Google Glass wearers may want to think twice before wearing their high-tech specs behind the wheel, at least in California.
Cecilia Abadie said she was ticketed by a police officer for wearing Google Glass while driving through the sunny West Coast state. The exact line as written on the ticket said: "Driving with Monitor visible to Driver (Google Glass)."
Abadie said the actual law tells drivers not to "drive a vehicle equipped with a video monitor, if the monitor is visible to the driver and displays anything other than vehicle information global mapping displays, external media player (MP3), or satellite radio information."
In her Google+ post, Abadie posed this question: "Is #GoogleGlass [illegal] while driving or is this cop wrong???" Seeking legal advice, she asked people if they knew of similar tickets doled out to Google Glass wearers anywhere in the US.
Abadie's legal predicament triggered a flurry of responses to her post. Many questioned the legality of the ticket and some have encouraged her to fight it in court. However, others see the ticket as valid, saying that Glass can obstruct your view and prove a distraction to driving.
Abadie did fess up that she was also speeding, which apparently was the reason she was pulled over in the first place. But the Google Glass infraction does pose a thorny legal question that police, judges, and drivers will have to face as these wearable devices become more prevalent.
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