California court: Hands on the wheel, not on your maps app

Drivers who use mapping software on their phones to find out where they're going may not be paying enough heed to where they're going.

At least that's one way of characterizing a recent ruling by a California court.

Issued late last month and made more widely known by a tweet today from law professor Orin Kerr, the ruling says handling a cell phone while driving, even if "solely for its map application," is every bit as illegal in the Golden State as holding the phone to your ear while talking, or using your thumb (or other digits) to text.

A man cited under Section 23123 of the California Vehicle Code had argued on appeal that the section's language implied its application was limited to drivers who hold a cell phone while using it to converse. And since the defendant wasn't conversing, but was simply using mapping software, he shouldn't have been subject to a ticket.

Section 23123 says, "a person shall not drive a motor vehicle while using a wireless telephone unless that telephone is specifically designed and configured to allow hands-free listening and talking, and is used in that manner while driving."

But Judge W. Kent Hamlin of the Superior Court of California, County of Fresno, wrote in his ruling that:

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