Steps counting while driving.

[JudeAnne]

I’m new to Fitbit and just realized that every time I travel by car, it’s recording the distance as steps taken. Recently I spent the whole day traveling by car, with very little walking and no exercise that day. I was awarded a badge for my efforts!!! What is the point of that? I tested this out by driving with the Fitbit in the car but not wearing it. Ooh lots of steps for me 

Moderator Edit: Clarified Subject.

[SunsetRunner]

Hi @JudeAnne. Here is what Fitbit has to say about counting steps in the car: 

WILL MY DEVICE PICK UP STEPS WHEN I’M IN THE CAR OR RIDING A VEHICLE SOMEWHERE?

Your device has been tested against driving, buses, trains, and other public transportation and should not give you extra steps when you’re traveling under normal conditions. On bumpy roads or in a car with a stiff transmission you may get extra steps. Though a few extra steps won't affect your trends, it's possible to log a driving activity and remove the steps from your account totals. For more information see How do I edit or delete Fitbit data and activities?

The link at the bottom describes how to edit/delete steps if necessary. 

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @JudeAnne, thanks for joining the Fitbit Community, it's great to have you on board. It's nice to see you @SunsetRunner, thanks for your all your help. 

@JudeAnne, I appreciate you have shared your experience with your Fitbit device while driving. As @SunsetRunner mentioned, on bumpy roads while driving, the device might count extra steps as the algorithm causes the 3-axis accelerometer to count them. When this happens, you can log a driving activity to negate those steps. 

Now, my recommendation in this case would be wearing your device on your other wrist while driving, this will help decrease the amount of steps recorded by the Fitbit tracker. 

I hope this can be helpful, if there's anything else I can do for you, please feel free to reply. 

[JudeAnne]

Thanks for your reply. However, it isn’t helpful! My husband took my Fitbit for a drive whilst I remained at home. On the seat of his car, it still counted steps! If I have to log every driving trip and then deduct those steps counted from the day’s total, that is a step too far for me! Never mind. Counting steps isn’t important. I was simply disappointed to discover this inaccuracy, which could have been noted ahead by Fitbit.
Regards
Judy

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @JudeAnne, I hope you're doing well, thanks for taking the time to reply. 

Thanks for sharing your feedback and insight about this situation. Please note that if a Fitbit device is sitting on your car; a vibration source, like a bumpy road, will make the Fitbit device count steps. This is why I recommended earlier to use the Fitbit tracker on your non-dominant hand while driving. Would it be possible for you to try this and let me know how it goes? It will be very helpful for me. 

Thanks for your patience and understanding, I'll be waiting to hear from you. 

[JudeAnne]

Thanks. I always wear my Fitbit on my non dominant hand. And there are always some bumps in the road! I just would have liked a heads up during the set up process about the extra steps counted when traveling in a vehicle. It came as a surprise! I understand the difficulties of counting steps accurately, just suggesting this be noted up front.
Cheers,
Judy

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hi there @JudeAnne, thanks for taking the time to reply! 

We really appreciate our members's input and feedback and I would like to thank you for yours. Our team is always looking to improve the Fitbit experience and I understand your concern about your Fitbit device counting steps while you're driving. I sincerely apologize for the inconveniences this situation has caused you.

If there's anything else I can do for you or anything else you want to add, please feel free to reply! 

[SunsetRunner]

Another problem is that even when you correct the number of steps by logging them as driving, the exercise tile will think of the ride as exercise.

For instance, on Thursday I was a bit ill so the only activity I did was take a taxi back and forth to a meeting and spent the rest of the day on the couch. At first the taxi trips were counted as steps and active minutes. I corrected it, but then even though Thursday has now a minimal number of steps registered and no active minutes, the exercise tile still considers Thursday as an active day counting towards my active days goal, and still counts the taxi rides as exercise minutes (rest of the app is correct though).

Taking a taxi or driving is not exercise!

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @SunsetRunner, I hope you're doing well, thanks for joining the conversation. 

I appreciate you have shared your experience with us. I understand that when you log a driving activity, this activity is still counting as daily exercise in the Exercise Tile, despite having removed the steps, calories and active minutes recorded by the tracker. In this case, I would like to suggest you to delete the Driving activity after it has been logged in, this will remove the activity and with it, all the data caught by the tracker as well, this will make the Exercise Tile remove the daily exercise too.

I hope this can be helpful, give it a try and let me know the outcome!

[SunsetRunner]

Good advice, thanks! I will try it.

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @SunsetRunner, thanks for taking the time to reply, I hope you're doing well! 

You're very welcome, I hope this tip will help you remove the information you want. In case you have some spare time, I would like to invite you to visit our Discussions board where you will find great tips and encouragement from other members and if there's anything else I can do for you, please keep me posted!

[SunsetRunner]

Yes, it’s very ordinary to pay a small fortune for this device, and have it record thousands of steps per day on a bumpy road. It is not feasible, as someone suggested below, to set it to a driving activity, when I am walking in between. It is just one more Fitbit disappointment I have had to put up with.

[JudeAnne]

Thanks for your reply. I don’t put up with this disappointment! I gave my Fitbit away and am happy doing my gym workouts and walking my steps without counting them 😊

[Arranellie]

Hi, I am also experiencing the same issues as Jude. I got my Fitbit in December and experienced no problems at first, but I have started travelling Southeast Asia in May and since then, every vehicle I get in it counts my steps. This includes bumpy and smooth journeys. It’s incredible annoying as tracking my steps is important and I can’t do this anywhere near accurately.I don’t know if this has anything to having to resync the fit bit for different time zones etc? Please can you assist? 

thanks, 

Arran