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Comment by lukifer | Hacker News Reader

> Personally I'm not going to get a smartwatch because I hate interruptions.

I hate those things too, but I'm still chomping at the bit for the Apple Watch (and plan to disable all notifications except SMS). Why?

- Wrist GPS while driving

- Siri without taking phone from pocket

- Music remote control (hopefully video, too)

- NFC payments

- Heart monitor (QS)

- Other cool apps as yet unimagined

I certainly don't blame anyone who doesn't want one; it's a bulky, expensive frivolity. But its UI affordances create opportunities for active use cases beyond the passive notifications that have characterized smartwatch functionality until recently.

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> - Wrist GPS while driving

I recommend trying GPS while driving without any screen at all. Pull up navigation on your phone or stand-alone unit, then place it in the center console where you cannot see it. Let it give you directions only though TTS.

This is how I've been using GPS for years now, I find that I pay much more attention to the road and actually have fewer navigational mistakes (probably because I am paying more attention to the road).

One of the features Apple has mentioned for its watch is its ability to use its little force feedback mechanism to make different pulses depending on whether you're supposed to turn left or right, so you don't actually have to look at the directions. It actually sounds like kind of a neat idea.

Definitely an interesting idea. I wonder if haptic feedback for GPS navigation could somehow be integrated into cars. The steering wheel might work.. except people are often pretty bad at keeping both hands on the wheel. Maybe in the seat.

Simple left/right indications are fine for walking, but not for driving. You need explicit lane guidance, or else you'll miss practically all your turns driving a new route.

Even if the GPS is accurate to a few feet, it doesn't know where the back of the line in the left turn lane is!

> probably because I am paying more attention to the road

For me it was the fact that I wasn't trying to 'beat the system' and guess a better way.

Whenever I get into a taxi who is using a GPS unit, I get really scared. They seem to be new drivers who spend more time looking at the screen than the road, which is not good in Beijing.

But I have the feeling that Watch is not meant for driving situations :) It could be quite good while walking around a new city.

Agreed. To add to your point about fewer mistakes, it is sometimes difficult to correlate the picture on the screen with what you are seeing on the actual road, causing you to miss turns.

When driving in unknown territory (why else would you need a GPS) when the terrain is a bit more rugged a GPS can visually warn you at night of an upcoming curve and this can be a life-saver in countries where the roads are really bad.

That's great when the route isn't intentionally confusing like in some cities. "Turn left in 1000 feet" when there is an intersection shaped like an asterisk is one example a ran into recently. I had to stop in the middle of the road (blocking traffic) and dig out my phone so I could see if I should slight left, turn 90 degrees left, or go through and slight left.

I find that the combination of distance updates and street name cover most of those cases, though there are indeed edge-cases where it doesn't work great.

Ummm, you shouldn't be looking at GPS while driving. It's easy enough to tether a smartphone to your car's console. I know on my last 3 phones (all Android) the GPS would actually interrupt the music when I was coming up on a turn, then return to the music.

As for music remote control, headphones generally have controls somewhere on them or the cord so you don't need to take your phone out.

> you shouldn't be looking at GPS while driving

There are a lot of things you shouldn't do, but people do anyway. I'd rather someone looks at their wrist on the steering wheel or speak to their wrist instead of fidgeting with a phone or the GPS device in/on their dash.

Yeah well I'd rather people are drunk than texting while driving, and doing cocaine if nothing else would keep them awake at the wheel, yet I wouldn't suggest either is a safe practice...

A quick glance when the wrist is already in eyeline is no worse than a quick glance at the speedometer or the rearview mirror. But in any case, the primary navigatory use would be to use it while stopped at a light. (And as mentioned, it's also awesome for walking.)

Is looking at your watch whilst driving also dangerous? What about using your arm to change gear? How do you use dashboard SATnav if you shouldn't look at your GPS whilst driving? I have a TomTom that suckers to the windscreen and has a display on it. If it was dangerous to look at it whilst driving, would it show a map with turn-by-turn directions whilst driving?

> Is looking at your watch whilst driving also dangerous?

You never need more than a quick glance at a normal wristwatch.

> What about using your arm to change gear?

If you need to look at the gear shifter you're doing it wrong... (I drive a manual daily btw)

> How do you use dashboard SATnav if you shouldn't look at your GPS whilst driving?

You don't 'use' it. You take a quick glance to know when you need to turn. I'd say it IS dangerous to program your next destination while driving.

The issue isn't looking at your wrist watch, it's shifting your attention to your wristwatch. If the GPS on the watch had a simplified interface with say, only an arrow when a turn was coming up, I'd say it's a great idea. If it's a full map, you'd need to take your attention off the road for far too long while you loop at the map.

And again, all of it is more complicated and less effective than simply using the voice commands that any phone can already send through your car speakers...

I wasn't implying that you need to look at the gear stick - that'd be hilarious to see... once.

I would agree programming a destination whilst driving would be dangerous; my TomTom doesn't show a QWERTY keyboard for text input so it is even more frustrating.

Sadly my car (2008 VW Golf TDi GT Sport) does not understand that I have a phone. It knows how to pair with my phone via bluetooth for calls, but it does not work the other way around - my phone can't send audio to the car. The audio head unit is a bit thick (it will resume in the wrong place for MP3 CDs, and the optional iPod interface is really dumb and requires creation of playlists, which is not very helpful for a 160GB iPod; that's a lot of playlists).

Admittedly perhaps my car is considered old (6 years, 86k miles in a diesel) but I am certain that there are many more cars that don't have bluetooth duplex audio. It would be wrong to assume that all cars have it.

Come to think of it, my wife's car (2010 Mini Cooper) doesn't have two-way audio either! It's got a USB interface so the iPod works properly, and you can pair to make and receive calls via bluetooth but I don't think it can pipe audio to the car.

Unless I am mistaken?

Voice feedback and a HUD are probably the safest solutions when driving, still I like the idea of not having to take my iPhone with me to track my regular running activities (I'm not sure if this is supported by Apple Watch though).

Many modern cars have GPS directions integrated next to the Speedometer, I would imagine this to become universal in the future.

> - Wrist GPS while driving

Please don't look at a screen while driving. You might end up killing people.

Please don't change radio stations while driving.

Please don't use the navigation built into your car while driving.

Please don't look at your speedometer while driving.

Please don't look at your gas gauge while driving.

Please don't look at the clock while driving.

Please don't change temperature controls while driving.

In the US (with terrible driving schools), they teach you how to maintain control of your car while glancing at a screen for a brief moment of time, because it's necessary to do so. Looking at a GPS or at the radio is far different from doing something time consuming and interactive like texting.

If you think glancing at a GPS is an unacceptable risk, you should probably abstain from driving altogether.

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