Glassing and Driving

Woman cited for Glassing and driving 'pretty sure' she'll fight ticket

With new technology comes new responsibilities.

It's hard for laws to keep up with all of the new technology that's constantly emerging. With the creating of Google Glass, eyewear that projects different technologies right in front of the users' eyes, different legal issues emerged; for example, the glasses can take first person photos of whatever the user is seeing, prompting a look at privacy issues.

But now, a different legal issue has come up: the issue of "Glassing and driving." Cecilia Abadie of California was recently pulled over for speeding, but issued a second citation for wearing her Google Glass eyewear while driving. Because the glasses project information right in front of the users eyes, technically using Google Glass while driving counts as "distracted driving." Abadie insists that the eyewear was not active while she was driving, but the officer cited it as "distracted driving" anyway. There is really no way for an officer to know for sure whether or not Google Glass is active while the user is driving.

The law can't keep up with emerging technology. The above article speculates that Google Glass actually enhances driver safety because drivers aren't using their cell phones, but the way I see it, having images projected in front of your eyes qualifies as distracting.

There is talk about banning "Glassing and Driving," but so far nothing has really been done. It's all too new. As Google Glass becomes more widespread, other issues will surely emerge. But even as laws are put into place, another technology will come out that brings up similar issues. It's inevitable.

As the author of the above article suggests, "Perhaps we should just ban all new technology for five years, so that the lawyers can decide how to deal with it all."