Open Google Maps and type your destination in the search box. Tap the Start navigation option and Google Assistant driving mode will start.
It can be accessed through the direct access on the home screen or by verbally instructing the Google Assistant to start assistant driving mode.
This version of driving mode looks slightly different from when you start with Google Maps, but it offers similar shortcuts for accessing calls, messages, and the music and podcast library. Because the two apps share so much functionality, Google may have decided that there was no reason for both to exist.Assistant driving mode includes a panel with Google Assistant, a music player, volume controls and buttons for making a call or sending a message. Because of the similarity of names and functionalities, some may not have even realized that the version of the Assistant existed. Google will close its assisted driving mode control panel on November 21, according to a report by 9to5Google. So why is this change taking place? It turns out that most users interact with the assistant driving mode through maps, not through the control panel itself.
Google never provided drivers with a way to return to the control panel view once they were on the road, it only gave them direct access to applications compatible with driving mode, such as multimedia and messaging. Canceling driving mode is the latest in a series of measures that Google Assistant has taken to move away from functionality that is not based solely on the voice assistant. If you're going to hit the road this holiday season, you'll need a car with an integrated dashboard screen, or you'll be forced to rely on Maps with the exclusive Assistant set of tools. While Google Maps is still what your phone will use to navigate, Driving Assistant mode makes it easy to interact with other applications while driving by voice.
Google today contacted Android Police to clarify the future of its car-friendly user interface for phones in cars, and it's a big change. With the changes next month, it's best to think of these tools as a feature of Maps, not as part of Assistant or Android. When this dashboard view was released, more than two years later, the assisted driving mode had a completely new user interface, which focused less on providing drivers with contextual information and more on a standard set of widgets and shortcuts. Most of all, this change consolidates the way in which assistant driving mode could not gain ground after the closure of Android Auto.
If you didn't know about assisted driving mode, which must be accessed initially by voice command before a shortcut is available on the home screen, you would never discover it naturally.
