Effortlessly Find Your Parked Car with iPhone Maps

Forgetting where you parked your car is a common frustration for many drivers. Fortunately, if you’re an iPhone user, Apple Maps offers a convenient feature to automatically remember your parking location. This guide will show you how to set up and use the “Parked Car” feature on your iPhone, ensuring you can always easily find your way back to your vehicle.

Enabling Prerequisites: Location Services and Significant Locations

Before you can utilize the parked car feature, you need to ensure that Location Services and Significant Locations are enabled on your iPhone. These settings are crucial for Maps to accurately track and remember where you park.

Turn on Location Services

Location Services allows apps like Maps to access your device’s location. Here’s how to activate it:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap on Privacy & Security.
3. Select Location Services.
4. Make sure the Location Services toggle is switched to the on position (green).

Turn on Significant Locations

Significant Locations allows your iPhone to learn places that are significant to you, which is used to improve location-based services, including the parked car feature. To enable this:

1. In the Settings app, navigate back to Privacy & Security and then Location Services.
2. Tap on System Services at the bottom of the screen.
3. Scroll down and turn on Significant Locations. You may be asked to authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode.

Activating “Show Parked Location” in Maps

With the prerequisites in place, you now need to turn on the “Show Parked Location” feature within the Maps settings:

1. Open the Settings app again.
2. Scroll down and tap on Maps.
3. Find the Show Parked Location option and toggle it to the on position (green).

Getting Directions to Your Parked Car

Once everything is set up, your iPhone will automatically drop a parked car marker in Maps when you disconnect from your car’s Bluetooth or CarPlay system. When you’re ready to return to your vehicle, there are a couple of simple ways to get directions:

Using the Maps App

1. Open the Maps app on your iPhone.
2. In the search bar, type “Parked Car”.
3. Select Parked Car from the search results. This will display your car’s location on the map.
4. From here, you can view the location, edit it if necessary, or even add notes to remind yourself of the parking spot details.
5. Tap Directions to start navigation back to your parked car.

Using Siri Suggestions

For even quicker access, you can use Siri Suggestions from your Home Screen:

1. On your iPhone Home Screen, swipe down to bring up the Search field.
2. Type “Parked Car” or simply look for Parked Car below the Siri Suggestions.
3. Tap on Parked Car to immediately get directions to your vehicle.

Key Requirements for Automatic Parked Car Detection

To ensure the “Parked Car” feature works seamlessly, remember these key requirements:

• Bluetooth is on: Your iPhone needs to be connected to your car via Bluetooth or CarPlay for automatic detection.
• Compatible iPhone and iOS: You need an iPhone 6 or later running iOS 10 or later.
• Automatic Marker Drop: The parked car marker is dropped automatically when you disconnect your iPhone from your car’s Bluetooth or CarPlay system and exit your car.

By following these simple steps, you can leverage the “Parked Car” feature in Apple Maps to eliminate the stress of forgetting your parking spot and effortlessly navigate back to your car every time.