With one of the latest updates, the app will now notify you if you are traveling too fast and a pop-up displays "You are traveling too fast" and you must acknowledge it by clicking "I'm a passenger".
My questions is this; what happens if you don't click the button for a longer period of time? Are there any penalties that are applied to you in game? Not specifically a ban, but anything that might hinder you from playing the game.
For example, while riding around with my brother, I was looking around outside not paying attention to my game for a little bit not realizing that had popped up on my screen. Finally after I did, it seemed my avatar was traveling in areas that he wouldn't normally be. At one point he was actually walking down the road parallel to the one we were travelling on, so he was an entire block over. Not sure if this was just coincidence and that my GPS was just acting up or not.
Best Answer
As far as I am aware, no penalty is applied when not clicking the button "I'm a passenger" for a longer amount of time. After all, not clicking the button when otherwise occupied is actually a good thing.
From what I understand the popup is only a reminder to players to not endanger themselves and others by using their phone while driving.
Your avatar "walking" in areas they are not actually at is common for gps devices. GPS only has a limited accuracy. I have had that popup several times while sitting in a chair with my phone next to me, while the gps location service slammed my avatar through the walls of the building, and suspended me over bodies of water. Even when otherwise occupied I have not noticed any penalty applied.