How to find your car with Siri and the Maps app
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Never lose your car to endless parking lots or twisting urban neighborhoods again with a Bluetooth connection and the Maps app.
Here's a not-so-secret fact about me: I'm awful at remembering where I parked. It's why I own a brightly-colored car that can make noise and flash its lights if I press my key fob — without them, I might as well condemn myself to wandering through darkened parking garages for hours.
Thanks to Apple's Parked Car feature in Apple Maps, though, I no longer have to rely on shiny paint or loud noises to help me discover where I left my vehicle: I only have to look at my iPhone or Apple Watch.
How the Parked Car feature works
You don't need Apple's CarPlay to get this feature: As long as your car has a Bluetooth stereo and you own an iPhone 6 or later, you should be able to use the Parked Car feature.
The feature works via Bluetooth Low-Energy pairing: When you turn off your car, it disconnects your iPhone from the car's Bluetooth connection. When that happens, your iPhone automatically makes a note of where the pairing disconnected, and plunks a Parked Car marker down in that spot.
Once you return to your car and turn it on again, your iPhone removes that marker (until the next time you turn off your vehicle).
How to turn on the Parked Car feature
The Parked Car option should be enabled by default, but just in case it's not showing for you, it's easy to manually turn it on.
- Open the Settings app.
- Open the Maps setting.
Scroll to the bottom of the screen.
- Make sure the Show Parked Location toggle is switched to the On position.
You'll also want to make sure Location Services and Frequent Locations are enabled.
- Open the Settings app.
- Go to Privacy.
- Go to Location Services.
- Make sure location services for the Maps app have been enabled.
Tap Frequent Locations under the Location Services section.
- Make sure the Frequent Locations toggle has been enabled.
How to find your Parked Car via Siri
You can find your car from your iPhone or Apple Watch just by asking Siri. Here's how!
- Trigger Siri by pressing and holding the Home button (iPhone), saying "Hey Siri" (iPhone or Apple Watch), or pressing the Digital Crown (Apple Watch).
- Say "Where's my car?"
Tap the parked car icon to view the Parked Car screen in the Maps app.
How to find your Parked Car in the Maps app
By default, your Parked Car should be the first or second saved entry under Maps's Search bar; if it's not, you can tap the Search bar and type in "Parked Car" to view it.
Once you find your Parked Car, you can view a small Maps card that has information about its current location, a button to get directions from your location, the time you last parked there, an option to add notes about where you parked (i.e. a garage level), and an option to snap a photo of where you parked.
How to add information to your Parked Car location
- Tap the Parked Car marker.
Tap the Note or Photo field to add textual or photographic information to your parking location.
- Tap the Edit Location button to alter your car's spot if the original GPS location is slightly off.
How to remove your Parked Car location
Whether you don't want Maps to show where you parked your car or your location is off enough that it doesn't make sense to have the marker, here's how to remove your location.
- Tap the Parked Car marker.
- Swipe up on the Parked Car card.
Tap Remove Car.
- Here, you have two options: Remove Car will remove this parking instance, while Stop Showing Parked Car will remove this marker and any future Parked Car markers.
What if your car doesn't show up?
If you've confirmed that the Parked Car feature is on in Settings along with Location Services, but still can't get your car to show up on the map, you may not have a compatible Bluetooth stereo system.
Most every modern Bluetooth stereo and aftermarket system is compatible, but earlier car models may not work with the Parked Car feature.
Any other Sir or Maps questions?
Let us know in the comments.