Google Glass wearing driver’s fine dismissed
Late last year, a US woman was fined for driving while also wearing the new Google Glass glasses . Recently she had her citation dismissed after it was ruled by a court commissioner that there was no proof that the device was operating.
Last October, Cecilia Abadie, was pulled over and fined by a California Highway Patrol officer for speeding and driving while distracted, the officer claiming that her view was blocked by her Google Glass headset.
The citation against Abadie was dismissed on the grounds that there was no proof her Google Glass was operating at the time she was pulled over.
The Google Glass gadget is still in the ‘Explorer’ testing phase and this dismissal is good new for Google seeing as how three US states – West Virginia, Delaware and New Jersey – have already introduced legislation meant to make it illegal to drive while wearing the Google Glass.
The fact is that Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai are already working on in-car communication and infotainment systems meant to work in conjunction with the Google Glass, while at the same time other car makers – such as Nissan – have been working on their own web-enabled eye display units. It will be interesting to see how those technologies will fare in the upper mentioned states.
The dismissal of the fine can be seen as a precedent because at least in the current Google Glass model the is no real way of knowing if it is turned on from the outside, however in the states where it will be illegal to wear it that will not matter.
The question now becomes – and it might be a valid argument to be made by Google in the courts – whether there is any real difference between their technology and the other attention diverting features of modern and future vehicles, such as tablet displays and vehicles that project their driver-relevant information on the windscreen.
Fact of the matter is that the tiny screen of the Google Glass doesn’t occupy one’s entire field of vision, not even most of it, and it can be easily ignored if one needs to, it will be interesting to see how things develop over the coming months and years with these kinds of technologies.
