TL;DR
- Google Maps has recently started offering a navigation pop-up on select instrument cluster displays.
- So far this has been spotted on the Polestar 2.
- We previously saw Waze delivering a similar behind-the-wheel view.
How many digital screens can you see right this second? From our phones, to computers, to TVs and smart home hubs, our lives our just jam-packed with displays vying for our attention. And while that can easily start to get pretty overwhelming, this kind of preponderance of screens can also work to our benefit — if and when apps and services are making smart decisions about what to show, where. Right now, Google’s working on pushing out just such an improvement to Android Auto.
Just like so many other places in our lives, cars have been doubling down on their interest in screens in recent years. Beyond just offering one main screen on which we could interact with the car’s own OS or use something like Android Auto, it’s increasingly common to find vehicles that have additional display beyond that, with one especially popular option being a virtual instrument cluster display that lives right behind your steering wheel. Earlier this year we saw Waze learning to expand its navigation guidance to those cluster screens, and now we’re learning about some similar efforts from Google Maps.
Running Android Auto version 14.3.651844 on a Galaxy S25, 9to5Google reports that the Polestar 2 is now able to display Google Maps navigation data as a pop-up on its behind-the-wheel screen. This is distinct from the range and ETA view previously available through the car’s Android Automotive interface.
While this kind of functionality still appears to be incredibly limited across vehicles supporting Android Auto, that’s a situation we only expect to get better, and it’s nice to hear that Google’s working to keep up with these trends. Placing navigation info front-and-center like this feels like a smart way to ensure that it’s always easily within a driver’s sight lines, helping to minimize distraction.
That said, all this does feel a bit like a work in progress, and 9to5Google notes that the current implementation risks obscuring map detail with this pop-up in a way that could theoretically impair navigation. Hopefully we’ll see Google play around a little more with its layout as we see this kind of view expand to more vehicles.
