Illinois Proposes Ban On Smart Glasses While Driving

If you’ll allow a quick paraphrase of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, traffic comes at you pretty fast. If you don’t take off those smart glasses, you could miss it. And that’s exactly what Illinois lawmakers want you to do...even if it takes making new laws that keep up with current technology.

Illinois is moving forward with legislation that would ban drivers from wearing AI-powered smart glasses while behind the wheel.

The bill, now headed to the governor’s desk, would treat the devices like handheld electronic communication tools, essentially putting them in the same category as texting, scrolling, or watching videos on a phone. The goal is to keep drivers focused on the road, not floating digital overlays in front of their eyes.

We've Been Told For Years That Better Smart Glasses Tech Was Coming And That It Would Be Big

Lawmakers argue the concern isn’t science fiction anymore. Smart glasses are already here and getting more capable by the month.

Devices like the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses can take photos and video, play audio, take calls, send messages, and even connect to AI assistants that can identify objects or translate speech in real time. Newer prototypes are pushing even further into augmented reality (projecting information directly into the wearer’s field of view), which is exactly what worries safety officials.

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias has been blunt about it by pointing out that anything that pulls your attention away from driving, whether it’s in your hand or in front of your eyes, is a risk. And that’s the core of this debate. Unlike a phone you can put down, smart glasses sit in your line of sight, quietly competing with stoplights, pedestrians, and brake lights.

Illinois would be the first state in the nation to explicitly ban smart glasses for drivers if the governor signs the bill.