A woman who was stopped and ticketed by a police officer in San Diego for wearing a Google Glass while driving, is considering appealing.
On Tuesday, October 29, Cecilia Abadie was pulled over for speeding in San Diego. A California Highway Patrol officer ticketed Abadie for speeding and wearing Google Glass.
"A cop just stopped me and gave me a ticket for wearing Google Glass while driving! The exact line says: Driving with Monitor visible to Driver (Google Glass). Is #GoogleGlass illegal while driving or is this cop wrong??? Any legal advice is appreciated!! This happened in California. Do you know any other #GlassExplorers that got a similar ticket anywhere in the US?" said Abadie on her Google Plus account.
This seems to be the first reported case in the U.S. where a car driver has received a ticket for wearing Google Glass and driving.
Google Glass, which is a wearable computer with an optical head-mounted display (OHMD) is at a development stage. Google has already released the developer's version of the Google Glass in the U.S. in February this year and the device will be available to consumers in 2014. The latest Google Glass can display information and the device can communicate wirelessly with the Internet via voice commands.
In a telephone interview, Abadie said that she received the ticket for wearing Google Glass while driving and the officer said it was a violation of a law that forbids a driver from viewing a video screen that is visible while driving a motor vehicle.
Abadie says that even though she was wearing the Google Glass, she was not using it. She said she was actually using the car's navigation system while driving.
Google has already released around 10,000 units of Google Glass (developer version) in the U.S. and is planning to release another 30,000 units soon.
In the U.S., states like Delaware and West Virginia have already introduced a bill that prohibits wearing Google Glass while driving. Similarly, UK is also planning a ban on mixing Google Glass with driving.
