Dude, where's my car? Android Auto users report vanishing icon bug

Like many people, I like to replace the blue arrow with a car avatar when navigating with Google Maps. It’s just a bit of fun customization because you don’t really need any icon at all — you know that your position is anchored at the bottom-center of the navigation screen. Still, it’s familiar to have my position marked in this fun way, so I can imagine it must have been strange for some users who have recently seen the car icon vanish completely when using Google Maps on Android Auto.

The issue popped up in a recent Reddit thread on r/AndroidAuto, where one user described a repeatable bug: if the media player is in full-screen and they switch back to split view, the car icon simply disappears. Navigation still works, but there’s no visual indicator of the car’s actual location. Force-quitting Maps on the phone brings the icon back for the user, but only until the next time it happens.

Judging by the replies, this isn’t an isolated case. Users across different cars, head units, phones, and Android versions have chimed in to say they’re seeing the same thing. Versions mentioned range from Android Auto 15.9 through 16.1, with at least one commenter saying an update to 16.0.66 fixed it for them, while others on newer builds say the bug is still very much alive.

The discussion in the thread may have partially isolated the issue. The original poster noticed that the problem seemed to go away after switching back to the default blue arrow car icon in Google Maps, and reported a four-hour round trip without a single disappearance after making this change. So it’s possible that the people seeing this bug are only those using non-default car icons.

That’s not exactly a satisfying workaround, and it also doesn’t explain why the issue appears to be triggered specifically by switching between full-screen media and split-screen views. We haven’t seen any official acknowledgment from Google, and no clear indication of whether this is an Android Auto bug, a Google Maps glitch, or an awkward interaction between the two.

If you’re affected, your options are limited until we learn more. It sounds like the easiest fix is reverting to the default blue icon, and you can also try making sure both Android Auto and Google Maps are fully up to date. Failing that, you’ll have to put up with being a navigation ghost until the issue is resolved.