The Apple Vision Pro has been on sale for a couple of months, albeit in the United States alone, and some of the excitement has definitely started to fade. But Apple is already working on ways to improve it and, most likely, eventually transition to what comes next — Apple Glass, the heavily rumored smart glasses.
Part of that work involves a new patent that details a new way that a headset or smart glasses could be capable of detecting various types of biometric data and then present options based on what it finds.
The patent, as always, includes plenty of examples but one in particular has the potential to save lives by warning people when they are drunk and then presenting a better option than driving home — getting a ride instead.
Go home, you're drunk
In what will surely be music to the ears of taxi companies like Uber and others, the patent includes an image that shows an interface similar to the Apple Vision Pros displaying a warning that the wearer is drunk, offering a one-button option to call a ride rather than getting behind the wheel.
This obviously makes the most sense when paired with something that people wear more often outside the home, like smart glasses, rather than the Apple Vision Pro. Apple is still thought to be working on such a product, but an Apple-labeled pair of smart glasses is likely many years away.
It's also important to remember that not all patents turn into products, so it's possible none of this will come to fruition. But for the sake of countless lives that are lost to drink driving every year, let's hope it does.
