With the technology industry constantly attempting to bring to market the newest gadgets and gear, form factors are taking on a science fiction flair. Wearable devices such as eye glasses, watches and even flexible LCD displays are the tech gear we will come to depend on over the next decade. How we integrate these devices into our daily lives however, can be a bit of a legal uphill battle.
Texting and driving has the statistical data that rivals that of drunk driving, and yet people still commit this act several times a day. There are national campaigns to alert individuals about the dangers of taking your eyes off the road. Which is a bit odd to me, as speech-to-text has been an option on SMS devices since at least 2007 and is an app available for free.
Google glass, a wearable computer, is now the latest tech device that is getting bad press about it’s use while behind the wheel.
A San Francisco area journalist was cited for driving with a media display device that sits in front of the drivers line-of-sight. While the state of California has some strict rules regarding media devices and drivers, the rest of the country should consider the inherent dangers of driving distracted.
The thought of a wearable device that is enabled to be intuitive to your surroundings, might just be what we want drivers wearing. It can calculate speeds of other vehicles or objects on the road, give you up to the minute GPS coordinates and turn directions. It could even show you which gas stations have the cheapest coffee without ever getting out of your car. Or it could distract you enough to cause a multi-car pile up during your morning commute.
Should we leave the laws that need to be developed in the hands of the slow-moving, red-tape encumbered bureaucrats or should the companies that are developing this technology create the standards and practices for new products? That remains to be seen, but clearly the current laws are not designed to handle technology integration on a large level.
