Already? Man fined for using Apple Watch while driving.

The Apple Watch isn't even available in stores yet, and a Canadian man has been fined $120 for using it while driving. The case could have wide repercussions regarding how and when wearable use of the Apple Watch is permitted. 

|
Eric Risberg/AP/File
The Apple Maps app is displayed on an Apple Watch during an event in San Francisco.

That didn't take long.

The Apple Watch isn't even available in stores yet—only early adopters who preordered have one—and a Canadian man has already been ticketed for using it while driving. Maybe he should have waited for CarPlay? 

Details come from Canada's CTV News, which reports that Quebec man Jeffrey Macesin is facing a $120 fine for using the new wonder wearable computer to change songs while behind the wheel. Upon observing Macesin use the device, a patrolman pulled him over and issued the fine, citing language in the Quebec Highway Safety Code which states “no person may, while driving a road vehicle, use a hand-held device that includes a telephone function.”

MUST WATCH: Audi RS 6 Driver Runs Red Light, Gets Smacked By Tram: Video

Obviously, we don't know whether Macesin was changing songs, checking his heart rate, or was receiving a simple, heartfelt message from a loved one—because the Apple Watch can do all of those things. But he's currently fighting the fine, based on the fact that the Apple Watch is more akin to a Bluetooth headset than actual phone. A similar case involving a woman wearing a Google Glass eyepiece was dismissed because the courts determined it had no way of knowing whether the driver in question was actively using the device while driving.

Regardless of the outcome of this latest case, it could have wide repercussions regarding how and when wearable use of the Apple Watch is permitted. Stay tuned. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Already? Man fined for using Apple Watch while driving.
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2015/0601/Already-Man-fined-for-using-Apple-Watch-while-driving
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe