Android Auto is widely rolling out Google Maps incident reporting

Ben Schoon | Sep 28 2024 - 3:34 pm PT

After years of us calling for the feature to be added and over two months after it was announced, Google Maps is finally rolling out support for incident reporting on Android Auto.

Incident reporting first launched on Google Maps a few years ago, but the feature has long been limited to mobile devices only, to the detriment of the feature’s utility. That finally started to change when, in July of this year, Google added the feature on Apple’s CarPlay. Shortly after, the feature was announced for Android Auto in India, and then for all users. However, despite the rollout being announced in July, by the end of September it was still missing in action.

Finally, though, Google seems to have flipped the switch.

Over the past 48 hours, we’re seeing wide reports, including on Reddit, that incident reporting is now available to Android Auto users through the Google Maps app. We’ve observed it live in our testing as well.

As we reported earlier this month when the first few users started seeing the feature, it’s accessible through a new triangle hazard button that appears below the compass. On pressing that, you’ll get reporting options for various road hazards such as crashes, traffic jams, construction, lane closures, and speed traps.

Interestingly, we noted that this icon won’t appear if Android Auto’s dashboard layout doesn’t give Maps enough vertical space (the screenshots below are using Maps on a 105 DPI set through AAWireless, where 110 removed the icon).

Once incident reporting is live, you’ll also get prompts to confirm whether or not road hazards are still in place along your route.

Are you seeing incident reports live on Google Maps in your car? Let us know in the comments if the long-awaited Android Auto update has finally arrived for you.