Legal Geek No. 9 - Will Apple Make Texting While Driving Legal Again?

Welcome back to Legal Geek! The topic this week is whether a new Apple patent application is the first step in making texting while driving legal again in most jurisdictions.


https://archive.org/details/LegalGeekEp09

One of the more interesting recent Apple-owned patent applications (U.S. Application No. 13/627,959 - Publication No. 2014/0085334) published this week at the US Patent Office. The invention is entitled Transparent Texting, the idea basically boiling down to using the rear-facing camera to stream through an image of what is in front of the user as a background to texting. Thus, someone walking and texting, or even hypothetically, driving and texting, can continue to see in front of them while focusing on the phone screen.

Leaving aside whether Apple will actually be able to secure a patent on this idea (and that is a highly gray area), this application could have far-reaching legal consequences if Apple executes this invention in new phone designs.

For example, if the problem with distracted driving is lost focus on the road, this application could solve that problem by keeping the focus on the message bubbles and the underlying background of the road. While some of the claims are to a mobile device like a phone, the method claims are broader and could encompass phones or displays that are an integral part of the car.  Imagine if text bubbles could show up on your windshield as the windshield brings you a high definition look of what cameras outside the car see? Would it still be distracted driving?

Unfortunately, the only way to know is if local lawmakers allow people to try out such freedoms. At least until car safety technology moves beyond automatic emergency brakes to more automated vehicle controls, it is unlikely that this, or a Google glass, or anything of the ilk will make texting while driving legal.

Bottom line: if you need to text, just pull over. Someday technology will help us overcome human focus problems, but until then, patents like this are just mere convenience for pedestrians.

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