And thus, the war of the glass begins. Last week, Cecilia Adabie from California was the first person to be penalised for wearing Google Glass whilst driving.
It is reported than Cecilia was driving in San Diego when the cops pulled her over for breaking the speed limit, but on the ticket (image below) there was a secondary offense: "Driving w/monitor visible to driver."
Yup, that’s the Glass.
The arresting officer issued the citation to Abadie for violating California’s Vehicle Code Section 27602, which states that "A person shall not drive a motor vehicle if a television receiver, a video monitor, or a television or video screen, or any other similar means of visually displaying a television broadcast or video signal that produces entertainment or business applications, is operating and is located in the motor vehicle at a point forward of the back of the driver’s seat, or is operating and the monitor, screen, or display is visible to the driver while driving the motor vehicle."
That law is obviously there to stop drivers from watching videos when behind the wheel, but should it apply to the Google Glass? If you were using it as a speedometer or GPS, then it’s actually safer than looking down or elsewhere in the vehicle to where the speedometer or GPS are usually placed?
According to Abadie’s post on Google+, her Glass wasn’t functioning when she was driving but that didn’t seem to be the issue — the arresting officer said "it was blocking her view."
The UK’s Department of Transport is still considering whether or not to ban certain wearable devices when driving, which might put a halt to the plans Mercedes-Benz may have in integrating Glass into their vehicles.
So what do you think? Is Google Glass a danger when driving? Or is looking across to a GPS or other display much worse?
