COROS watches use motion sensors to detect your arm’s movement and estimate your walking activities. Anything that affects your arm’s movement can impact the accuracy of the step counter, such as carrying groceries/phones/hiking poles, driving, etc.
Continuous and regular arm movements are required to trigger the step counter to start tracking steps. If you stop frequently during walking, the watch will filter out those steps. We take this conservative approach to counter data inflation which can be caused by everyday activities such as driving.
GPS isn’t involved during daily activities tracking. As a result, COROS can’t provide a realistic estimation of your walking mileage.