Ditch the mounts, iPhone owners

As an avid Google Maps user on my iPhone, I was excited to jump into a car with a screen that would connect to the navigation app seamlessly through Apple’s CarPlay. I usually drive a 1995 vehicle with a tape cassette player, so through GM’s car-sharing service Maven I upgraded for the day. 

Once in a more modern, electric blue 2017 hybrid Chevy Volt, I was ready to connect. I use a mount in my usual car to see my iPhone screen, but with Apple CarPlay enabled through the Volt’s infotainment system I connected my phone through a USB cord to the car and put my iPhone 6 away into a middle compartment.

It momentarily felt weird to be phoneless, but miraculously a car-version of my phone appeared before me. Through the CarPlay interface I recognized some of my usual apps and services (like my Apple Music player, texts, and phone).

Once I scrolled to the Google Maps app, I immediately noticed this wasn’t the full-featured Google Maps I was used to. Sure it showed the time to destination and the clear directions on the top of the screen, but I couldn’t click over to the alternate routes as easily to see how much faster taking that side street would be. I couldn’t change my destination as easily mid-ride and it didn’t offer any of the “non-driving” options like taking public transit or walking. This was a stripped-down version made for the car, but it worked plenty fine.

However, this is still an Apple system that’s begrudgingly added a Google product into its universe. CarPlay came out in 2014, but it didn’t accept third-party navigation apps until iOS 12 came out in September. The announcement came out in June, likely to keep more iPhone users from switching to Android phones to use Google Maps or Waze on Android Auto, Google’s CarPlay equivalent. 

Apple’s CarPlay website prominently features its smooth integration with its own mapping platform. Google Maps doesn’t even make an appearance until the bottom of the page with other third-party navigation apps like Waze and Baidu in the “Choose your favorite navigation app” section.

I noticed this Apple preference right away. I tried using my voice to get directions to SFO on Google Maps, but Siri kept sending me to Apple Maps (which worked perfectly fine but it’s just not the same). Then, to get back to Google Maps, I had to hunt down the app icon, manually. Unfortunately it defaulted to the second page of options. Thankfully, you can re-arrange the icons, but you need to do it on your phone. (I opted not to since this was a one-day experience.)

Once you’re hooked into the infotainment system you’ll fall into some of the purposeful limitations of an in-car system: primarily the inability to type or really click on many options on the screen once the car is on and in drive (which totally makes sense from a safety perspective). That means you’ll have to rely on voice and keep your eyes on the road, meaning you’ll need to be very specific when specifying what app you want to use. And it’s frustrating that you can’t fall back on typical phone searches in a pinch (or when you’re at a particularly long red light).

Bright side: Any saved locations or lists also come up in the app for easy one-tap opening, along with recent searches from your phone. 

While getting texts and even for making calls or playing music, Google Maps app effortlessly blended into my other CarPlay needs. Even if it’s not the default maps app, it’s built for a dashboard, using the in-dash screen and car speakers to best effect. It also knows when not to hit you with information (the whole point of CarPlay and Android Auto are to give you safer, more car-suited experiences).

If you can’t cross town without Google Maps and you’ve got an iPhone, this lets you navigate without a clunky car mount that might tax your battery to dangerously low levels. However, if you’re hooked on all the features that Google’s added to its navigation app, then you might be want to stick to the mobile app on a dashboard mount.

However, it’s worth noting Apple Maps has massively improved over the last few years. If you have CarPlay anyway, it may be easier to just use Siri have Apple Maps come up as the default when you say to your car, “Directions to SFO.” 

As Apple knows, though, there is a cadre of Google Maps users who have all sorts of places, searches, and more saved in their history, and switching over entirely just isn’t an option for many of them — hence the massive market for car mounts and solutions. For that crowd, the new CarPlay version of Google Maps is enough to keep them from switching entirely to Android.