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".

[SunsetRunner]

tweet CEO & support. or vote w wallet.

http://twitter.com/lloydhtaylor/status/902270395683876867

[yupswing]

3 years, 1789 votes, nothing has changed.

Disappointing.

[Nevians]

Yes, Please ! While i drive motocycle i have so many false steps/ Floors counted. Should be an option to switch on/ off tracker  and option in Fitbit app to set up time/date when  the steps counter have to be off.

[SunsetRunner]

from fitbit support on Twitter:

"Hi! It's already reviewed. We're still looking for strong support from users and evaluating to see if our team will agree to implement it."

when i asked exactly how much more support is needed:

"That's something we can't disclose. We hope for your continued patience on this"

http://twitter.com/FitbitSupport/status/902308537790894080."

[Ton]

New Fitbit Ionic on pre-order! Anyone going for it? Only £299.99!!!

[Bobbert]

Please can you make it so with the charge 2 you can scroll to steps taken then press and hold to turn the counter off so whilst driving it doesn't log steps as I drive a lorry and it logged 12000 steps today and I don't want to have to keep going in and manually delete steps. Really frustrating and such an easy fix. Would solve any problem people have with it logging steps when they don't want too

[rainbow4abc]

@Ton   Did you research it to see if it has Pause or Driving mode?

[rainbow4abc]

I have stopped wearing/using my Charge2 regularly.   I don't sleep quietly enough for a good heart beat, so I don't get detailed sleep analysis. And the added steps when driving, charging or sitting in the trunk of a moving vehicle make me nuts.  I put it on when I am going walking and collect the step count - calculate miles (because FitBit never uses my step length that I bothered to measure and enter on profile) and I collect the data in MapMyWalk.  It is not ideal, nor a 24-hour tracker, but at least what is there is accurate.    

If three years of a thread and nearly 1800 votes isn't strong enough support from users, then I will start my research on what my next fitness tracker will be and it won't be a FitBit.  

[Ton]

---

@rainbow4abc wrote:
@Ton   Did you research it to see if it has Pause or Driving mode?

---

I didn't but to me it looks more like a gadget. Not really interested in that fancy stuff, and also I have the feeling they're more interested in making money on gadgets rather than improving what could be already good... Sad to say...

[Sandishmily]

Please let us know what you find in looking for a different tracker. I am also looking for something different as school is starting next week and as a bus driver my fitbit once again becomes useless till next summer.

[rainbow4abc]

@Sandishmily  -I went looking and found a comparison of "10 top fitiness trackers"  of course all are sold by Amazon. 

4 were varieties of Fitbit - research shows that all speak of steps while driving

Garmin vivoactive -  counts steps while drive with a number of frustrated users commenting on Garmin forum.

Samsung Gear Fit2 Smartwatch counts steps while driving, typing, cycling

TomTom Spark 3 Cardio, GPS Fitness Watch + Heart Rate Monitor, I didn't see complaints about steps and driving, but at Amazon only 40% give it 5 stars; and several comments of "hope they keep improving it"  Another comment: The step counter is highly inaccurate and grossly exaggerates my steps counts

Lintelek - no major complaints, but read up

Microsoft Band - counts steps when driving.

There are a number of review finders, and comparisons.  (I do not have Consumer Reviews) There are dozens of trackers and the top ones all seem to have the issue of counting steps when driving.  every one would like to see it fixed, and for some reason manufacturers don't offer a "pause" or a "drive mode" or "turn it off"

I find this quite discouraging.

[MaRaNtZ]

Virtually, an automatic recognition of driving mode, is impossible unless serious artificial intelligence will be used to analyze accelerometers data.

Also, so many of the current trackers have just one button, others are surely underused on all available functions, and nobody one is willing to go often into some arcane options to turn on/off driving mode. This is one of the main reason major players never have implemented this yet.

Our trackers are mostly "gadget", inaccurate by design, that improves after each generation, but remains some sort of "helpers" for convincing people to fit and move. The real revolution will start after cloud computing will become mainstream, and our devices always connected to the net (through phone or directly) and with position/speed available (by phone or internal gps)..

Cloud computing may be used in future to analyze accelerometer data, correlated with other sensor data, and AI trained to much more precisely estimate strives, exercise mode, calories burned, and so on. We have to be patient, but meanwhile... please add just a simple "long button press" menu to enter ore leave pause mode, driving mode, or whethever you want to call for stop collecting data by the tracker, when i do not want it to count false steps. Thank you.

