“Back in September we reported that Apple was developing a feature to help users find their parked cars for its in-house Maps app,” Mike Beasley reports for 9to5Mac.
“While that feature wasn’t officially debuted during WWDC last week, new icons found inside the Maps application indicate that the feature was in development at some point and is likely still be worked on,” Beasley reports. “As we originally noted: ‘Sources say that Apple is testing a tool for its Maps app that, with the M7 chip, could analyze when your car is parked. When you park your car, the iPhone will register the car’s location.'”
Beasley reports, “Apple’s latest mapping software contains six images dedicated to the parked car location feature, each a purple pin with a car-shaped glyph.”
Read more in the full article here.
Or it’s to help find a parking space.
I reckon that they will name the new feature Find My Car.
I would guess that with the M7 chip, even if Apple maps did not have detailed knowledge of where you parked ( such as in an underground car park with no GPS signal ), it would be able to deduce where you walked and in which direction until you became visible either to GPS or iBeacons and then when you want to find your car, it would help you to retrace your steps from that known reference point.
Fantastic!.
I have done that already. Mark your location when you are at your car. Pretty easy. 😛
What we need is shortest routes for 🚶pedestrians and 🚴cyclists👍😎
Possibly it’s part of CarPlay – simple enough for the iPhone to make note of your location when the CarPlay connection goes away due to turning off your car.
Another handy use for a wearable.
When’s the last time you forget where you parked your car? How often will someone really need this feature? I’m all for innovation and new geewiz features, but it’s hard to get excited about this one. On the rare occasion when I’m parked in an unfamiliar spot (like at the airport), I just mark my location on the map or take a picture of the parking garage location markers.
If you do the same thing every day and park in the same place every day, then you are right. For the rest of us, this will be a welcome feature.
In the meantime, I use the (not free) Sally Park app. Yes, I know I can use Apple maps, the timer, and the camera app, but it works well and I like the i candy.
I still use the free app G-Park (featured in one of Apple’s old ‘there’s an app for that’ ads). Why? Unfamiliar city, or a sea of look-alike cars in a parking lot, or a new rental car, myriad distractions or even senile dementia. Apps like this are useful to those of us lacking a mind like a steel trap.
Maps can’t find 70% of the locations in my town, and of those that it does know about, about 50% are incorrectly placed.
Corrections sent to Apple to date have ALL been ignored.
I sent corrections to Google maps too. Every one got fixed.
Adding features to Maps in its current state seems entirely pointless.
Google Now has that integrated already. works pretty nicely
I would prefer that my car find me.
Where is my other sock?