Fixation makes steering twitchy. When the car immediately ahead becomes your only reference, its small movements can pull your attention away from the road's direction, encouraging corrections that arrive late. Distance buys thinking time. Looking farther along your intended path gives your visual system advance information about bends and lane alignment, so your hands can make smaller, earlier adjustments.
Smoothness starts before steering. In visuomotor control, the brain uses visual information to guide movement, and a farther preview helps you anticipate the road instead of repeatedly correcting your position. Your eyes need range. Optic flow, the pattern of apparent movement across your view as you travel, supplies motion cues, while peripheral vision helps monitor nearby lane boundaries between direct glances. Staring wastes that range. You still need to check the vehicle ahead, but treating its bumper as your sole target sacrifices information about where the whole traffic stream is going.
Earlier warnings beat faster reactions. When you scan beyond the nearest vehicle, brake lights farther up the queue, a pedestrian near the curb or traffic bunching around an obstruction can become visible before immediate danger develops. Keep your gaze moving. Alternate the distant view with checks of nearby traffic, mirrors and road edges, adjusting your scanning to visibility and speed without neglecting a safe following distance. More distance isn't clairvoyance. If the vehicle ahead blocks your view, leave more space rather than assuming the road beyond it is clear. Why let one bumper monopolize your attention?
