A picture of Google Glass, a pair of thick-framed glasses with a small, crystalline screen placed over the top-outside corner of one lens.

Google Glass, Texting, & Driving

The Challenge

With the advent of Google Glass, many state legislatures began preemptively banning the use of Google Glass while driving. With continuing legal disputes, there was a lack of evidence on the effect of Glass on driving performance. Is Google Glass a detriment to driving? If so, how much?

The Method

Participants completed a series of simulated driving tasks under four treatments: texting and driving, driving while using Glass, driving while using voice-to-text, and a baseline device-free condition.

The Result

Glass performs closer to baseline driving than both texting and driving and voice-to-text. While it’s unwise to drive while being distracted with Glass, AR may be useful in driving domains that require integrated contextual information, such as industrial safety.

Paper: Tippey, K. G., Sivaraj, E., Ardoin, W. J., Roady, T., & Ferris, T. K. (2014, September). Texting while driving using Google Glass: Investigating the combined effect of heads-up display and hands-free input on driving safety and performance. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting (Vol. 58, No. 1, pp. 2023-2027). Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications.

As a supporting author, my primary contribution was initial concept, experimental design, treatment validation, and manuscript editing.

Photo courtesy PrePayAsYouGo, CC 2.0 License