Important: This article is only for Google Maps built into your car. Feature availability or functionality may depend on your car manufacturer or region and data plan.
Your car may have safety-related driver assistance outside of Google Maps. They can be turned on or off using vehicle controls on the steering wheel or in the infotainment system. The particular features may depend on an integration with vehicle technology, like an external camera, assisted driving features, and more. To determine what features your car may have, read the driver manual or explore the center screen in your car.
Tip: This feature isn't available in all languages and countries/regions. Learn how to use Assistant on other platforms.
Current legal speed limit information
Your car may have the ability to show the current legal speed limit based on your external vehicle camera and the speed limit information provided by Maps. In areas where speed limit signs aren’t visible, Maps information may be used to suggest the speed limit shown in your vehicle.
The legal speed limit can vary by weather, time, season, or other conditions. Information from Maps, like the current weather conditions, may be used to determine if a conditional speed limit applies.
Upcoming legal speed limit information
Your car may have the ability to display an upcoming legal speed limit, based on where your car is likely to travel. If you’ve set a destination in Google Maps, that information will be used. If you haven’t set a destination, Google Maps may give the vehicle system a likely path to predict the speed limit of an upcoming area.
Adaptive Cruise Control
Your car may have the ability to automatically accelerate and brake to keep a safe distance from a vehicle ahead. When there are no cars ahead, the vehicle speed can be adjusted by the driver or influenced by expected car speeds and legal speed limits. Google Maps can provide information to the Adaptive Cruise Control system to improve the overall quality of the feature.
Offline maps and Vehicle Map Service (VMS)
Google Maps provides data to your car using Vehicle Map Service (VMS). The data is used to support the safety-related driver assistance features in your car, like speed limit information or adaptive cruise control. These features rely on offline map data, especially in areas without an internet connection or with poor connectivity.
To ensure offline map data is always available, turn on “auto-download” in the privacy center. If you choose to auto-download offline maps, your car may share information, like your vehicle location and previously downloaded offline maps with Google servers.
If you choose to manually download offline maps and don’t download the offline map of the area you’re driving in, some of these safety-related driver assistance features may not work.
Tip: Any previously downloaded maps will still be available, but won’t be automatically updated.