With distracted driving at the forefront of many road safety campaigns across the nation, Google Glass couldn’t pick a more interesting time to go public. The wearable computer devices will be made available to the general population sometime this year, and lawmakers in at least eight states have proposed bills to limit the use of Google Glass while driving.

How it works

Google Glass is an invention that brings the abilities of a smartphone up close and personal. The display is actually right in front of your eyes, using a frame that looks like a high-tech pair of glasses with a small screen in the upper right hand corner. It’s what happens in that small display that has people debating its safety merits.

With a blink of your eye, you can snap a picture. A quick move of your head can wake Glass from a “sleep” state. You can watch your GPS route animate in front of your eyes, or you can read fun facts that Google thinks are relevant as you drive down the street.

Glass means you don’t have to look away from the road to check your GPS, or to put in a new location, and blinking is a whole lot less distracting than holding up your cell phone in traffic to get a pic of the passing landscape. But even if it’s safer than smartphone and GPS distractions, does that mean it’s safe?

Eight states considering Google Glass bans

In anticipation of Google Glass being sold to the public at large, at least eight states are considering legislation that would ban its use by drivers. Lawmakers say it’s just another distracting device—just another excuse for horrific distracted driving accidents, and therefore it must be regulated.

Google is dispatching lobbyists across the country to counter arguments that the device is dangerous, according to NPR. But they’ll have their work cut out for them, as the campaign against distracted driving in general is gaining momentum.

Google spokesman Chris Dale says Glass is far from a hindrance and can actually help drivers. He says rather than looking down at your phone, you can view everything you need to without taking your eyes off the road. What Dale seems to miss is the point that you shouldn’t be “looking down at your phone” to begin with. All of your attention should be on driving—not a display in your line of vision.

MIT professor Earl Miller, who specializes in multitasking, says that while you may be able to convince yourself that you’re not distracted as you read from the Glass display and simultaneously cruise down the freeway, you are.

He explains that you think you’re monitoring the road, but you’re actually relying on your brain’s prediction that the road is clear, based on what you saw a second ago. Put simply, your brain fills in attention gaps with what it processed a split second ago. So, if the road was clear a second ago and you are watching your Glass display, the car that turns in front of you may not even register.

In 2012, an estimated 421,000 people were involved in distracted driving accidents. That marks a 9 percent increase over 2011, and distracted driving auto accidents are likely to continue this upward trend, particularly if we keep allowing drivers to be distracted by new “distraction-proof” technology.