Google explains what's going on with the disappearing speedometer in Maps on Android Auto

It’s a little shocking that it took until this summer for Google to start bringing a real-time speedometer to Maps on Android Auto, but better late than never! Combined with speed limit info in the app, that put some very useful information on Android Auto screens. And largely because we were so happy to see it finally arrive, we were particularly concerned earlier this week when we starting finding reports from users saying that it had suddenly vanished on them. It’s taken a few days now for the rest of the story to come together, but we may now finally know what’s going on here.

Android Authority alum and present-day Googler Mishaal Rahman has been following up with users in the Reddit thread where we first saw this issue reported. Yesterday he was able to confirm that according to the Android Auto team, Google’s rollout of the speedometer feature was proceeding as normal. Clearly, though, something was still off — and it took until today for the full picture to come into focus.

Rahman now posts to confirm that we’re looking at two separate things here: the arrival of the speedometer in the first place, and the ability to view the speedometer even when drivers don’t have a destination programmed in:

I spoke with a member of the Android Auto product team and was informed that the ability to have the speedometer, speed limit, and traffic signals/stop signs showing without a destination set is still rolling out. Thus, not everyone will have this particular feature yet.

That would certainly explain the “disappearances” earlier reported — those features are still accessible in the app, but don’t yet appear persistently for everyone.

So, there you have it: If you want your speedometer (and speed limit data, and traffic signals) to show back up in Android Auto, just set a destination for your next drive. And then look forward to that day in the hopefully not-too-distant future when you won’t even have to bother with that.