AutoIt’s already end of the road for Google Maps Assistant Driving ModeThankfully Google is better at navigating actual roads than its own product roadmapWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
AutoIt’s already end of the road for Google Maps Assistant Driving ModeThankfully Google is better at navigating actual roads than its own product roadmapWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Thankfully Google is better at navigating actual roads than its own product roadmap
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
Googleisn’t always the best at creating and following clearly-defined product roadmaps, especially when it comes to software services. Just look at how many Google messaging and communication apps have come and gone over the years.
Up next to compete for Most Confusing Product Roadmap is, ironically,Google Assistant Driving Mode. Revealed in 2019 and intended to replaceAndroid Auto for Phone Screens, Assistant Driving Mode didn’t fully take over from its predecessor until this summer, a full three years later. And now, it too is on its way out.
More specifically, the function will soon loseGoogle Mapsintegration. This means a system that was intended to act likeAndroid Auto, but running on your dashboard-mounted smartphone instead of on the car’s own display, will no longer have the ability to showGoogle Maps. Instead, it’ll continue to show controls for music and media playback, and buttons for sending messages and making phone calls, both via speaking to Google Assistant.
It feels like Google’s many software teams have tied themselves in knots, offering several different ways to access Maps while driving – and in a safe, distraction-free way – but with little in the way of cohesion across the various functions and interfaces. As 9to5Google says, what’s left in the Driving Mode interface “makes for a pretty mad user experience”.
Sign up to the T3 newsletter for smarter living straight to your inbox
Get all the latest news, reviews, deals and buying guides on gorgeous tech, home and active products from the T3 experts
Hopefully some clarity will be restored when Google finally rolls out its much-anticipated (and somewhat late)Android Auto update, featuring an interface overhaul known asCoolwalk.
If you ever needed proof that cassette players are back, this is itWe Are Rewind has made a portable tape deck so retro it should appear from nowhere in a DeLorean
We Are Rewind has made a portable tape deck so retro it should appear from nowhere in a DeLorean
PS5 could finally be getting Gears of War and Halo after game-changing decisionThe age of exclusives is coming to an end
The age of exclusives is coming to an end
