What you need to know
- Samsung appears to be including a crash detection virtual sensor on the upcoming Galaxy S25 series.
- Although similar or identical sensors have appeared on prior Samsung devices, the company hasn’t rolled out a feature making use of them.
- It’s still unclear whether Samsung plans to introduce a car crash detection feature on the Galaxy S25 series or with One UI 7.
Samsung might finally catch up to Apple and Google by including a critical safety feature on the upcoming Galaxy S25 series. According to a report from Android Authority, leaked code strings from the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra reveal that the company will once again include a virtual car crash sensor. It’s worth noting that although past Galaxy phones have included a similar or identical sensor, Samsung hasn’t released a car crash detection feature yet.
The leaked files mention a Car Crash Detect Wakeup sensor, which is a Galaxy S25 sensor of the same name as ones previously spotted on the Galaxy S24 series and select Samsung foldables. This sensor is not a single hardware sensor in the traditional sense. Instead, it’s a virtual sensor that compiles data from multiple hardware sensors in an effort to detect when a car crash has occurred.
Being that Samsung keeps including the Car Crash Detect Wakeup sensor, it appears that the company is still working on bringing a car crash detection feature to Galaxy phones. The brand is clearly behind the curve. Google added a car crash detection feature to Pixel phones way back and 2019 and Apple followed suit in 2022.
However, as Android Authority notes, this isn’t a guarantee that a working feature will be available on the Galaxy S25 series. There have been code strings and hidden system apps hinting at car crash detection since as early as 2023, but a public and working feature has not been made available yet. Sometimes, these safety features are region locked, but there’s no evidence of car crash detection being available on Samsung devices in any region.
The good news is that, theoretically, the virtual sensor’s inclusion in the Galaxy S25 series codebase means Samsung’s upcoming flagships will get car crash detection whenever it becomes available as part of One UI. At the moment, it’s not available in One UI 7.