Why walking around in public with Vision Pro makes no sense

The first trip out

I’d been using the Vision Pro at home and in my home office for hours a day, but those online videos and my previous exposure to the possibilities described above made it clear that I’d have to try wearing the device out somewhere.

It was the middle of a weekday that I mostly spent at home using the Microsoft Word app for the Vision Pro to write my article about the device’s entertainment applications. I live in a densely populated neighborhood on the north side of Chicago, and there are dozens of lunch and takeout spots in short walking distance, so it’s a frequent part of my routine to walk out to pick up something to eat and bring it home. That seemed like an ideal first test.

I wanted to start with something that was as casual as it could be. Fortunately, there’s a Potbelly sandwich shop only 600 feet from my doorstep.

I strapped the headset on with the solo loop band, dropped the battery in my left pocket, turned the knob to full passthrough, and started my way down the stairs of my building to the street.

The passthrough on this headset is better than anything I’ve seen before, and it’s more than enough to walk around while using it safely. No, it’s not anything close to the same as seeing the world with your own eyes, but you have all the fidelity and depth perception you need (and just barely enough field of view) to make it comfortable. Seeing what I was doing and navigating safely on foot was not a problem.

That said, there have been some videos of people driving with this thing on. That seems very unwise. The limited field of view could affect your ability to see vehicles in adjacent lanes, and the resolution is just low enough to pose a problem with seeing threats hundreds of feet away. Low-light visibility is poor, and there’s always the possibility that something in the software you’re using will go wrong, leaving your vision obstructed by a virtual object or, worse yet, making you totally blind, with no passthrough at all.

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While I felt safe walking with it on, wearing the Vision Pro while driving is unsafe and downright stupid. Just don’t do it.

To get to Potbelly, I must not only walk on my residential street, where I typically pass two or three people on the sidewalk, but I also have to make my way through a bustling nearby square where dozens of Chicagoans congregate. I was surprised that very few of these people reacted to me in any way. I got one cursory stare, but otherwise, my fellow pedestrians didn’t stop, didn’t say anything, and usually didn’t even look at me any more than they normally would any other stranger walking by.

That didn’t matter, though.

Yes, I felt ridiculous

Even though I didn’t see any outward evidence that others were judging me, I was judging myself. I felt self-conscious. I couldn’t shake the thought that even if the people around me weren’t saying anything negative, they were thinking it. Most Chicagoans are polite and keep to themselves on the street, but judgment is everywhere, even if you’re not wearing a hunk of glass and metal on your face.

I recalled the term “glassholes” from Google’s experiments with AR a few years back and wondered if that’s what people walking by thought of me. At a minimum, they probably thought I was an eccentric tech bro, I figured.

I arrived at Potbelly to pick up my order, which I’d placed via the chain’s iPhone app in advance. Normally, the bags of food are labeled with a name and left in a self-service pickup spot, but mine was still behind the counter. As a result, I had to go up to a worker and ask for it.

He interacted with me normally, looked me in the virtual eyes, made small talk with me, asked me a standard question about my order, and thanked me as he handed me the food. There was no awkward staring, no questions, no rude remark. That was a relief, but I considered that he may have held his tongue because I was a customer. I felt a drive to get through the interaction as quickly as possible to minimize my embarrassment.

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On the walk home, I still felt awkward, even though no one gave me any reason to. Maybe some Vision Pro users won’t care, but I couldn’t shake this feeling.

Those derisive TikTok comments I mentioned earlier had a common theme: Wearing the Vision Pro headset disconnects you from reality and the people around you, and that’s not desirable. More than one comment noted that people are already isolated enough with phones.

I'll say this for the Vision Pro: I don’t think that line of thinking holds up in reality. The truth is that I was more aware of my surroundings and the people around me with the Vision Pro on than I would have been if I was constantly looking down at my phone. My eyes were always up and taking in what was in front of me. There was no chance I’d block the sidewalk or run into someone because I was too busy futzing with a tiny screen at waist level.

The Vision Pro doesn’t detach you from the people around you any more than a phone does—it’s actually an improvement in that regard. But it’s not normal, it’s not something people have seen before, and it’s hard to miss. It draws attention and makes you stand out. My gut was telling me that wasn’t in a good way, even though everyone around me was polite.