The founder of Skully helmets, Marcus Weller, has an idea that some may find Orwellian: a not-so-distant future where people share their location data in the interest of safety.

While riding down a crowded Barcelona Street, Weller turned his head for a split second to read a street sign. The next thing he knew, he had crashed into the back of a smart car, resulting in a few battered bones and a brilliant helmet idea. The Skully AR-1 was born: a masterpiece of technology with displays fed by rearview cameras and GPS navigation, among other modern conveniences. Never again would he have to turn his head away from the road to read a street sign.

However, Weller wants to go further than that. He asks riders to “imagine a world in which we can create a digital force field around the rider. … Wouldn’t that be crazy? Well guess what? It’s possible.”

In fact, this isn’t an entirely new idea. Google’s driverless cars already have the technology to sense other vehicles around them. With the platform already in place, cars and motorcycles (or motorcycle helmets) could digitally communicate with each other to avoid accidents.