Is It Illegal to Use Map Apps While Driving?

In California it’s illegal to use a mobile phone without a headset while driving.

Steven Spriggs was pulled over and ticketed in January 2012 for using a map application on his smartphone while driving.

He protested. The court found against him. He appealed. And at the end of March the appellate court found that Spriggs had in fact broken the law by looking at a map on his phone while driving.

Although the statute refers in one section to use of “a wireless telephone” and in another to “an electronic wireless communications device,” the court held that the ban on phone use applied to digital maps.