Eyes on the road — and off your fancy glasses.
That’s the order from Illinois lawmakers who advanced a bill late in their spring session to bar drivers from wearing smart glasses powered by artificial intelligence.
The high-tech specs that have grown in popularity allow users to watch and record videos, send messages and scroll through plenty of the other minutiae that too many drivers are already distracting themselves with on their cellphones, according to Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias.
“Distracted driving is the drunk driving of our generation,” said Giannoulias, who championed the bill that received unanimous support in the Illinois General Assembly. “AI glasses shouldn’t become the next excuse for taking your attention off the road.”
The bill awaits Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature to make Illinois the first state to ban drivers from wearing smart glasses.
The proposed legislation specifically adds “artificial intelligence smart glasses” to the list of electronic communication devices already barred from use behind the wheel under state law.
That includes phones, hand-held personal digital assistants, tablets and computers that aren’t integrated into vehicles. Existing law includes some exemptions for hands-free, voice-operated use, which wouldn’t apply for smart glasses.
It’s not clear if smart glasses have been involved in more crashes in recent years, but anecdotally, they’re becoming more of an issue for Illinois police departments and DMVs, according to Giannoulias.
“We began seeing people wearing these smart glasses while taking their written exams and behind-the-wheel road tests,” he said. “It raised legitimate concerns about cheating and other challenges they can pose. Distracted driving is an epidemic, and these pose the same risks as other electronic devices.”
More than 3,200 people were killed and 315,000 injured in crashes involving distracted drivers nationwide in 2024, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.