Fitbit records steps whle driving

[mr3oh7]

So I have my blaze, and I noticed this morning after being at work it had record 4000 steps which is how many I recorded on a 3.5km walk.  I had only walked maybe a couple of hundred meters but had been drivng (an automatic) for several hours.  

By the end of my work day it showed over 10 000 steps when I had done maybe a km (1500 steps).  I made a note of the readins and it added 300 steps in 20 minutes, whilst I was only driving for that time. I also took it off and put it down on the center console and it recorded a lot of steps then too (I didn't take note of exactly how much)  

Pretty disapointed with this in general and will be sending it back for a refund.  

[Rich_Laue]

A couple things i can think off, your tracker uses an XYZ sensor to monitor arm movement. It is looking for arm movements that happen while the feet are moving. This means that it is possible for your fitbit to count steps while the arms are moving droning non walking periods.
Now when it comes to a bouncy ride, yup every tracker made could detect a as steps.

[mr3oh7]

I'm not talking about bumpy roads on bush tracks, I'm talking about sealed roads in cities.   According to fitbit:

 It has been tested against driving, buses, trains, and other public transportation and should not give you extra steps when you’re traveling.

This is clearly incorrect. 

[Rich_Laue]

@mr3oh7 any reference link for your quote? 

I read here diferently. 

Our engineers have worked diligently on your tracker's algorithms to make sure that it does not pick up false steps or activity recordings while in a car. Unless you are driving in a car with a stiff transmission or on back country roads, your tracker should not give you credit for any work that you don't do.

If you do pick up some steps while driving, see Can I delete data? for instructions on removing steps.

Doing a search on Google of driving and any brand i find this complaint about every tracker on the market. 

[mr3oh7]

the source for that quote is here . (about half way down)  Did you think I was lying or made it up ?  It say pretty much the same thing as you wrote anyway.  

I bought a fitbit because I believed it would accurately record my steps it does do that and they claim it does.  This may be a problem with every tracker but does every tracker claim it is not a problem? 

I think fitbit is useless piece of crap and I will be returing mine.  

[Rich_Laue]

Nobody said i didn't believe you, i simply asked for references.. It is common courtesy, and sometimese legally required to host the reference quoted
Fitbit did not claim its not a problem, according to your quote they admit it might be, in fact as my post points out fitbit, unlike some of the competition provides a way to remove these false steps.

What i also was pointing out is that a tracker looks at movement to determine if the user is walking. Unfortunately the tracker isn't very smart and sometimes can not detect between movement without the feet moving and movement while the feet are moving. This is compounded when the tracker is mounted on the arm and therefore only able to monitor arm motions.. Your legs are not being monitored.