Google Glass may be one of the hottest and most innovative gadgets ever. The National Safety Council, however, is advising motorists to cool on using its while driving to send text messages. In an experiment involving 40 volunteers in a car simulator with either Glass or smartphone, the drivers were found to be too distracted when an incoming vehicle suddenly prompted them to apply the brakes.

Glass did fare better in terms of how quickly the motorists were able to regain their full focus on the road, the Council’s Ben Sawyer said in a news release. Sawyer maintained that “texting with either a smartphone or Glass will cause distraction and should be avoided while driving,” according to Design & Trend.

Texting on smartphones is illegal in many states but proliferates despite statistics that some 1.6 million crashes annually are attributed to it. With smartphones and Google Glass packing technology that allows – and even encourages multitasking – the exact opposite is needed when driving. The bottom line, as far as the National Safety Council is concerned, is that distracted driving poses serious risk of injury or death.

“For every measure we recorded, messaging with either device negatively impacted driving performance,” Sawyer said. “While Glass-using drivers demonstrated some areas of improved performance in recovering from the brake event, the device did not improve their response to the event itself. Compared to those just driving, multi-taskers reacted more slowly, preserved less headway during the brake event, and subsequently adopted greater following distances.

“We hope that Glass points the way to technology that can help deliver information with minimal risk,” Sawyer said.