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".

[ncm2]

I don't have a fit bit 1 or have a phone with apps.I drive a school bus for over 6 hrs aday , and would love to have a on/ off button. During those 6 hrs i can get off and walk round.I got the fitbit for christmas and was so proud of myself for keeping up with the 10000 steps aday, then got back to work and started driving the bus and watched my steps keep going up while sitting in my chair.I dont understand why this hasnt been fixed yet for everyone  that own any fitbit. Very disappointing.

[Ohio-Bob]

Any time it's windy when I walk the stair count goes through the roof.  The altimeter/barometer records a flight every time the pressure changes by the equivilant of ten feet in elevation if I'm walking.and wind creates that change 30-50 times an hour on gusty days.

[ElliiottM]

This would also be very useful for knitting or piano practice, both of which count as thousands and thousands of steps per session.

[hadster]

I've walked up about 10 stairs total, but my tracker says that I've walked up 12 FLIGHTS of stairs.  I wish!

This also effects calories spent, doesn't it?

It would be nice to be able to change the number to reflect the truth.

Seems like a fairly simple programming adjustment.  I mean, we can input our meals, water etc....

[fuzzygreenballs]

Would be great to have the ability to temporarily disable the pedometer so as to avoid inaccurate readings.  (Example: When riding my motorcycle the pedo picks picks up on steps that clearly aren't happening, but it's great to have on my wrist while riding so that I can see incoming calls without having to pull the phone out of my pocket.)  

I would imagine that there are users that have other scenarios where this would feature would come in handy.

[CMeng]

I just purchased 2 fit bits charge hr and this is my biggest complaint, we both commute 30 some miles one way to work and the device is adding thousands of steps (country roads).  The idea provided would be great, but I like the idea of turning the device off during the drive time by some sort of long hold of the button to put it in "pause" mode.

[MarleyCleo]

I think the floor counter is very sensitive, it is supposed to measure a 10 foot difference by the altimter, but just think if you are 6'  tall if you lay down, then stand up holding the Fitbit over your head you are at close to 9'. Most devices have plus or minus something like 10% error.

So there are chances for false readings. Just need a way to cancel out the floors if they are to high.

[PureEvil]

Since many cars have bluetooth built-in to their sound systems (and there are plenty of aftermarket options), update the Fitbit Apps to:

1. Detect when the smartphone connects to such a particular bluetooth device ("Motorola Roadster 2", for instance) and jot down the time of connection.
2. Detect when the smartphone disconnects from that device and jot down the time of disconnect.
3. Enter a 'Driving' activity during that time.

For instance, you get in your car to drive to work at 8am (phone connects to sound system), then arrive at work at 8:30am (phone disconnects from sound system).  The FitBit App detects this and automatically enters a 'driving' activity from 8am-8:30am.  No need to enter anything manually and no phantom steps are logged during the drive.

[eddashforth]

And an alternative for people with BT in their car, a widget (on android) which users toggle driving start and end.

[Ohio-Bob]

Hadster no it doesn't affect calories.  Fitbit does not take floors into consideration for calories.  Stii it would be nice if it was accurate.

[srdillard]

I just discovered today that my Charge HR is tracking steps while I drive - a "drive mode" option would be great.  Very frustrating.

[DesertloverOV]

I am unable to find the "EDIT" pencil on any screnn.  Am I missing something?

[HJCollins]

Just wondering if there is an update that includes an on/off feature yet? As a bus driver I feel like all I am ever doing is logging "Driving" activities. Would be a great addition to my Fitbit Charge HR. 

[Zookster]

I appreciate being able log time spent driving to disallow steps miscounted during sedentary periods, but it makes no sense for that time to then show up in the activity section of the database.  I don't want  day where i spent 6 hors driving to show up as 12 time more active than when I do a 30 minute run.

Can we recode driving not to be added to active time?

Thanks

Matt

[Zookster]

This is a good idea.

[ashrodwell]

It would be so much easier if we could have a section for travel time on the dashboard and in the app so we can tell our tracker when we are in the car or on public transport so that it does not log steps etc.

This would be so much easier than having to manually input it every time

[Hicksy74]

Only had my Fitbit for three days and it seems the biggest waste of £75 i've ever spend, Logging steps and Floors whilst driving, until they sort an update to stop this then theres no point in wearing it.

[DerrickS]

This is a really cool idea! Thanks for sharing it on the Fitbit Community. We are always looking for new ways to improve our products and the Feature Request board has a big part in this process.

[J_Smith]

Are the sensors in the Surge capable of roughly calculating speed? If so, could it be programmed to stop adding steps after reaching a speed of say, 15-20 mph?

[Bisente]

Someone already mentioned having the phone help the band detect when you're driving to set a driving activity automatically. I already managed to automate this in Android by using DriveBit and Locale. We've been discussing this solution here:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge-HR/Steps-and-floors-count-WHILE-DRIVIG/m-p/672836

I've contacted support for other issues with my band and took the opportunity to also mention this issue and point them out to that discussion.

I think this kind of driving detection automation should be built in into the fitbit app. Optionally disabled, maybe even disabled by default, and also having some tap pattern to enable driving activities as someone suggested, for those that want to precisely track their driving activities. But I for one want it to be completely automated, even if start/stop time have 3-5 minute inaccuracies. I'm OK with that as long as I don't have to remember to enter drive mode manually.

But of course it would be better if this could be fixed in the band firmware altogether. I'm puzzled at how many people say previous fitbit models didn't had this issue, while many others claim this is impossible to filter in the band's firmware. I haven't seen any official fitbit comment about this, why previous products didn't had this problem.

[Twitchy]

 Plea, please, please add this feature. I wouldn't be calling Support this minute if I could correct the problem myself!

[SunsetRunner]

This feature is requested already for to much time, before the launch of the new products. It seems that Fitbit team ignore simple and quite usefuls suggestions like this (drive/not walking mode).

[PureEvil]

@J_Smith,

Using the GPS is possible, but only one model has a GPS and, while I'm not a Surge user, I imagine that consumes battery very quickly. 

[TandemWalker]

@AmritaFitbit - Hi! Yes, the link you gave earlier works, but only in situations where you do not have a bona fide activity. Just like @Ohio-Bob posted earlier, I too experience dozens of false floors when walking one of my regular parths on a windy/stormy day. So in those cases, how does logging a driving activity work? Unless I am missing something, it simply does not work. We need the ability to click on a bar on the Floor graph that represents bad floors and nuke it, without nullifying any bona fide steps taken during that same time frame.

    TW     

[J_Smith]

Yes, the surge battery only last up to 5 hours with GPS on.  That's with a full battery.  But among its many sensors are:

3-axis accelerometers
3-axis gyroscope
Digital compass

Im guessing it can be programmed to determine speed without GPS, at least a rough estimate of your speed.

not sure what sensors are in the other devices.