Google Maps finally comes to Apple CarPlay with iOS 12
You'll have to have both iOS 12 and the latest Google Maps app update to make it work.
If you use Apple CarPlay in your car, one of the biggest draws of Apple's iOS 12 update was the addition of Google Maps functionality in CarPlay. When the iOS update dropped, however, Google Maps wasn't quite ready to play along -- but now it is.
One day after iOS 12 dropped, Google released the update to its Google Maps iOS app that enables CarPlay functionality. After you update both your phone and your app, you can finally stop pretending that you love Apple Maps more than any other navigation app.
I took Google Maps in CarPlay for a quick spin earlier. What surprised me was that, upon opening Google Maps, I was met with a familiar sight -- the design of Google Maps in CarPlay is almost identical to Apple Maps. But that shouldn't surprise me, given Apple's very tight control over what goes into the CarPlay environment, a reason that Apple told me in the past is for safety's sake. Google likely had to sacrifice some of its own UI in order to let Apple give up its monopolistic control over in-car navigation.
Otherwise, it functions just like Google Maps. You can input navigation destinations from a variety of sources, including places you've already looked up on your phone. A couple quick taps later, and you've got Google Maps telling you where to go from the comfort of your infotainment screen. I've already moved Apple Maps to the second page on my CarPlay screen, where it will likely languish until the end of time.
Waze, another Google product, will also work with CarPlay in iOS 12. However, at the time of writing, Waze has not pushed out the update that will enable this functionality. That should hopefully change in the near future.
Farewell, Apple Maps. I hardly knew ye, because I hardly used ye.