It's true, cars have headlight switches, tachometers, gas gauges and electronic mirror controls. The horror.
The only devices that can actively command your attention are the gauges & lights in the instrument cluster (which are all important to driving safely) and possibly the screen on your radio. Speaking of which, I hated the old radio on my old car, because it was too bright and had too much activity on the display.
> It's true, cars have headlight switches, tachometers, gas gauges and electronic mirror controls. The horror.
You forgot climate control, cruise control, a confusing array of wiper settings, CD controls, radio, bluetooth, GPS, fuel efficiency feedback and probably a few others I didn't think of right off the top of my head. The point is not that cars are insanely distracting, but just that Glass is probably not the most distracting thing in your car.
Many of these have similar risk cost vs. risk reward tradeoffs. Climate control helps keep you focused (I know I have a hard time focusing on the road when it's 40F in my car) and cruise control helps keep you predictable to other drivers.
Bluetooth integration assumes people are going to use their phones either way, and thus handsfree is the safer choice. GPS informs drivers in advance so they don't have to swerve across seven lanes of traffic to make their exit.
My point is, what problem does Glass solve that makes it worth the risk?
If future iterations of Glass are able to incorporate existing dash functions, thus making them safer to access by not having to take one's eyes off the road, then the benefits are obvious.
The only devices that can actively command your attention are the gauges & lights in the instrument cluster (which are all important to driving safely) and possibly the screen on your radio. Speaking of which, I hated the old radio on my old car, because it was too bright and had too much activity on the display.