Photo: Google
While Google Maps is for many a must-have application when getting behind the wheel, some Android Auto users learned recently that the whole thing can become quite a struggle due to an odd behavior likely introduced by a recent update.
Google Maps often just gets stuck to a “loading route” screen without being able to get past it, essentially becoming unusable when an Android phone is connected to the head unit in the car to run Android Auto.
Several of our readers confirmed the problems, with someone saying that Google Maps sometimes fails to work properly even when not connected to Android Auto. This seems to suggest the one to blame is the app itself and not Android Auto, but of course, this is up to Google to figure out.
The good news is the search giant has already confirmed it’s looking into reports, though on the other hand, no ETA has been provided as to when we could get our hands on a fix.
In the meantime, however, there are several things that you could try and which for some users actually do the trick and get Google Maps up and running on Android Auto.
For example, someone claims that the only way to get past the “loading route” screen is to force-close the application, clear the cache and then relaunch it. Killing maps and reloading it on Android Auto also appears to be the fix for others too, though it goes without saying that doing this every time you launch the app isn’t necessarily the most convenient.
Another workaround that could help restore Google Maps on Android Auto is to disconnect the phone, set the route in the app on your mobile device, and then connect it to the head unit with everything in Google Maps already configured. This way, no route configuration would be required on Android Auto, hence no “loading route” screen.
Several of our readers confirmed the problems, with someone saying that Google Maps sometimes fails to work properly even when not connected to Android Auto. This seems to suggest the one to blame is the app itself and not Android Auto, but of course, this is up to Google to figure out.
The good news is the search giant has already confirmed it’s looking into reports, though on the other hand, no ETA has been provided as to when we could get our hands on a fix.
In the meantime, however, there are several things that you could try and which for some users actually do the trick and get Google Maps up and running on Android Auto.
For example, someone claims that the only way to get past the “loading route” screen is to force-close the application, clear the cache and then relaunch it. Killing maps and reloading it on Android Auto also appears to be the fix for others too, though it goes without saying that doing this every time you launch the app isn’t necessarily the most convenient.
Another workaround that could help restore Google Maps on Android Auto is to disconnect the phone, set the route in the app on your mobile device, and then connect it to the head unit with everything in Google Maps already configured. This way, no route configuration would be required on Android Auto, hence no “loading route” screen.
Google News