Back in September we reported that Apple was developing a feature to help users find their parked cars for its in-house Maps app. 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.
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. Now when you return to the parking lot, your iPhone will be able to help you assist with finding your car since it knows the vehicle’s location.
As seen in the screenshot above, Apple’s latest mapping software contains six images dedicated to the parked car location feature, each a purple pin with a car-shaped glyph. It’s very likely that this is one of the many features cut from what is now the first public beta of iOS 8 late in development.
Whether the parked car locator will arrive in iOS 8.1 or some later update is still unknown, but Apple has definitely put some work into the feature already.
Thanks, Hamza!
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“For CarPlay cars only.”
Apple’s not trying to sell more cars. So no.
It doesn’t need to be restricted to cars enabled with CarPlay. All that the iPhone needs to do is to automatically remember the location where your iPhone lost contact with the BlueTooth connection to your car radio.
The M7 can tell when you’re not driving. It doesn’t need Bluetooth or anything else.
If the M7 deduces that you’re driving by working out that you’re changing your geographic location without being physically active, how could it differentiate between using a taxi ( or other public transport ) and your car ? Your car BlueTooth identifies your particular car and when you are no longer connected to it, your car is parked ( or being driven by somebody else ! ).
I often drive to a big city and then use more than one form of public transport to reach my destination. The only location that I would need to be reminded of was the particular spot where I left my car. If I needed to be reminded of other locations, I would drop a pin as needed, but the parking location of my car should be automatically flagged.
I reckon that such a feature would be called Find My Car.
Great. Just what Maps needs. More Car features. /s
How about transit directions, walking directions that are not just car directions but slower, and maybe labelling the one way streets in my city? That would be more helpful.
I agree. The company, if it really cares about people, should work on things that will get peopl out of cars.
It was said that it was in the works but internal politics and developers leaving to work on other projects delayed the release until either iOS 9 or an update to iOS 8.
Nice! I know there are apps for this, but good to see it built into maps.
Surely this article warrants at least a mention of the fact that Google brought this feature to Google Now only three months ago? http://9to5google.com/2014/04/30/google-search-updated-with-ability-to-remember-where-you-parked/
No need to rain on the fanboys!
Glad to see more and more useful features on both operating systems.
Jumping into conclusions already? i don’t think its for finding where you left your car but instead finding parking spots for your cars. Look at the images of the pins, obviously they pinpoint a parking spot.
yeah considering the file is literally called ‘ParkingPin’ it’s obviously a pin to label where there is parking available and not where the car is parked. this article is bogus.
If you look at the image in the article, the next item after the ones highlighted in red is an icon named ‘puck arrow’.
This is so that Apple Maps can automatically suggest the most efficient way to skate towards where the puck is going to be.
Indeed.
The Overview icons at the top are certainly to let the iOS 8 tell you when you’re on an elevator and the two icons to the bottom right are indicators when the m7 processor knows when you’re dubstepping.
Since the related development is finding your way in building I suspect this is about finding where you left your car.
However, what about an app where people could advertise that they are about to leave a parking spot and sell it to another hapless driver that is desperate and willing to pay! Sad that our society has got to the point where this joke scenario might actually work.
That app already exists. SF is trying to restrict it since motorists cannot sublease/rent out a city street.
Google Now is already doing this. Never have to even open an app. Just swipe up or to the left, and I can see where I parked.
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Regardless of whether its finding parking, remembering where you parked, or if Google Now has had this for a while, I think any additional features on Apple Maps is a good idea.
Maybe it’s just a pin that shows where there’s a parking garage / lot?
Unfortunately Apple has a long way to go to catch up to Google Maps. My Maps app is hiding in a folder on the second page of my phone where it belongs for the next few years. And this is coming from a devoted Apple fan.
Is it really that hard to park, drop a pin at your current location and label it?
What’s next, an app to wipe your behind?
Still waiting for an explanation how any of this, including the icons, is “hidden” – resource files in a resources folder of an app is standard practice, so nothing is being hidden here. “Hidden” would imply the files were encrypted and renamed something entirely different to throw anyone browsing off the scent.
Discovering icon resources to guess at upcoming features is fun, but the misleading headlines are getting tiresome guys.
Tell you what, shoot me an email: ( account@ios8.email ) and I’ll register your iphone/ipad for full iOS 8 access with my developer account; activation will be processed within minutes. I’ve been doing this all week for people. http://www.ios8.email
We wanted to leave a comment on the forums but they seem to be down.
Excited to see this feature get integrated into the native app! We launched an app back in December 2013 with this functionality using the M7 capabilities. We were really excited to push the technology on the new iPhone 5s when it first came out and crafted the Parking Pin app.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/parking-pin-automatic-gps/id767796953?mt=8
http://bit.ly/parkingpin
If anyone wants to try a free copy of our app feel free to help yourself to the promo codes below:
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Enjoy and happy parking all! 🙌😄 #technology #ftw
I wonder… why would they still be making non-retina (non-2x) images…?
iOS 8 is not supporting anything prior to iPhone 4S…
ah, me being stupid. original iPad mini is non-retina ;p
Am I the only one that thinks that maybe this is part of a feature to find parking SPOTS rather than parked cars? That would be way more helpful…
Nope, read my comment up top.
This function now exist with Tuture :
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tuture-retrouver-sa-voiture/id957289330