Even though I love the revamp of the existing integration and will start using it immediately, I had a use-case in my head that is not that easy to implement, because it would need a speed sensor.
This is an age old automation idea, where a gate/garage would open based on you approaching your home. I understand the concerns of a lot of people saying you should not automate your security measures, but I still would like to try!
My problem is that this cannot be automated on the direction of travel and distance alone - as there is a big difference if I’m traveling in a car, or approaching my house on foot.
I think adding a speed sensor would be very nice addition. I do acknowledge the fact that in a low-refresh state the speed will not tell you anything. Especially when you change your direction of travel a lot and your position updates only once in a while.
I have, however, set the high accuracy mode (5 seconds) when close to the house (500m radius). At that point, the speed makes sense.
Would be nice if other people feel the same way so we don’t have to do the calculations with template sensors and other means.
A speed sensor would be nice. Currently I have to check that a minimum distance has been traveled over a given time to determine if someone is driving vs walking.
Lately, my iPhone has been slow to turn switch to “Automobile” mode via the HA app sensor even after 5+ minutes of driving. Would like to have a backup sensor to determine if I’m driving based on my proximity to home changing.
Hello,
a speed sensor would not fit into the intention of the proximity integration and those would lead to a false expectation. Should it provide the average speed of a tracked devices, how fast it is going towards (or away from?) the tracked zone? Or should it be the real speed of the tracked device, which might (and properly will be) different from the first one.
I think a speed sensor is more direct related to a device_tracker entity (as @Hellis81 also already wrote), but not the proximity integration. Further keep in mind, to get a correct and reliable speed value, the device_tracker needs to update its position quiet often and with a very good gps-accuracy - the mobile app (HA android or iOS app) will not fulfill this, because of energy save mechanisms of the smartphones.
The proximity entity only have the distance to zone.
If you calculate the speed from this distance then depending on your direction the speed could be 0 even if you are moving.
There is no reason to force a speed on an entity that does not have one and where it logically does not belong.
The speed is already an attribute on the device tracker where it makes perfect sense.
