Dennis RomeroA Southern California woman might be the first person ever to have received a traffic ticket for driving while under the influence of … Google Glass?!
Yes. Google Glass enthusiast Cecilia Abadie says she was ticketed for using the internet-connected device even though, she claims, it wasn't active when she was driving:
The computer scientist posted her California Highway Patrol souvenir for the world to see on her Google+ page last night. The ticket says “Driving with Monitor visible to Driver (Google Glass).”
Abadie was also cited for going 85 in a 65 miles per hour zone during yesterday's stop. “The speeding was justified as I was in a 65 mph zone and thought I was on a 75mph zone,” she says in comments to her Google+ post.
Credit: Cecilia Abadie / Google+
But she seemed a little perplexed at the Google Glass part of the ticket, which could be a first. “Is #GoogleGlass illegal while driving or is this cop wrong???,” she asks.
California law says you can't drive while exposed to a monitor, with the exception of factory GPS (that has to be selected to GPS) and GPS-type devices of a certain size attached to the lower left hand corner of windshields.
The legality of Google Glass appears to be an untested area, and her case could be a first. If she was not actively using the monitor and it was simply a lens, Abadie might have a good case.
A CHP officer we talked to today told us:
That's a new one actually. I don't think the law covers it yet, to be honest with you.
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