Reporting light method and apparatus

A headlight assembly for use in a vehicle and with a rider's wireless portable computing device, the assembly for reporting vehicle conditions, the headlight assembly comprising:

• a housing forming a cavity;
• a processor mounted in the cavity;
• a wireless transceiver supported by the housing and linked to the processor;
• at least a first sensor device for sensing at least a first condition while the vehicle is operating, the first sensor device in communication with the processor;
• wherein the processor is programmed to:
• (i) receive data from the at least a first sensor device;
• and
• (ii) wirelessly transmit the received data to the portable computing device.

An emergency reporting system for use in a vehicle and for reporting emergency conditions to a dispatcher, the emergency reporting system comprising:

• (A) a headlight assembly including:
• a housing forming a cavity;
• a first processor mounted in the cavity;
• a first near field wireless transceiver supported by the housing and linked to the first processor;
• and
• at least a first sensor device for sensing at least a first condition while the vehicle is operating, the first sensor device in communication with the first processor;
• (B) a wireless portable computing device including:
• a second processor;
• a second near field wireless transceiver linked to the second processor;
• and
• a third wireless transceiver;
• the first processor programed to:
• (i) receive data from the at least a first sensor device;
• (ii) analyze the received data to assess likelihood that an emergency condition exists;
• and
• (iii) upon determining that likelihood of an emergency condition is greater than a first threshold level, automatically transmit a trigger signal to the second near field transceiver to initiate an emergency reporting communication;
• the second processor programmed to:
• (i) upon receiving a trigger signal from the first processor, initiate an emergency reporting communication with an emergency dispatcher via the third transceiver.