Since early 2024, rumours have started to circulate around how Apple’s upcoming iOS 18 with its enhanced AI features will affect the hardware that it sells. One of the main things that is being hinted at is the implementation of AI-powered cameras being inserted into AirPods, part of several features for its wearables designed around wellness and health.
This technology has gathered intrigue from road safety experts, wondering if these devices may now be the key to increasing awareness for vulnerable road users like cyclists and pedestrians. We’ll take a look at the current information, existing AI camera technology, and how it could make our streets safer.
Potential Safety Benefits
We can’t always cover and be able to look at every single angle when we are out on the street or the road. AI-powered cameras, either those proposed in AirPods or neckwear of the kind already on the market by Google, provide extra awareness of potential hazards, especially in blind spots or peripherals.
Such devices could help to provide a cue to the wearer, either through audio, vibration, or a visual alert if they are wearing paired AR glasses. With this warning, users may be able to better prepare for or avoid a potential motor vehicle accident, reducing the risk of injury or collisions.
Although this technology could be vital for any vulnerable road users, it particularly has an impact on those with visual or hearing impairments who may not be able to see, or hear, potential hazards. The flexibility of the notification system would enable it to provide a warning in such a way that it can be understood quickly and easily.
Increased Hazard Perception
The situations where this new technology could help out most are those where control is lessened or those where the risk level is typically higher. For example, busy intersections or crowded crossings provide a multitude of information for a bike rider or pedestrian to process, and multiple variables that are out of their control, including the behaviours of other road users.
The technology could also warn others' intent. For example, AI-powered cameras may be able to detect that a car is going to turn suddenly by studying its wheel movements, especially in cases where the driver may have failed to indicate. Or, rear-facing AI cameras may be able to detect the approaching speed of other vehicles, which especially in the case of cyclists, could prevent or provide awareness of dangerous overtaking manoeuvres.
Smarter Sound Detection
Apple has already proven its ability to create high-quality in-ear headphones with smart noise-cancelling technology. With the addition of cameras to its AirPods range, this adaptive sound feature could be enhanced further, by picking up on various sounds in the user’s environment to help increase awareness of them.
In quieter areas such as residential neighbourhoods, more ambient noise could be picked up to increase the user’s general awareness, and in busier locations like city centres it could selectively choose which sounds to enhance based upon how they may impact the wearer’s safety.
Health-Centred Approach
These new features for Apple’s AirPods and other devices have been discussed as part of their new health-centred development initiatives, and so we could expect to see further benefits added to their technology aside from the cameras to enhance the well-being of users.
They could not only track heart rate through audio plethysmography provided by the noise-cancelling features and breathing but perhaps even add additional perks designed for long-term health protection. Depending upon the sophistication of the technology, it could even be capable of detecting high levels of CO2 emissions. They could also serve as an early alert system in the same way other fitness trackers can be used, contacting next of kin and the relevant authorities in the event an accident did occur.
How Could It Help Vulnerable Road Users?
To summarise, here’s a rundown of how this technology could help different types of vulnerable road users:
Pedestrians
- Real-time alerts for accident prevention.
- Provides extra vigilance, allowing the user to be able to focus more on the path ahead without needing to look around constantly. This could be of particular benefit for those who may have divided attention, such as parents with young children or dog walkers.
- Helps users with hearing or sight impairments have more awareness of their surroundings and could potentially highlight important features like crossings or obstructions.
Runners
- Real-time alerts for accident prevention.
- Adaptive sound for those running to music, helping to pick out essential noises from their surroundings they need to pay attention to.
- Health monitoring can give performance updates allowing runners to monitor their progress and avoid overexertion or injury.
Cyclists
- Real-time alerts for accident prevention, improving navigation in busy areas by providing details such as the speed or approach of other vehicles much like those in CoPilot systems.
- Real-time traffic updates to allow for better route planning and risk avoidance.
- Health monitoring to provide feedback and prevent long-term injuries from things like posture and overexertion.
- Hands-free notifications, to reduce the temptation to reach for a phone or other device while cycling.
Of course, all these benefits are purely speculation as we await further details on the technology itself from Apple. However, even if just real-time updates are what can be applied through this development, it still sees a great boon to vulnerable road users overall.
Potential Safety Risks
As with all groundbreaking technological advancements, there are always risks that come with them that need to be considered.
Complacency and Overreliance
For example, with the rumoured updates potentially being able to alert users to all manner of hazards and health concerns, there is the possibility that users may become too complacent and over reliant on the technology. As a result, they may not rely upon their own faculties as much, or forget how to remain aware, potentially leading to further issues should the technology fail or they leave the house without them.
Data Collection and Sharing
It is unclear how much data the AirPods and other adaptive AI technologies will be able to collect at this stage. We do not know the amount or quality of audio it may be able to store, alongside any long-term data tracking of health metrics and locations. With 61% of people being untrusting of AI technology, this could prove a significant hurdle to the adoption of the technology.
These unknowns around who has access to the data may be a reason for some not to want to adopt the technology. After all, without a clear idea about how it is shared, it could be dangerous for vulnerable users who don’t know who in or out of their household knows of their whereabouts and activities.
Technical Issues and Limitations
As much as we would like AI to be a problem solver, unfortunately, it’s not perfect by any stretch. There are cases where AI technology put in place to promote safety has failed, and in some cases resulted in dangerous incidents occurring that could have been avoided.
There are two categories of issues that could arise with the AI technology that’s likely to go into Apple’s AirPods. The first is that the technology is not sensitive or aware enough, and as a result, it is unable to detect hazards the wearer may face. It may also be unreliable, meaning in some instances it will be able to alert the user, while in others not react at all.
The second is the complete opposite of the first issue. If the AI algorithms have not learned enough, or are too sensitive, they could start to mislabel things as hazards when they are not, leading to an inattentive user perhaps overreacting and inadvertently putting themselves in danger when there was none.
With a release date and further information still on the horizon, we wait patiently for the full details of what the safety and AI features in the new AirPods and other hardware released as a part of iOS 18 will be. However, Apple isn’t the only company out there creating devices and software that can help promote road safety for vulnerable users, and so we expect to see increasing developments in this area in the years to come, especially as autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles become ever more present on our roads.