[Ton]

---

@MaRaNtZ wrote:
...meanwhile... please add just a simple "long button press" menu to enter ore leave pause mode, driving mode, or whethever you want to call for stop collecting data by the tracker, when i do not want it to count false steps...

---

Enlightening post, but that's exactly what we've been asking for since 3.5 years. I might be shortsighted but can't honestly see what difference it would make to add driving as an activity (or should I say inactivity?) beside running, walking and the rest. I frankly find it extremely hard to believe that pausing and then restarting the count with a simple input by the user is impossible to implement. Even an official statement would be welcome (and give more credibility to the company...).

[SunsetRunner]

i've tried one last open letter via Twitter.  feel free to like/retweet if you believe it will help get their attention.

https://twitter.com/lloydhtaylor/status/903284202585632768?s=09.

[Ton]

"It's still in the works"? Bloody hell! Almost 4 years and still in the works? I won't be able to walk anymore by the time they decide to fix it... LOOOOOOL!

[rainbow4abc]

Then how about improving it with something so simple as:  if the green lights that feed  the of algorithms  find no Bio metrics -- then don't count steps and heartbeats?   It certainly gives me messages each morning, that let me know it wasn't on my arm for the night.   I'd be content to take it off when driving - I tried that, and it kept right on counting steps. 

inaccurate by design, that improves after each generation

[#18]

inaccurate by design, that improves after each generation

[SunsetRunner]

if you want to talk to them, I'd do it on Twitter or fb. they answer there but I've seen little indication that they read any of this since they never respond here.

used to be mods here i think bc it was clear they were removing posts referencing other products, but they haven't even done that in some time.

[rainbow4abc]

@SunsetRunner  - I don't know how to twitter. 

Oh well.  But  - I did read your link and I noticed that Fitbit Support suggested the DriveBit app.  I downloaded it immediately and tested it this afternoon. -- It does create a driving activity in the log with no steps.   The Tracker and the log are in agreement.  AND if I delete the driving activity, it immediately adds the steps for that time into the total steps. - I put Driving + back in and the manual "delete" looks and acts like the entry from DriveBit.

It has a start and stop and creates the driving activity that is the suggested solution for "truing up" the step count.   I have a long weekend of motorcycle riding planned, I will be using this and see if it answers the issue for me.

Limitation - you have to have your phone with you and I usually do.

[Ton]

@rainbow4abcMost users who have been following this thread long enough do know about these alternative solutions (Drivebit for iOS and Travelbit for Android). I myself used to do it but then I got bored and also started to forget to switched it on and off, so I just discarded it. Also, not practical for drivers who have stop and leave the vehicle many times in a day.

@SunsetRunnerThe Fitbit people do know about this thread and the other as they were pointed out to them on Twitter by myself and also other people did it too (if I remember well. Sorry but my memory starts to fail LOL). I have come to the conclusion this is a lost battle...

[Snowman2k]

With the feature to pause workouts this doesn't help get around fake steps when driving, any chance making this work?

[Snowman2k]

I commented directly to support about this within days of getting my Charge 2 (Sept 2016), any news on a Driving stop / start feature?

[dcgate]

This x a million.

It's a major design fail really. The whole point of buying something like this is to try and get accurate readings. Even after logging driving activities I often think it doesn't undo all the steps/calories. 

Had I known this issue existed I may have rethought buying it in the first place.

[BoomTap]

I had been holding off but finally decided to buy a fitbitHR for running.  There are some things I'm getting used that are different from what I used in the past but the biggest thing I can't get past is this issue.  It doesn't seem like this should be a big change in the software and it's a big problem.  I ride a motorcycle to work and like many others, I rack up a ton of "steps" and "stairs".  Going back and entering that I was driving is a drag (it also counts as a "weekly exercise" which is annoying for folks that like to use that as motivation - i.e. people that buy fit bits).  I was somewhat frustrated until today.  Today I had errands to run so I was on/off my bike with 5-15 minute trips in between.  Clearing those by creating a "driving" activity totally sucked. If this isn't fixed in the next short while, I'll most likely return it.  I have about a week to make the decision.  Feels rediculous that this isn't corrected.

[Ton]

@BoomTap

Well, the problem hasn't been solved in over 3 years and you expect it to get fixed in a week? While believing in miracles is perfectly legitimate, returning it today will be exacty the same as in a week time, if that's your resolution....

[BoomTap]

@Ton  Thank you for your completely useless feedback. All the best.