Did Her Smartwatch Drive Her to Be Distracted?

Using smartwatch devices while on the road could lead to distracted driving that results in serious accidents. To make the roads safer, there are now laws in place to restrict cell phone usage in vehicles, which in some cases also apply to smartwatches and other handheld devices.

What Are Smartwatches?

A smartwatch is a type of watch that functions as both a conventional watch and a cell phone. Smartwatches also serve as health monitoring devices in the form of Fitbits and other brands. Users can link smartwatches to their cell phones to make or receive calls and texts or perform other tasks, making them primarily extensions of cell phones.

In addition to allowing people to track calls and texts, people can use smartwatches to listen to music, view the local weather, make notes, or request information from voice assistants. As a fitness tracker, smartwatches can contain various apps that allow users to track steps, heart rate, calories, and mileage.

Because of their accessibility, they have the potential to distract drivers on the road at any time, which can result in an accident.

How Smartwatches Can Lead to Distracted Driving

Unlike smartphones and other devices, smartwatches remain attached to a person’s wrist. As a result, people often neglect to take them off before entering a vehicle and place them somewhere secure. Smartwatches can distract drivers in several ways, diverting their attention from the road long enough to collide with another vehicle, property, or pedestrian.

People may check their smartwatches while driving, which can potentially be even more distracting than checking a cell phone as people either need to remove their hands from the steering wheel or look down at the device to check it. This can become even riskier if people are wearing long sleeves and need to raise the sleeve with the other hand to check the device. 

The screens on smartwatches are also smaller and can force users to manually scroll more to view a complete text message or other information. Smaller screens mean smaller content in general as well, requiring more focus to view it.

All of these aspects make smartwatches a potentially serious distraction for drivers. Before driving, drivers need to remove and secure these devices and ensure they won’t cause distracted driving at any point.