Category: Infotainment

Apple just released an update for its Apple Maps application that brings Waze-like functionality to the iPhone’s native navigation. It allows users to report a number of different road situations, with speed traps being one of them. It’s only available to those with the iOS 14.5 beta for the time being, but we’ll give you a rundown of what to expect when the masses are brought in.

One big positive for this new reporting function is that it’s fully operational in Apple CarPlay. You can even use Siri to report things, so you can tell the voice assistant that “there’s a speed check here.” Reporting speed traps is certainly one of the most valuable (and money-saving) features of Waze, but similar to the old standby, Apple allows you to report other items, including hazards and accidents. Of course, you can break those down further by saying that there’s something on the road, or anything else along those lines that Apple has programmed in.

Building up a loyal and attentive user base similar to Waze’s could take some time, as Waze has had years of providing similar services to its users. There’s also the limitation of this feature only being usable by iPhone owners. Apple may have the majority of the active smartphone market in the U.S., but there’s still a massive chunk of the population that use Android phones, and therefore won’t be able to contribute their reporting data. Meanwhile, both Waze and Google Maps are available across ecosystems, effectively reaching a wider user base.

Apple is now the last of the big navigation/maps interfaces to adopt these features — Google Maps introduced similar functionality in 2019, and Waze has had it for years before both of them. Google Maps and Waze both offer more robust reporting systems, too, as you can get more granular with the types of hazards that are reportable.

It’s not entirely clear when this Apple Maps feature will come out of beta, but regardless of limitations, it will be a welcome improvement to a navigation app that so many people use. 

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Google I/O 2019 is in full swing, and there's actually a bit of car news coming out of the big tech event. Allow us to introduce you to Google Assistant's driving mode. If you're familiar with Google's dedicated phone app, Android Auto, then this will look quite familiar to you. That app is different than but ultimately very similar to Android Auto on your car's infotainment display, but it's meant to be controlled via your phone for people who don't have cars with Android Auto capability.

The new Assistant driving mode takes the current Android Auto phone app and essentially renders it obsolete, while performing many of the same functions. Its main use is as a navigation device — you can make it use either Google Maps or Waze by default. Assistant driving mode can be set to launch on your Android phone automatically when it's connected to your car's Bluetooth or you say, "Hey Google, let's drive."

Upon launching, there's a dashboard that's personalized to you. The entire experience is heavily voice driven, so you can either tell it what you want next, or tap the suggested options on screen. Navigation suggestions are based on your calendar, normal routine or recently searched locations. Audio suggestions consist of recently played things or recommendations based on your preferences. And of course, you can call someone or text someone using voice control with the app, too. The actual feature set of Google Assistant driving mode is extremely similar to Android Auto, (which just had a big update announced yesterday) it just comes with a different user interface for the typically smaller screen that phones have versus infotainment systems.

Also announced at Google I/O is easier communication between Google Assistant and your car if so equipped. Instead of going through multiple commands to control your car via Assistant, now you just need one or two. Google says that Hyundais equipped with the Blue Link app, and Mercedes equipped with the Mercedes Me Connect feature will be able to take advantage of these simplified commands initially. For example, Google says one command of, "Hey Google, turn on the car A/C to 70 degrees" will now do the trick. Previously, Hyundai said it would involve a back and forth between you and your phone to finally get the command executed.

All of these new features are said to be arriving to your phone via an update this summer.