the ‘Siri’ function to ask for help and it dialled 999 to put him through to emergency services,” the Met Police report reads.
Incidentally, the boaters are rather lucky that the iPhone they used was the iPhone 7.
Earlier iPhones did not feature any water resistance, which would render them particularly useless on a sinking boat.
