Google Maps Quietly Added This Long-Overdue Feature for Drivers

[artifex]

I've never owned a car play car and this has worked for me for *years*. You just have to have your phone connected to the car's bluetooth at the time you park. It's been a feature since iOS 10 in 2016.

Get directions to your parked car in Maps on iPhone

In Maps on iPhone, find your parked car.

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What if you haven't set up a BT connection to the car, like if you're carpooling, taking a road trip with a friend and their car, or your car is simply too old? This seems like an improvement.

 

[Siliconguy]

Considering the fact that Apple has had this available for so long now, I’m kind of shocked that it took as long as it did for Google to copy the feature.

Now Google will know where to send the advertising drones to circle your head while screeching "Buy, Buy, Buy!"

 

[ericinboston]

I'm not sure what the value of this feature is unless you park in some massive outdoor parking lot like at a football stadium and it's night time. When I park anywhere (on the street, in a parking garage, at a business) I never have a problem remembering where I parked. If there is more to this feature (in Google or Apple Maps), can someone enlighten me?

 

[Cococollector]

And you got to tell your bluetooth‘s connection in iOS’s properties, that there‘s a car connected! iOS won‘t ever show a parking pin when it thinks there‘s a headphone connected!

 

[trip1ex]

But what if I drop an AirPod while getting back into my parked car and then drive off?

 

[7thson]

I'm not sure what the value of this feature is unless you park in some massive outdoor parking lot like at a football stadium and it's night time. When I park anywhere (on the street, in a parking garage, at a business) I never have a problem remembering where I parked. If there is more to this feature (in Google or Apple Maps), can someone enlighten me?

There’s a beach nearby that has several parking/access points. From the beach they all look pretty indistinguishable, dunes with brush but are 1/4 mile or more apart. Pretty handy to get your bearings from a parked car pin if you’ve walked/swam and lost track of your exact location.
Mostly I’d say this feature is best for parking in unfamiliar cities/areas. I certainly haven’t used it at Costco even though it drops a pin every time.

 

[coolfactor]

I tried to use this feature on Apple Maps the other day and got let down.

It happens that if you use your iPhone when in a car it knows you’re not driving, so it doesn’t atomically remember where the car was parked.

Doh!

So... you're admitting in permanent internet fashion that you were distracted-driving. I see... never to forget.

There sure seems to be a lot of Mac- and iPhone-first app and feature releases lately. Sounds like developing for Apple platforms is more straightforward than for Android. Gee, who would've thunk.

 

[ignatius345]

What if you haven't set up a BT connection to the car, like if you're carpooling, taking a road trip with a friend and their car, or your car is simply too old? This seems like an improvement.

Yeah, the making a connection to the car part is pretty crucial, otherwise you would just get a false positive "parking pin" every time you get off a bus or get dropped off from a taxi.

From the Google announcement:

Get in a car with Google Maps and connect to your car with USB, Bluetooth or CarPlay, and once you're done driving, there's a little pin waiting for you

 

[tennisproha]

Interesting Apple Maps has saved parked car locations for years.

 

[AgeOfSpiracles]

it starts a little timer that tells you how long you've been parked.

Now THATS something I didn't know. Cool.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

I didn't even know Apple Maps has had this feature for some years. Just now I pulled out my iPhone 16PM and opened Maps, and there was a "Parked Car" marker accurately showing my car in the driveway outside the house, where I parked it last night. I don't remember ever seeing that before.

I wondered if the reference to dropping a parked car marker "when you disconnect your iPhone from your car’s Bluetooth or CarPlay system" meant you had to take an extra step to manually perform the disconnect each time you park, but it seems that when you walk far enough away from your car, this disconnects your iPhone from your car's Bluetooth, triggering the marker drop.

 

[kalsta]

Useful feature. BUT, like a lot of useful things our devices do for us these days, this is yet another subtraction from the work our brains do to keep themselves sharp. As they say, use it or lose it.

In a few years I reckon we’re all going to need brain exercising apps—like going to a gym to compensate for our increasingly sedentary lifestyles.

 

[Username Unique]

I didn't even know Apple Maps has had this feature for some years. Just now I pulled out my iPhone 16PM and opened Maps, and there was a "Parked Car" marker accurately showing my car in the driveway outside the house, where I parked it last night. I don't remember ever seeing that before.

I wondered if the reference to dropping a parked car marker "when you disconnect your iPhone from your car’s Bluetooth or CarPlay system" meant you had to take an extra step to manually perform the disconnect each time you park, but it seems that when you walk far enough away from your car, this disconnects your iPhone from your car's Bluetooth, triggering the marker drop.

No, you just need to turn off your car, which then forces the Bluetooth to disconnect. I get a notification on the phone saying the pin location has been updated before I even leave the car.

 

[Powerbooky]

Apple Maps does this for years. And it worked for me even without having the iPhone connected to the car stereo (via lightning). Oddly enough, my TomTom GO device has the same function (combined with TomTom's MyDrive app), but that doesn't always detect that I have parked the car.

Note: I do not mean the TomTom GO app - that one never detected that the car has been parked. Apparently it is a dumbed down version, because I also found out it isn't as good/aggressive at avoiding congestions compared to a full fledged TomTom GO device. (Tested this multiple times, including Google, Apple maps and even Waze)

 

[svish]

Really useful feature. I use Apple Maps to always check for parked location. Should have been there a long time ago. Glad to finally see it.

 

[mcled53]

I hardly ever use google maps due to the adverts taking so much realestate

 

[johnsawyercjs]

No, you just need to turn off your car, which then forces the Bluetooth to disconnect.

D'oh! (smacks head)

 

[Hank001]

Apple Maps has been doing this for at least the past 5 years, if not longer. It just automatically drops a pin down when you disconnect from your car's Bluetooth. You can also add a photo of your spot to the saved pin, and it starts a little timer that tells you how long you've been parked. I'd assumed iOS Google Maps had this all along. Weird omission!

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Neat feat., but useless for folks like me who never have their BT on but always plug it into the USB port in the car. Then it doesn't drop a pin. I assume it also won't do that once disconnected from the car's WiFi.

Yet another half-baked feature from Apple. And Google? It works by whatever means you were connected.