Is It Legal to Use Your Phone for GPS While Driving?

Short answer: using your phone as a GPS while driving is legal across nearly all of North America — if the phone is secured in a mount and you set your route before you start moving. Holding the phone, resting it in your lap, or propping it in a cupholder while glancing down at directions can get you a distracted driving ticket almost anywhere.

The rule of thumb that works everywhere

Distracted driving laws vary by state and province in their exact wording, fines, and points, but they converge on the same three principles:

• Hands off. If the phone is in your hand while you're driving — even at a red light in most places — you're exposed. Red lights count as driving.
• Mounted means legal. A phone secured in a dash or vent mount, used hands-free, is treated like a built-in GPS unit virtually everywhere.
• Program it parked. Typing an address while moving is still an offence even with the phone mounted. Set the route, then drive.

Penalties are not trivial: fines commonly run from a few hundred dollars to over a thousand for repeat offences, plus licence points and — in some places — suspensions. Insurance premiums typically climb after a conviction. Check your local rules, as amounts change year to year.

The cupholder habit is the expensive one

Most GPS tickets don't come from texting — they come from the phone sliding around the passenger seat or cupholder, and the driver reaching for it. A mount fixes the legal problem and the safety one at the same time: navigation sits at eye level, in your sightline, instead of pulling your eyes off the road.

What to look for in a mount

Look for a grip that holds through potholes and hard braking, a base that stays put in temperature swings (suction cups weaken in deep cold — dash-adhesive and vent styles handle winter better), and one-handed docking so you're not fiddling at a stoplight.

The Dashboard Car Phone Mount in our lineup fits 99% of phone models and keeps directions at eye level where the law — and common sense — want them. Like everything in our Phone Accessories collection, it ships free with free returns, so you can test it on your own dash and send it back if it's not the right fit.

One mount, zero tickets, and directions where they belong. Browse car phone mounts and more — free shipping on every order.