New Google Maps updates have displayed a personalized car icon during navigation via Android Auto and Carplay. Here’s how it works.
In February 2025, Google Maps introduced more options for the icon of your vehicle during navigation. Instead of the typical / arrow blue point, users can select a number of different types of vehicles, then customize the color. It is a little careful addition that appeared for the first time in Waze.
More recently, this feature has extended to Android Auto.
Thanks to Android Auto, Google Maps will now display the icon of your car of your choice on your car screen. This reflects everything you have defined via the telephone application and cannot be changed on the display of the car itself. In fact, all the changes to the car icon via your phone will not be reflected either as long as you have no Android Auto disconnection and reconnection. We don’t quite know when the change has been made, but it seems For having been put online in the past two weeks after more recent Android updates.
The same features are also available on the Apple Carplay platform, where you cannot modify the car display icon either.
To change the car icon, you will need to access cards on your phone. Ideally, this is done before being on the road. A parameter button on the trip in the trip below opens a menu where you will see the option to modify the “vehicle when navigation.”
If navigation is in progress without being connected to Android Auto or Carplay, there is a dedicated button to modify the icon.
With one of the means of access, you will have several choices of different icons. The default value is always a simple blue point / arrow, but you can also select in several types of cars, SUVs and trucks. There are five options with customizable colors, as well as three inherited icons which are fixed in their colors.
Do you use a personalized Google Maps car icon on Android Auto or Carplay? Let us know in the comments below!
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