It’s much ado about next to nothing.
If someone is hooking their headphone to an apple to listen to “good quality” music, they are an idiot at the start.
It is an OK system, and it puts up with a lot of crap. But, wearing wireless headphones that crap out two miles from home because they were not charged will piss me off.
Ignorance can be fixed, stupidity is forever. So, let's assume you are just ignorant, shall we?
The airpods are stored in a case, the case charges the airpods. Now, just 15 minutes in the case charges the airpods for 3 hours. The case has a built-in battery that can charge the earpods for 24 hours on a charge. The case is charged via a micro-USB. So, you won't go down the road 2 miles, unless you are crawling and dragging yourself along the ground.
If you are crawling, and dragging yourself along the ground - say you were shot, had a car accident or something along that line - all you have to do is talk. You see, the earpods have accelerometes built into them, and can detect when you are moving your mouth. When you move your mouth and talk - they listen. So, you say something like "Siri, call 911". No buttons to push, just talk.
Now, say you are worried about losing them, after all, they are $159 a pair. When one falls out - there are IR detectors in each of them - they stop playing music. So, if you are distracted, and one falls out - the music will immediately stop.
Full data is explained, in very simple terms right here: http://www.apple.com/airpods/