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Using Watch While Driving?

I

IphoneIssues

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 30, 2010
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This is something that occurred to me last night, and it has to do with perhaps the biggest advantage of having one of these being not having to take your phone out of your pocket.

I think everybody knows, at this point, that looking at your phone while driving is an extremely bad idea. I was actually previously in a thread where somebody suggested one of the good things about the 6s Plus is that you don't have the urge to pick it up while driving, because it's larger.

Last night, I was driving, and I was never the type of person to reach for the phone while doing so, but a text came in on my watch, and, without hesitation, I turned my wrist and looked at the message. Now, I wasn't doing 80 on a crowded highway, but I was surprised how quick I did it.

Anybody else end up doing anything similar? And if you do regularly make use of it while driving, in what way do you do so?
 
IphoneIssues said:
This is something that occurred to me last night, and it has to do with perhaps the biggest advantage of having one of these being not having to take your phone out of your pocket.

I think everybody knows, at this point, that looking at your phone while driving is an extremely bad idea. I was actually previously in a thread where somebody suggested one of the good things about the 6s Plus is that you don't have the urge to pick it up while driving, because it's larger.

Last night, I was driving, and I was never the type of person to reach for the phone while doing so, but a text came in on my watch, and, without hesitation, I turned my wrist and looked at the message. Now, I wasn't doing 80 on a crowded highway, but I was surprised how quick I did it.

Anybody else end up doing anything similar? And if you do regularly make use of it while driving, in what way do you do so?
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It's hard to watch the road and lock your eyes on a tiny screen and back to the road again so I avoid looking at my watch. I instead ask Siri to read messages back to me. my iPhone is mounted on my dash and plugged in so hey Siri is no problem.
 
I was thinking about this also as I was receiving notifications from maps on my wrist as I was driving and getting tempted to take my eyes off of the road and look at the tiny screen on my wrist and basically taking one of my hands off of the steering wheel.

Surprised it hasn't been brought up before
 
I've trained myself well to not use my iPhone while driving and I do agree that the temptation seems higher on the watch. This may be bad but I now check notifications (texts or Facebook messenger only) on my wrist at a red light very quickly. I don't respond, just take a real quick glance while stationary. I don't see the harm in this and it's not enough to ever get involved enough to where I would miss changing of the light.
 
I find it too distracting to glance at my watch while driving.

Before I got it I thought it would be great for using maps while driving so I can glance at it quick when needed but as someone said above the screen is too small to be focussing in on while driving. Also I'm sure the law would get you fined + points on your licence if caught (depending on which country you live in)
 
Samh92 said:
I find it too distracting to glance at my watch while driving.

Before I got it I thought it would be great for using maps while driving so I can glance at it quick when needed but as someone said above the screen is too small to be focussing in on while driving. Also I'm sure the law would get you fined + points on your licence if caught (depending on which country you live in)
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You may be able to wiggle out of that by twisting things, because I think most laws say "cell phones" shouldn't be used, although the opposing argument would be that the watch becomes a cell phone when connected, but you still may be able to get out of it. Surely the laws will change soon though.
 
I find the watch must less distracting than trying to use the phone, and I do use it frequently that way. How is glancing at something on your watch that is a message any different than looking at your gauges or changing the station on your radio... or looking at your GPS screen for instructions.

The AW taps you when you need to make turns and shows the instruction ... pretty easy to use. It shows you the beginning of the text of your incoming texts... again pretty easy to quickly see.
 
IphoneIssues said:
You may be able to wiggle out of that by twisting things, because I think most laws say "cell phones" shouldn't be used, although the opposing argument would be that the watch becomes a cell phone when connected, but you still may be able to get out of it. Surely the laws will change soon though.
Click to expand...

Also probably depends on the mood the policeman/officer, or cop as the Americans call it
Over here in the UK they won't let you off if caught on the phone so I'd imagine using your watch would be the same issue.

With that being said and I don't want to move away from the topic, but I saw the other day on eBay a Apple Watch holder that is designed to clip onto your steering wheel.
 
Samh92 said:
Also probably depends on the mood the policeman/officer, or cop as the Americans call it
Over here in the UK they won't let you off if caught on the phone so I'd imagine using your watch would be the same issue.

With that being said and I don't want to move away from the topic, but I saw the other day on eBay a Apple Watch holder that is designed to clip onto your steering wheel.
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Depends on the judge as well, but that's a discussion for another time.

I don't know how a watch holder would be any different, because odds are, your hand might be on the steering wheel anyways. These would probably all fall under devices/attachments that don't make things "hands free" anyways.
 
