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Comment by k-mcgrady | Hacker News Reader

Google Glass will probably be banned when driving (and rightly so - it'll also be much easier to catch people using Glass than mobile phones). I think something like Siri is much more likely to take off in cars due the the hands and eyes free ability. It's a nice concept you've made but I can't see it being very useful.

I'm interested to know if you considered this and have a different opinion.

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Fighter pilots fly with HUDs and helmet mounted displays quite safely. The reason why texting is so dangerous is because its a heads-down activity.

Flying is a substantially different activity. It's dangerous in its own way, often more dangerous than driving (if you're flying small planes, and probably fighter jets), but very differently so. In driving, a moment's inattention can kill, but as long as you have that taken care of, you're generally fine. In flying, things rarely go wrong with that kind of speed, but if you're not thinking far ahead, you can find yourself screwed.

A simple thought experiment: while cruising, close your eyes for ten seconds. What happens?

If you do this with a car, you're probably no longer driving when you open your eyes again. If you're on the highway and are unlucky, you never open your eyes again. If you're luckier, you've come to a stop by plowing into something. It's unlikely you're still cruising.

If you do this with an airplane, you're almost certainly still flying along fine. You may be off altitude or heading some, your airspeed may be getting into dangerous territory, but you're generally fine, and haven't suffered anything that can't be immediately fixed. There are things that can go wrong in those ten seconds to kill you, like a mid-air collision, but they're rare and not something you can avoid with confidence even with your eyes open.

This short-term ease is more than made up for with long-term planning difficulty. I can go hop in my car right now and set off for Los Angeles and be pretty sure I'll arrive safe and sound in a few days. Doing the same with an airplane (if I had one capable of making the flight, and the appropriate license) would require substantial advance planning, otherwise I could easily find myself killed by weather or lack of fuel.

In short: that pilots use HUDs is not as informative to their safety in cars as one might think.

Yes. But, I don't think fighter pilots often watch YouTube on their HUDs while flying.

Why do you think it's easier to catch people using Glass?

You can operate Google Glass hands-free.

Because it's attached to your face and incredibly easy to spot/very noticeable. People can easily text on phones by holding it by their lap out of sight of passing motorists/police.

I know it can be operated hands free but you still have a potentially distracting display.

The display is only on when you activate it. The alternative isn't glass or nothing, it's glass or what people currently do which is often looking down at their phone for directions. Directions on glass are far less distracting than any other navigation setup I've seen.

wearing != using.

I don't think Glass will be banned from driving, unless evidence mounts that Glass usage has caused increased accident rates (or unless there's a high-profile case that can be used to stir public action against them).

However, if I ran a secured workplace, I'd really think twice about letting my employees or hell, anyone, show up on premises with one. The ability to surreptitiously record everything you see is pretty hard to counter, security-wise... especially when it can save to local disk and transmit later when clear signal is available.

Because they will be wearing it.

But wearing it does not necessarily mean you're using it.

Holding a phone doesn't mean you're talking, but it's enough to get you a ticket (at least in California).

I live in Long Beach, where TED is held, and I had personal experience with someone using Google Glasses while driving during this years event - I was on my motorcycle a few blocks from the convention center, and I finally pulled over (in heavy traffic) and waited for him to get well away from me before I entered traffic again.

I hope these things are banned from use while driving - it's bad enough trying to stay alive on the roads as it is.

Was he not driving well? Was it the Glass device that is the cause of poor driving, if it was in fact poor driving?

Yes, holding, which takes a hand (or two) off the wheel. Wearing Glass does no such thing.

Its not illegal to have a Bluetooth headset and have your gps running. What's the difference here?

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