GPS Mounting in California
Are you driving in California? If so, the GPS laws have changed, again, this year. There’s a lot of old material and misinformation circulating around the web, so here’s the definitive source from the California DMV, legalese and all:
What does this all mean for California GPS users?
- GPS units must be mounted in a 5″-square corner on the lower corner of the driver-side windshield area or in a 7″-square corner on the passenger-side windshield area.
- Friction mounts (bean bags and other mount devices) are not allowed if the GPS unit ends up blocking any part of the windshield besides those areas mentioned in #1. (You can’t mount the GPS unit in the middle of the dash, even if you have a bean bag friction mount.)
That’s about it except for additional fine print. You may need a lawyer and an engineer to decipher the rest of the small details. You can’t be watching movies on the GPS unit, for instance. By the way, those rear-view-mirror hanging dice aren’t allowed, either, and you’re supposed to clear all the ice and snow on your windows, too. Only California and Minnesota have specific GPS-mounting rules. Go figure…
Related note: one of these days, we’ll have ulta thin, flexible, portable screens that we can tape to just about anything.