Do we need indicators on bike helmets? Giro launches Ethos Mips helmets with integrated LED lights

I'd love a set of indicators for my urban commute - really useful for those difficult right turns where drivers wonder why you're ikn the middle of the road (as opposed to the middle of the lane which is normnal).

I've tried several different ones and all of them were varyngi degrees of awful. Poor battery life, unreliable, fragile, ugly.
A couple came close and with some development could be good but none were worth keeping so i returned them.
I'm still waiting for some I invested in on Kickstarter. Wonder if they'll ever turn up (or be any good if they do)?

What's the point, Audi drivers don't know what indicators are anyway.

I knew I'd get another fb ad:  Safest helmet ever.

https://preorder.unit1gear.com/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid&utm_...

I can remember Tomorrow's World a few decades ago when a kid made some flashing indicators for his bike. Well that was a success wasn't it.

Waste of money.

Drivers don't see my meter or so long arm so they aren't going to pay attention to a blinking light on my helmet ... which they won't be looking at anyway.

Who do manufactures test these ideas on, and what planet are they from?

Easy; Betteridge's law of headlines applies: i.e. no.

There seems to be a rash of these at the moment, with one company claiming that theirs is "the safest cycling helmet ever." whilst producing no evidence to support that claim, despite being asked several times.

Indicators on helmets is another of those wonderful ideas that look great on paper but are useless in practice, but people keep coming up with them.  Don't they bother consulting anyone who has the vaguest idea about cycling?

Courtroom, following a crash between a cyclist and driver:

Lawyer to cyclist: "Did you indicate?"
Cyclist: "Yes, with the indicators in my helmet."
Lawyer to cyclist: "Did you indicate, in the manner in which the highway code instructs cyclists to do so, with your arm and hand pointing in the direction you were going to turn?"
Cyclist:"...No."

Driver found not guilty, cyclist, assuming they're still alive, at fault.

Indicators for cyclists is such a dumb idea. When you're a vulnerable road user, you want to make sure any signal to other road users actually works (rather than fails on account of a dead battery, faulty hardware), and follows the Highway Code. Even if the Highway Code was updated (don't count on it), who wants to rely on a flashing light you can't even see to show which way you're going? Not me.

I must be getting old, I'm getting a sense of deja vu with these flash hats.

Also becoming a proper old grouch in that I see this and think "selling more plastic and foam isn't enough, they want to fit it with batteries and electronics too".

"WHAT DO WE NEED" 

"INDICATORS ON HELMETS"

"WHEN DO WE NEED THEM"

"NEVER!"

Suprised the Lumos helmet hasn't been mentioned (various models have been covered on Road.cc)

My two cents: I'm not convinced. Most of the time hand signals along with positioning etc "work" fine, by which I mean it's obvious to drivers what you want to do. Many drivers simply chose to ingore signals anyway, so I would still be wanting to check it's safe before moving across traffic, at which point turning your head would mean the indicator lights are no longer visible. It's very rare that I want to indicate but am unable to use hand signals, or that I think an indication has been missed due to not being visible (which would seem to be the scenarios this helmet is designed to address). 

Illegal if this is the only light.

You need something that will stay in a fixed position for 99.9% of the time.

No we dont, and they're clearly useless anyway as theyve had to dim most of the footage to make them stand out.

Quite like the lights (there is another brand with cheaper versions than this though) but the indicators are useless if not staring straight ahead...and even then, they are probably not far enough apart to do much use

That's a no from me... I fear drivers will simply be distracted by the weird lights (they ar eunlikely to see them as indicators) and may miss more standard directional cues.