Welcome back to Legal Geek. This week, we answer a listener question about whether new Smartwatches like Apple Watch and Google Wear will violate traffic laws regulating video screens in vehicles.
Listener James T. on Twitter [@jthatcher79] asked whether the new smartwatches will violate second monitor laws like California's vehicle code section 27602. Let's take a look at this specific law and then the ramifications across the country.
The California law prohibits operation of a motor vehicle if a television receiver, a video monitor, a video screen, or any other similar means of visually displaying a video signal for entertainment or business applications is operating and is located in the motor vehicle in front of the back side of the driver's seat, or located so as to be visible to the driver while driving. Exceptions to this rule include vehicle information displays, GPS displays, a mapping display, video feeds enhancing or supplementing the view around the vehicle such as back up cameras, and equipment that has an interlock device or is otherwise configured to disable the video screen for all non-exception uses during operation of the vehicle.
When parsing this law, the initial question is whether a smartwatch will be considered a means similar to a TV receiver or video screen for displaying a video signal for entertainment or business applications. Considering smartphones and similar devices have been interpreted as covered by these types of laws, the answer is most likely yes. Indeed, this California code section made national news a year ago for generating the first traffic violation tickets to people wearing Google Glass while driving. Its' hard to imagine the revenue-generating traffic cops will pass on the opportunity to bulk up a ticket fine with extra violations for smartwatch wearers.
The second question is whether smartwatches fall into any of the exceptions to the rule. Clearly the key question will be whether the smartwatch is configured to disable all use except for mapping and GPS. At this point, there is no indication this will be the case, which means wearing smartwatches (by the letter of the broad California law) likely violates this traffic law.
Just like with Google Glass, this isn't exactly what the law was written to cover. So expect any early tickets that do happen to be challenged in court, which will perhaps lead to more clear legislation regarding whether smartwatch manufacturers have to include interlock or similar features disabling the device in a moving vehicle. The law always takes a while to catch up to new technologies, and this is no different.
But for now, the Bottom Line is, at least in my view, smartwatches could lead to traffic ticket violations under California code 27602.
Many states have similar laws outlawing use of non-hands-free cell phones or television and video monitors. So while each state law is different and requires different analysis, the previous discussion of the California law likely applies equally in many states. So for now at this very early stage of the legal process, buyer beware...you may want to slip the smartwatch off should you get pulled over for speeding.
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