Option to turn off step count (or add "Driving Mode") to avoid erroneous steps/floors

[MacWade]

I just got home yesterday from a driving 6 hours in my car and I checked my Fitbit. I was really suprised to see it had given me almost 8,000 steps, 3.24 miles, 134 floors, & way more calories thank I burned while I was sitting in my car.  I looked on the forum to see how to easily delete the steps, miles, floors, and calories so my data would be accurate.  The only way people are fixing it is by manually logging the activity "Automobile or light truck (not a semi) driving" and entering in the duration.  I think that is a cumbersome way to fix the issue everytime I drive because I have to make sure I write down what time I get into and out of my car so I know the start time and duration.  And how does it automatically know the calories burned when everyone burns calories when they are sedentary at different rates.

I think they should add a "Drive Mode" feature that when turned on it won't add steps, distance, floors, & will only add calories burned equal to you sitting in a chair.

You could access the "Drive Mode" either on your Fitbit One or on your phone app to turn it on/off.  If you have a Fitbit One you could press the button till the "Drive Mode" icon appears then hold the button down for 2 seconds to turn it on or off.

On the phone apps you would just go to your device under "Account" and there you could turn it on or off.

You could also have the option to give you an alert when you unlock the phone that reminds you that it is in "Drive Mode" so you don't forget to turn it off when you get to your destination.  It would also be cool if you could use Siri to turn it on by saying "Turn on Fitbit Drive Mode" or "Turn off Fitbit Drive Mode".

[jiri.popek]

It is highly annoying when I drive my motorbike to/from work and the my Charge 3 counts steps. GPS data is available from my phone so it can't be hard to guess that I am not walking 80kmh with my heart rate at 70bpm.

I have searched through the forum but could not find any solution to this. And people complain about this for years already.

Moderator edit: Topic for clarification

[jiri.popek]

I do not support any manual switch to disable tracking.

My whole point was, that this could be automatic, as any other automatic activity recognition. The tracker has enough information to decide (speed and heart rate).

[MarcelBK]

That’s an interesting idea and could be useful, thanks for sharing this suggestion.

[LesterM]

Wow! Just recently changed to a Fitbit charge 3 from a garmin hr and was disappointed that Fitbit doesn’t come with this simple feature and that people has been asking for this since 2014 and is now 2018. Really considering returning my charge 3 and re investing in garmin. My wife was looking into a Fitbit as well but I definitely won’t recommend that she get one as it currently stands.

[SerendipityGCC]

Got to vote with our feet to get change it seems

[jiri.popek]

@LesterM I have the same feelings, bro... the counting of steps and floors during motorbike ride AND absence of the smart alarm (waking up in defined range outside deep and RAM sleep) makes me want to return my Charge 3. There is no reason to wait - there are only promises to implement, but nothing has happened for years here... 

[Endui]

Looks like they don't want to fix because it would not work with all of the products. On the other hand it would only work with watches with GPS because these are the only one which can measure the speed while hand is not moving (most of the watches seems to have only acceleration sensors (do not confuse with speed sensors).

Now imagine they are advertising a watch and in specs it would say "may count additional steps while driving/riding motorcycle". Some people would say "ehh, I drive everyday then it will show my steps for the day wrong all the time". For me it looks like it is stalemate situation.

I have my versa since February but I do not look at my step counter at all because I know is wrong - always. With Fitbit software developers knowing the issue for 4 years and doing nothing about it, I know that this is my last Fitbit smartwatch ever, next time I will add 100$ more and get garmin or apple watch. 

[LesterM]

I had a garmin vivosmart hr for a long time that would also count steps when driving until I realized that it had an option to turn of activity tracking which basically disables the watch from counting any steps. I find it hard to believe that they cannot implement an off/on button, but I’m no programmer. Although, this being an old issue from 4 years ago, they should have had plenty of time to address the issue. If they can’t fix this then my family definitely won’t be purchasing another Fitbit product.

[SerendipityGCC]

It’s so frustrating. If it didn’t have this flaw it would be a great device. But with this flaw it’s just not worth the expense

[SunsetRunner]

Calling out that the Garmin Vivosmart 3 I had was much better at not counting floors and steps when I was in a car when compared to my Fitbit Ionic. Both were worn at the same time and Garmin would consistently count fewer steps and floors than the Ionic.

