Connected screens: their impact on rider safety

A connected screen can strengthen a rider's safety just as easily as it can undermine it: it all depends on where the information appears and what it demands from you while you ride. The less your eyes leave the road, the better. The safest solutions display the bare minimum within your field of vision, or better still, work in the background without asking for a single glance.

Are connected screens a danger for riders?

They become one as soon as they demand your eyes or your hands while you are riding. On a motorcycle, every glance at a screen is a glance taken off the road, and dangerous situations play out in a fraction of a second: a car pulling out, a patch of gravel, someone braking hard in front of you. With no bodywork and no seatbelt, a rider pays far more dearly for the slightest lapse than a car driver does.

Researchers distinguish two forms of distraction. Visual distraction first: checking a map, reading a notification, verifying a route. Then cognitive distraction, which is more insidious: even without taking your eyes off the road, a conversation or a mental demand reduces your ability to anticipate. The two stack up when a phone sits in the middle of the handlebars with all its notifications switched on.

Let us also state the obvious: handling your phone while riding is illegal, on a motorcycle as in a car. So the question is not whether to accept or reject technology, but which technology protects your attention instead of consuming it. It is the same reflex as with the rest of your kit: a point to add to your motorcycle safety checklist before every departure.

Head-up display, handlebar screen, smartphone: what are the differences?

The closer the information appears to your line of sight, and the more it is filtered, the less it distracts you. That is the whole difference between a head-up display built into the helmet, a dedicated GPS screen mounted on the handlebars, and a smartphone that receives everything, all the time.

A head-up display has a genuine advantage: it removes the back-and-forth between road and handlebars. But it is no magic wand: an overloaded interface in your field of vision becomes a nuisance in its own right. The best-designed connected helmets have understood this and show only what matters, when it matters.

How can you enjoy connectivity without taking your eyes off the road?

By setting everything up before you pull away, then letting the road take one hundred per cent of your attention. Distraction rarely comes from navigation itself: it comes from adjustments made on the move, from the message read "just for a second", from the notification you were not expecting.

A few simple habits change everything:

• Start the route before you turn the key. Once you are riding, follow the guidance by ear or with a quick glance, never by handling the screen.
• Switch on a riding mode. Calls rejected automatically, messages silenced: anything important will wait until you stop.
• Filter your notifications. While riding, only riding information deserves to exist. The rest is noise.
• Favour voice or handlebar controls. Hands stay on the grips, eyes stay on your line.
• Check things at stops. One proper look at each break beats ten micro-glances per kilometre.

Your choice of hardware matters too: a badly mounted phone that vibrates or swivels draws the eye constantly. Before kitting out your handlebars, take a look at the mistakes to avoid with a motorcycle phone mount. And if the road is long, remember that distraction is not the only enemy of attention: fatigue on a motorcycle has to be managed as well.

What if the best technology were the one you never look at?

The safest technology on a motorcycle is the one that demands no attention while you ride: it observes, it keeps watch, and it speaks up only when something really happens. That is exactly the philosophy that gave birth to GeoRide.

"It drove me mad to think we were using sound to warn about a problem, when we all have a phone in our pocket." Thomas Chambon, GeoRide founder

The principle is the opposite of a screen you have to monitor: the information comes to you, and only when it is useful. A suspicious knock on your parked motorcycle? The GPS tracker sends the alert instantly, as a push notification, by email, by phone call, or as an iOS critical alert that rings at full volume even in Do Not Disturb mode. Nothing to consult, nothing to check: as long as your phone stays silent, all is well.

The same logic applies in an accident. The unit detects a crash while riding through its sensors and, if the rider does not respond, automatically calls the emergency services in under 2 minutes, and to the right place: the motorway control centre on a motorway, the tunnel team in a tunnel, the fire brigade or ambulance service elsewhere (in mainland France). It all works independently of your phone, even if it is broken or switched off in the crash.

And on the enjoyment side, the same discretion: your rides are recorded automatically. Nothing to start, nothing to watch; the route, the weather, the altitude and the track are waiting in the app once the motorcycle is parked, along with the 3D replay. The technology records while you ride.

Protection that keeps watch without stealing your attentionGeoRide alerts, locates and calls the emergency services automatically, with no screen to monitor while you ride.

Protect my motorcycle

What GeoRide brings here

GeoRide applies this principle of invisible technology to the letter: a discreet unit, a GeoRide 3s or a GeoRide mini, wires into the motorcycle's battery in 5 minutes, then lets you forget about it. GPS tracker, connected alarm, crash detection: everything runs in the background, with no interaction while you ride.

Location, meanwhile, plays in a different league from classic beacons: where a GPS beacon sends one position every 5 minutes, GeoRide sends up to 10 per second through corners, with accuracy down to less than a metre thanks to Galileo. That is the difference between a GPS tracker you have to query and protection that acts. To choose between the two units, our GeoRide mini or GeoRide 3s comparison sets out what each one can do.

"The point of GeoRide is to act in an emergency, but to feel at ease the rest of the time." Thomas Chambon, GeoRide founder

Perhaps that is the real impact of connected screens on rider safety: chosen well, they make the screen unnecessary while you ride. Eyes on the road, tracker on watch, and the app to tell you the story of the ride once your helmet is off.

Frequently asked questions

Are connected screens allowed on a motorcycle?

Yes, a GPS unit or a smartphone on a mount is allowed, as long as you do not handle it while riding. Holding your phone in your hand while riding is illegal and punished, on a motorcycle as in a car. The common-sense rule: set everything up while stationary, and on the move give the screen a glance, never more.

Is a head-up display safer than a smartphone on the handlebars?

Yes, for equivalent use, because the information appears in your field of vision and your eyes stay on the road. A smartphone on the handlebars forces a glance downwards and brings its share of stray notifications. A head-up display still needs to be set up soberly, though: too much information projected in front of your eye becomes a distraction again.

Is GeoRide distracting while riding?

No, GeoRide asks for no interaction on the move: everything runs in the background. Ride recording is automatic, anti-theft alerts concern the parked motorcycle, and crash detection acts on its own if you do not respond. You look at the app before or after the ride, never during.

What happens in a crash if my phone is broken?

The emergency services are still alerted: the GeoRide unit works independently of your phone, even if it is switched off or destroyed in the crash. Its sensors detect the impact and, if you do not respond, the emergency services are called automatically in under 2 minutes in mainland France, with your exact position.