Latest Google Maps update on Android Auto makes it much easier to report police activity

A small tweak to Google Maps on Android Auto has a big impact on the usability of incident reporting when it comes to reporting police activity.

After several years exclusive to mobile apps, Google Maps finally delivered support for incident reporting on Android Auto and Apple CarPlay earlier this year. The long-awaited feature isn’t without its downsides, though, such as incompatibility with certain display types. Another annoyance at launch, though, was that users needed to swipe through a menu in order to access the most common report type – police activity.

Through an update this week, Google Maps has shuffled the reporting menu, moving the reporting option for police activity to the top of the menu directly underneath more critical reports for crashes and traffic slowdowns.

This came as Google also renamed the “Police” option from its previous, too specific name of “Speed traps.”

This change appears to be rolled out widely to all users, and also seems to be a server-side update requiring no updates to Android Auto itself.

This should also apply to the Google Maps app on Apple CarPlay.

More on Android Auto:

• Bizarre Android Auto bug adds ‘Oh’ to WhatsApp messages
• GM’s mission to eliminate Android Auto and CarPlay has been thwarted by this clever third-party kit [Gallery]
• Android Auto 13.3 update prepares support for radio stations

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