[FMF99]

My Versa detects many movements (including rocking, leg swaying, and motorbike riding) as "steps", leading to gross overcounting of steps and floor climbing. Can the step detection algorithm be refined to ignore these extraneous movements?

I am not requesting a "Driving Mode" but a more advanced step detection algorithm, or at least more user control over sensitivity (than simpling selecting "dominant hand"). Random accelerations such as when motorbike riding should be easy to eliminate as not repetitive. Leg swinging could be eliminated by noting only small wrist displacement. Rather than basic thresholding, more sophisticated filtering and spectral analysis should be used.

[louieshome]

I would like to be able to select drive from my devise instead of on the dashboard.  Thank you for considering it.

[ClintonHammond]

Fitbit has never been good at step count accuracy 

But it's not that big a deal, because step count isn't really a useful metric, especially not if one is serious about one's health 

Keep in mind, Fitbit is little more than a toy  

[BikerMatt]

I second this suggestion. I only drive care share a few times a month but as driving has an impact on my daily metrics I'd like to log it from the tracker rather than having to remember to enter it as an activity in the app.

[BikerMatt]

I second this suggestion. I only drive car share a few times a month but as driving has an impact on my daily metrics I'd like to log it from the tracker rather than having to remember to enter it as an activity in the app.

[FMF99]

My old Charge 2 did not overcount to the extent of the Versa, which should permit more sophisticated gait analysis. Very disappointed with this poor behaviour and lack of action by Fitbit.

[Russ42]

Fitbit Charge 3 is susceptible to adding steps whilst driving. 

Please add a Drive function to the screen to pause the pedometer function.

It woukd then be useful to have a reminder with a vibrate every 30 mins to remind you the pedometer is off. 

If it can’t be added to the charge 3 itself, then at least a feature in the app to do the same with maybe a notification when you next unlock your phone as a reminder your in drive mode. 

[sagar13]

It's just a simple pause and play kind of a thing. Not even asking you to build the intelligence of auto detect driving activity. Shouldn't be that hard of a thing to bake it in the device's software. I would have built it myself if they let me build custom apps for my charge3.

[LesterM]

Sagar13

This is exactly what I said. It’s a very simple feature. 

[djsmomof3]

Well I took off my fit bit and logged out of my account.  Been using my Samsung Heath app on my phone. This has a pause stepping option. Maybe I'll get a Samsung when I get some money saved up. I will miss my fit bit family and challenges but it wasn't fair play or accurate for counting calories burned when I was accumulating over 5k steps a day while driving the school bus.  Oh well,  good luck everyone! 

[Synchro2003]

Currently, adding my driving time to negate steps/floors counted during a bumpy drive is adding to my exercise goal when I haven't exercised that day. Surely it's an easy fix to allow us to add a "drive" to ensure our steps/floors are as accurate as possible without adding that to our exercise goal for the week?

[Angie16]

I am SO disappointed that they haven't added more functionality to pause step counting or a drive mode or whatever for the new Charge 3! I was really hoping with all the other new features, it would be a no-brainer to fix this. We have been asking for this for years now! Even before the Charge 2. If they could address this, I would be ready to adopt the new Charge 3. It will address all my other needs. I sure would like to be able to rely on my fitbit to let me know how far I actually walk each day. This definitely going to stop me from purchasing the Charge 3.

[LesterM]

There’s the DriveBit app that somebody suggested. I can’t recall who, but I have been using it and seems to work pretty good. Again, it’s a third party app workaround and would be great if they could include this feature in their app or the watch itself. 

[djsmomof3]

Drive bit is ok but does not change your steps in challenges.  

[5ergio]

It also stores your drivings as activities, screwing up your weekly
activity count.
At the moment the only way to keep things accurate is to switch off the
watch when you drive.

Lately I noticed that my ionic doesn’t add too many steps when I am driving
a car (like 20 to 50 steps per hour or driving, not bad at all), but when I
am driving my motorcycle it adds thousands of steps and I definitely have
to switch it off.