The watch is not at the top of ways I prefer to receive driving directions. But, it's close. Here's my rankings:

- Audible cues (this way I know what exit or street name to look for)
- Tap alert
- Text on the watch (no extraneous info, just the upcoming turn)
- Phone or GPS screen (I don't like using this while driving)
- AAA's Trip Tick, a handy set of custom map segments compiled by your local AAA office (do they still do this?)
- Full-size paper maps, which I collected from rest areas and only used while pulled off the road.

Whatever can get me the clearest info in the shortest amount of time is my favorite method.

Calls? I don't mind too much, but I prefer to not take them. Text messages? I think I've sent a couple via Hey Siri, but only simple ones ("Tell Ralph I'm on my way") without checking for typos. I don't answer texts while driving, and any other possible notification gets ignored.

Whether I'm walking, riding my bike, or driving, I've watched too many people make too many mistakes while paying attention to their phones. I'm not going to pretend that I'm somehow immune. Instead of thinking it's always the other guy, I think that the idiot could be me.
 
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Personally, the only time I look at my watch is for a split second to see where the notification is coming from. If I see the text icon, I'll have Siri read it over bluetooth through the car. Anything else can wait.

It would be nice, however, to be able to change notification sounds on the watch so that I could tell from that alone, since wearing the watch overrides the phone's sound.
 
This can be added to the core reason why many people tend to use smart watch, especially while driving.
 
IphoneIssues said:
Been meaning to test that out. Do you find it taps you late or anything?
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My AW taps me right before my iPhone announces the next turn. The sequence is like, *tap-tap-tap*ding-dong* "Take Exit 57A to Fairfax."

It doesn't tap me when the phone would speak, say, "In one mile, turn right onto Washington Boulevard." The watch taps don't happen until it's time to make the turn.

I wish it could tap earlier, like if there are four lanes of busy traffic and I need enough time to safely move across all of them. But, it's pretty good.
 
BarracksSi said:
My AW taps me right before my iPhone announces the next turn. The sequence is like, *tap-tap-tap*ding-dong* "Take Exit 57A to Fairfax."

It doesn't tap me when the phone would speak, say, "In one mile, turn right onto Washington Boulevard." The watch taps don't happen until it's time to make the turn.

I wish it could tap earlier, like if there are four lanes of busy traffic and I need enough time to safely move across all of them. But, it's pretty good.
Click to expand...

So you're never looking at the watch while this is going on? Does it show lanes?

With any kind of navigation system, looking at the digital map seems necessary. Unless it tells you which lane to be in. I've been thinking about getting a different gps, because the one I have likes to troll sometimes. It's told me "Turn left, stay right. Turn right, stay left. Turn right, stay right" all in less than 5 seconds, on a curved, two lane road. Didn't know if it was trying to properly direct me to my destination or teach me how to crossover Lebron James...
 
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I asked the Watch to take me to the nearest Apple store, but was wearing a long sleeve shirt. The Official Nagivator did not appreciate being driven by a distracted driver and took over the function with her iPhone.

The tapping directions are great when walking, not so good when driving.
 
IphoneIssues said:
So you're never looking at the watch while this is going on? Does it show lanes?

… It's told me "Turn left, stay right. Turn right, stay left. Turn right, stay right" all in less than 5 seconds, on a curved, two lane road. Didn't know if it was trying to properly direct me to my destination or teach me how to crossover Lebron James...
Click to expand...
:-D

It took a leap for me to just wait for the taps, much like how I learned to stop looking at a screen and just listen for spoken directions. Now, when I'm in the car and I use the phone to navigate, there's nothing to see, because the phone is face-down in the center console.

Walking directions can be funky around here because DC has a lot of multi-street intersections. The taps, which are kept simple for easy interpretation, can't tell me details like "turn half-left to 10 o'clock". But, it has the street name onscreen, so when I appear to be checking the time, I'm actually finding out whether I need to walk down Massachusetts Ave or 12th St.
 
BarracksSi said:
:-D

It took a leap for me to just wait for the taps, much like how I learned to stop looking at a screen and just listen for spoken directions. Now, when I'm in the car and I use the phone to navigate, there's nothing to see, because the phone is face-down in the center console.

Walking directions can be funky around here because DC has a lot of multi-street intersections. The taps, which are kept simple for easy interpretation, can't tell me details like "turn half-left to 10 o'clock". But, it has the street name onscreen, so when I appear to be checking the time, I'm actually finding out whether I need to walk down Massachusetts Ave or 12th St.
Click to expand...

I guess I'm more of a control person when it comes to driving directions. One misinterpreted direction and you end up set back for who knows how long.

Using it while walking down the street sounds interesting. Might look for a way to test this out.
 
When I had the watch the only thing I used it for was placing calls via Siri and taking calls with a quick tap (if able to safely).
 
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