GPS on your windshield re-legalized in California

Now that Governor Schwarzenegger is signing a few bills into law before he legally has to decide on them one way or the other (that deadline arrives on Tuesday), he's turned his attention to one issue of truly dire importance: The bizarre restriction against attaching GPS devices to your windshield in California.

In the state, it is legal to have a GPS device attached to your dashboard, but not to the windshield glass. I'm not clear on how or why this originally became a law, but I've always assumed it was a rather feeble attempt to ban radar detectors from cars.

Meanwhile, GPS technology has exploded, and virtually every device has to include a warning that you can't stick it on your windshield if you live in California. Numerous dash and air-vent attachment options have become available in the aftermath, but windshield mounts remain the most convenient.

The new law, of course, has a caveat: While you'll be able to attach the device to your windshield legally, it will have to be either in the lower left or lower right portion of the glass, not in the lower middle, where most people place it and where there's usually the most room. (The law actually specifies the size of the two squares in which the devices can be placed.) GPS devices can't interfere with airbag units, either. So while this is an improvement over the current situation, it's still not going to be perfect for all directionally-challenged drivers.

California isn't the only state backward enough to be dealing with such restrictions, but after the law goes into effect on January 1, 2009, only one state will retain an outright ban against attaching GPS devices to any point on your windshield. Sorry Minnesota!