Google’s always looking for ways to improve their offerings and make them more helpful, and today Android Police has spotted a useful new feature in Maps that displays your current speed while navigating.
The feature, not yet widely available, adds a small circle with your current speed. It can be activated under Settings > Navigation Settings – if its there.
It doesn’t currently show up in Android Auto.
Of course, your phone doesn’t quite know your speed – it’s not receiving any telemetry from your car’s dashboard. If you have the option available to you, you shouldn’t expect it to be accurate.
The feature looks to have been ported in from Waze, acquired by Google a while back now with a promise to integrate its best features.
The feature has turned up on some Ausdroiders’ phones, but not my own, so it could be an A/B test or a server-side switch rolling out now.
I don’t use Google Maps because it doesn’t have a speed camera option. The new speed display is a start.
Car speedometers are actually showing you’re going faster than your actual speed.
Of course it will be accurate – it’s using GPS. More accurate, in fact, than a lot of car speedometers.
“Of course, your phone doesn’t quite know your speed – it’s not receiving any telemetry from your car’s dashboard. If you have the option available to you, you shouldn’t expect it to be accurate.” Umm, what?
It will be using your phone’s GPS and I’d imagine that will be highly accurate!
I would expect it to be accurate as it would average the GPS speed. I am disappointed that it will only display while navigating and that will mean I will stick with Waze.