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.
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.
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.)
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...
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).
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.