The Google Glass, Google’s inaugural foray into the wearable electronic device market, will boast a lot of features when it finally hits shelves next year, from hands-free photography to voice recognition messaging. However, according to a recent USA Today article, Glass might also have a feature no one wants: the ability to conjure a traffic ticket or two for drivers who forget to remove the device when they get behind the wheel.

The USA Today article publicized the story of Cecilia Abadie, a California driver and “Glass Explorer” – Google’s version of a beta user for its Google Glass technology – who was pulled over and ticketed earlier this week for wearing her Google Glass device while driving. True to the modern rules of ubiquitous social media, Abadie rapidly posted a photograph of the ticket to her Google + profile, explaining what had happened in the caption and asking for “legal advice” from her followers.

“Is Google Glass illegal while driving or is the cop wrong???” Abadie asked.

A closer look at the ticket indicates that Abadie was not in fact specifically ticketed for “driving with Google Glass.” No legislation yet exists that expressly prohibits the use of Google’s wearable device while behind the wheel of an automobile. Laws do exist throughout the nation that make it illegal to text and drive, but the Google Glass is not a part of the smartphone family – despite similar features – and such an offense would not have matched the crime.

Instead, Abadie was cited for violating the California Vehicle Code 27602, or for “driving with monitor visible to driver.” The law, instead of being connected to smartphones or other modern technologies to which the Google Glass is most similar, actually relates back to television and video screens.

“A person shall not drive a motor vehicle if a television receiver, a video monitor, or a television or video screen…is operating and is located in the motor vehicle at a point forward of the driver’s seat,” the code states. In other words, if any video screen is operating and can be seen by the driver, then the offense is ticketable.

However, in Abadie’s situation at least, the ticket is questionable because the driver claims she did not have the Glass on at all – let alone broadcasting video – when she was ticketed. A number of Abadie’s Google + followers encouraged her to fight the ticket, largely because she was not actually in violation of California Vehicle Code while driving.

Even if Abadie can get a court to throw out the ticket, though, the situation might still spell bad news for Google. On the Google Glass website, one of the features advertised is GPS navigation, which might become useless if drivers can’t actually use the Glass while behind the wheel of a car.