[redswift]

Thanks to my good spatial awareness, which comes in quite handy, making navigation and finding my way around more intuitive. One area where this skill truly shines is while parking. I don't find the need to note down where I park. It's as if my internal compass has an uncanny ability to imprint the coordinates of my parking space in my mind.

However, there was one incident that took me by surprise. It happened during a trip to Guruvayoor temple (Kerala). The trip required an early start—2 am, to be precise, to reach the temple by 5 am for darshan.

I parked my car in the designated parking ground, confidently relying on my internal GPS to guide me back after the darshan. Little did I anticipate that this temple visit would turn into an ordeal. The darshan took a good three hours. As I stepped out of the temple, I navigated confidently toward the parking ground, only to be met with a disconcerting sight.

The entire parking ground seemed to have vanished into thin air, and my car was nowhere in sight. Perplexed, I retraced my steps, walked in circles, and even sought the assistance of a helpful auto-rickshaw driver. However, the parking ground remained elusive.

As it turns out, the expansive temple complex, with its multiple entry/exit ways, played a trick on me. I had entered through one gateway and exited through another, throwing off my mental map entirely. To further complicate matters, as I wandered around, the actual parking ground revealed itself from a different perspective, changing its appearance from what I had initially visualized.

It took me a solid hour and a half of wandering, auto-rickshaw rides and exploring every nook and cranny of the temple vicinity, before I finally stumbled upon my car.

[navin]

Originally Posted by NomadSK

2) and Hey Siri, remember where I parked my car (for iPhone users), The maps will pop up indicating the location of your car.

What if we haven't activated Siri? I didn't want to activate it as it confused me.

Can we just see the position of our car in Apple Maps?

Thanks.

[Mr.Ogre]

Originally Posted by CityRyder

I have a peculiar issue, maybe some of you have also face this. When I park my bike in my office parking (which is huge),

I faced this problem too. Then I just started clicking pictures of the parking spot including pillar number. Then it just becomes easy to find that pillar.

[Mahesh Prasad]

Originally Posted by navin

What if we haven't activated Siri? I didn't want to activate it as it confused me.

Can we just see the position of our car in Apple Maps?

Thanks.

We can. I haven't activated Siri, and I just casually opened my Apple Maps and it showed this. It is pretty accurate to the general vicinity.

[navin]

Originally Posted by Mahesh Prasad

I just casually opened my Apple Maps and it showed this. It is pretty accurate to the general vicinity.

My Apple Map only tells me where I am. Not where my car is.

[Joe367]

Originally Posted by CityRyder

I have a peculiar issue, maybe some of you have also face this. When I park my bike in my office parking (which is huge), its difficult to spot the bike while going back home. Remembering pillar number on daily basis is struggle.

If you are an Android phone user, you can trigger Google Assistant and ask it to remember your parking location. When you return , you can as your parking location and it will navigate you to the spot. I haven't tested this feature personally though and also not sure how it works in multilevel parking. 🤔

[aniketi]

I have 3 parking floors in my office. Generally I see nearest pillar number and just say that 2-3 times to myself, like P2 67 (yesterday's number). Generally I remember it easily for the day. Generally I see nearest odd number which is easy to remember, for me at least. Generally people remember odd numbers more than even numbers.

[NomadSK]

Originally Posted by navin

What if we haven't activated Siri? I didn't want to activate it as it confused me.

Can we just see the position of our car in Apple Maps?

Thanks.

I haven’t tried to use this feature without Siri.

However, you can try by searching “parked car” in the search tab, please check if that works, here are some screen grabs below, just ensure your map settings for parked car are switched on. This is without “Siri” being used.

[Arnav612]

Funny story- I went to a party in the Nahar complex in Powai. A friend of mine who lives there was with me in the car when we went to park. And in conversation, I completely forgot to check where I've parked. And that is a MASSIVE parking lot. easily 2-3 floors of Palladium's parking in one level.

I left at 2 am with another friend to head back to bandra. And I walk into the parking lot completely LOST. The resident friend was asleep and I couldn't figure out where my car was , let alone being sleepy to add to the mix. We split ways to look for the car and I kept hitting the unlock button. The ZS' lights fired up and lit up a pillar from far off, and there she was.

In this whole mix, I was so relieved that I forgot to take my friend with me and had to turn back looking for him. Legend has it that he's still somewhere in that parking lot. XD.

Lesson learned: Had it not been for follow me home lights, I would never have found my car.

[navin]

Originally Posted by NomadSK

However, you can try by searching “parked car” in the search tab, please check if that works.

I am sorry if I am being difficult. Technology is not my forte.

I did search for "parked car," and it did show my car parked. But it didn't show the correct location of my car.

My car is below me (in my garage), and the app shows it to be about 200-250m away.

Usually, I don't have much of an issue finding my car because I am mostly chauffeured. When I am not (say at a mall), my chauffeur calls me and tells me where he has parked it (or messages me a photo).

Q: Do you have to be driving the car for this app to work? I wondered how Apple would know if I was driving or being driven in it.

Mobile phone applications weren't made with geriatrics in mind.

[NomadSK]

Originally Posted by navin

I am sorry if I am being difficult. Technology is not my forte.

My car is below me (in my garage), and the app shows it to be about 200-250m away.

Q: Do you have to be driving the car for this app to work? I wondered how Apple would know if I was driving or being driven in it.

Technology ain’t my forte too. It’s just the bits which I need, I Remember.

Few pointers As per Apple - Your parked car isn’t marked/pinned at a location where you frequently park, like at home or work.

As soon as your phone gets connected to CarPlay or Bluetooth, it knows the parked location automatically.

Maps drops a parked car marker when you disconnect your iPhone from your car’s Bluetooth or CarPlay system and exit your vehicle.

The driving mode uses a number of signals, such as the iPhone's accelerometer, the rate at which it finds and loses nearby Wi-Fi networks, and GPS to try to detect when it thinks you are driving.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by navin

Q: Do you have to be driving the car for this app to work? I wondered how Apple would know if I was driving or being driven in it.

For Google Maps to register the "Parked Location", someone travelling in the car should have connected their phone to the car's entertainment via Bluetooth or Apple CarPlay (and I assume Android Auto as well) while the car was in the motion AND this connection should be still valid when the engine was turned off and door locked.

It won't register the location if say, you disconnect the phone, and then turn off the engine and lock the car.

[shaheenazk]

Originally Posted by GTO

Me too . I always take a picture! Storage is anyway dirt cheap today.

I am sure that is why pillars are numbered so that they can be pictured to remember where you parked your vehicle. I do that all the time when visiting a mall for a movie or shopping. Now-a-days malls have multi-level parking and they all look the same so one can get confused easily.

[binand]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

For Google Maps to register the "Parked Location", someone travelling in the car should have connected their phone to the car's entertainment via Bluetooth or Apple CarPlay (and I assume Android Auto as well) while the car was in the motion AND this connection should be still valid when the engine was turned off and door locked.

This is not true. All I need to do is to tell Android Assistant something like "remember where I parked". Googly is uncannily perceptive in detecting when you change your mode of transport. An example below (this whole thing it figured without a single bit of input from me - the only mistake it made is that it assumed I am driving while in reality my wife dropped me off at the metro station).

Google Assistant's documentation mentions that one can configure it to remember where one parked without even the voice prompt, but I have not used it yet.

[Aquitej]

While parking in my office, I write it down on a paper with the floor(upper/lower) and the pillar name/number along with the date.
If it's a parking lot in the mall, wife will remember it!!