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Illinois Governor JB Pritzker will soon decide whether the state will be the first to ban the use of smart glasses while driving.
The state legislature passed a bill last month that adds language to the state’s driving laws, specifically calling out “artificial intelligence smart glasses” in the same way that using a cell phone is outlawed. If the governor signs the bill into law, it would make Illinois the first to have such a provision on the books.
According to the bill, drivers could still use smart glasses while parked or in neutral if traffic is obstructed. Otherwise, drivers would be subject to a maximum $75 fine for a first offense and up to $150 per offense for repeated violations. If the use of smart glasses while driving results in a crash with severe injuries or death, that fine would be a minimum of $1,000.
It’s unclear whether the governor will sign the bill or when that might happen. Once the bill is delivered, a governor in Illinois has 60 days to sign or veto it.
“The governor will carefully review everything that comes across his desk once received by the Illinois General Assembly and before signing,” a spokesperson for the governor said in an email to CNET.
Pritzker has a mixed record on supporting the tech industry on issues such as quantum computing and jobs in AI but has been opposed to data center incentives and privacy overreach on technology such as biometric data collection. The governor appears to be poised to sign a separate bill that would increase restrictions on social networks in an effort to protect children online.
Smart glasses in the news
Wearable glasses that can record photos and videos and that use artificial intelligence to perform other tasks have been in the news lately. Not only are tech giants such as Google and Apple developing products in the market, but one of the product category’s leaders, Meta, has been under scrutiny for the facial-recognition software it has been developing for its Meta Glasses products.
An investigation in Wired found that Meta had already distributed the software to its Meta AI app on mobile devices without activating the feature; the company pulled the software in response to public outcry over the report.
Soon after, a different report found that Meta has a license for facial recognition software from Rank One Computing, which develops software for the US military and law enforcement, among other groups.
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