Two days ago a little part of the internet went wild because a woman named Cecilia Abadie had a ticket for wearing Google Glass while driving. That’s the short history of it, you can check it out below.

The devil is on the details

Well, the thing is that she was ticketed for two infractions:

1. Going over the speed limit, thus the police stoping her.
2. Wearing Google Glass

For the reason number two, below is the law that covers (frames) it:

27602.  (a) 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.

(b) Subdivision (a) does not apply to the following equipment when installed in a vehicle:

(1) A vehicle information display.

(2) A global positioning display.

(3) A mapping display.

(4) A visual display used to enhance or supplement the driver’s view forward, behind, or to the sides of a motor vehicle for the purpose of maneuvering the vehicle.

As you can interpret, this law was made to avoid people watching TV while driving (that’s a quick summary of it). But it clearly mades an exception for GPS devices. As they’re now, watching videos (Youtube) on Google Glass it’s not straightforward process, maybe for the previous mentioned law.

The thing is, as Google Glass is a new type of device, there’s a grey area on where to put it legally, at least for now, and that’s where the debate has been narrowed.

• Can it be qualified as an earpiece? Obviously not, because it has an “screen”. However it can talk to your ear.
• Can it be qualified as a GPS? Well, it can function as one, but it’s not a GPS per se.
• Can it be qualified as an screen (projecting videos), hence distracting the driver? It may be, however is difficult to probe that the user was using it this way while driving.

As you can see new questions to a new device on this growing category of wearable computers.

Obviously this is the beginning of it, we’ll keep an eye on it.