Android Automotive gets Google Maps incident reporting feature

Android Automotive gains feature parity with Auto as live incident reporting in Google Maps is currently rolling out to the in-car operating system.

While Android Auto is effectively a wired, phone-controlled experience that plugs into your car, Android Automotive puts the car first – which brings with it some issues with software updates and the user experience. Back in July, Google confirmed that live incident reports were coming to Android Auto and Automotive, but it took a few days for the latter to be available in Google Maps.

Incident reporting was first introduced on Google Maps a few years ago. Annoyingly, this feature is limited to mobile devices only. But in July this year, Google added the feature to the CarPlay system in Apple's car. Not long after, it was announced that the feature would be available in India and is expected to roll out globally. Incident reporting has become widespread since last week.

Since rolling out to mobile devices began, the switch seems to have been flipped to Android Automotive hardware as well, as I can now use the incident reporting feature in Google Maps on my own Polestar 2, while others are reporting the same thing. This change wasn't quite in step with Android Auto, but it's one of the fastest rollouts of a feature of this type in recent years.

When you open Google Maps, the sidebar appears when you tap the yellow danger triangle. From here, you can tap on a specific incident to report it, including an accident, general traffic jam, road construction, lane closures, stalled vehicles, objects on the road, or even mobile speed cameras. One of the limitations is that our short test only allows you to create one report per street – this is something to keep in mind.

More about Android Automotive: