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Comment by alexvr | Hacker News Reader

People should have the right to do whatever the heck they want with their property. While these "lawmakers" are at it, they should ban all of the voice-enabled cars and force people to text and hold the phone while driving.

I was driving down the road in an unfamiliar place with my iPhone and Google Maps in my lap, looking at it every now and then, and I noticed that after looking for a second I was usually half a foot in the wrong lane. I thought, "Glass would make this much safer, much easier." It would be so great to simply see where to go in the corner of your eye. I think that's the most practical feature of the first version of Glass.

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In this post:

* You start with "people should have the right to do whatever the heck they want with their property"

* Provide a concrete example of why that's a bad idea

* Use that example to argue that an even more accessible distraction is a good thing

Do you not see the problem with this logic? Less distracting maps/directions definitely would be a good thing, but that is only a tiny part of Glass.

No, people should not, and do not, have the right to do whatever the heck they want with their property, especially when what they're doing puts other people's lives in danger. That's why we have laws against things like drinking and driving.

That's not to say that I think Glass should be outlawed while driving. But lawmakers certainly have the right and responsibility to question whether it should be.

Why would they ban voice-enabled cars and force people to hold phones? That doesn't make any sense.

If you cannot comfortably see the map while driving: stop, memorise fragment, then drive. Where you cannot stop, road signs are usually available. Most automatic assistants in cars say the instructions out loud exactly so that you don't have to look at the screen.

New cars already display that kind of information on HUDs. They're usually minimal, so that you do no see the whole map.

(PS. Please do not drive with a phone in your lap. This is extremely dangerous. Just stop and find your way.)

It's called sarcasm, bro. Don't get bent out of shape. I'm criticizing lawmakers for questioning a technology that will make navigation and calling hands-free and much safer.

> People should have the right to do whatever the heck they want with their property.

The fact is that your property (your car) is only useful on public property (roads). Legislators have every right to regulate what you do on public property.

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