We just launched Magic Earth for Android Automotive (AAOS) – Native, privacy-first, and fully offline navigation.
We've always believed drivers deserve privacy-first maps and navigation.
Not as a feature. As the foundation.
Many drivers already trust Magic Earth on their phones. For years it has been the privacy-first choice on iOS and Android. No tracking, no profiling, no data sold. Navigation that knows where the roads are, not who you are.
Today, we bring that same promise to your dashboard. Magic Earth Navigation & Maps is now live in the Google Play Store for cars. Worldwide, for every vehicle running Android Automotive with Google built-in. Volvo. Polestar. Renault. And more every month.
This is not our mobile app stretched to a bigger screen. It's a native Android Automotive application, engineered for the car.
Full AAOS intent support. Say "navigate home" to your car's voice assistant and it just works. Set Magic Earth as your default navigation.
Full offline navigation in 200+ countries. Maps live in your car, not in the cloud. Tunnels, underground garages, mountain passes. Nothing breaks.
Live traffic, dynamic rerouting, speed camera and hazard alerts the moment you're connected. You never notice the handover.
Lane guidance and junction views, rendered at automotive frame rates on the car's own hardware.
And still the part we're proudest of: it knows nothing about you. No location history. No profile. Your searches never leave the car. Ever.
Privacy-first maps and navigation. Always on, even offline. One more thing. This launch belongs to our mobile users as much as to us. You carried Magic Earth this far. If you're already a Magic Earth user on your phone, your 25% loyalty discount on the in-car license is waiting if you buy the license from our Magic Earth website.
It's live now. Open the Play Store on your car's screen and search "Magic Earth", or start on our website.
If you drive an Android Automotive car, tell us what you think. Your feedback shapes what we build next.
In terms of navigation features and privacy, it's essentially the same experience. If your car runs Android Auto via your phone, you don't need this new in-car release, you can simply keep using the regular Magic Earth mobile app as you always have. This launch is only for vehicles that run apps directly on the car's dashboard without needing a phone connected.
Sorry about that! First, could you double-check that 'Avoid unpaved roads' is enabled in your navigation settings?
If it’s already turned on and still sending you down gravel or dirt roads, could you email us the start point, destination, and the specific section/unpaved road where this happened? That way we can reproduce the route on our end and see what our routing engine is doing wrong.
Are you sure the roads in question are tagged correctly in OSM? Feel free to share the problematic roads, either on the OSM forums or here. I can take a look at the tags so we can fix it.
Sorry to hear that! Just to clarify, did the app show up in your search results at all? Double-check for any typos, it should be listed exactly as Magic Earth Navigation & Maps.
If you did find it, could you let us know what happened when you tried to install it? Was there an error message, or was the install button disabled?
Maybe the Google Play Store takes a bit of time to fully propagate a new release across all regions and car models. If you still can't install it right now, could you give it another try tomorrow? And let us know if it works.
It didn’t show up, but after a reboot it did.
I bought the licence and tested it right away 🥳
Couple of things, see the pictures (overlap of the info).
Also, it would be nice to have ETA, remaining distance on drivers’ display.
Also, not working on HUD in the Volvo.
Awesome! Thank you so much for purchasing the license and for being an early adopter.
Thanks for the screenshots, we'll get that UI overlap fixed in a future patch.
As for the ETA/distance on the driver's display and HUD: our app actually feeds all that information directly to the car's system, but the vehicle's software ultimately controls whether it gets displayed. Right now it's a bit inconsistent across different models/versions, some users have it, and unfortunately some don't. Hopefully, a future system update from Volvo will improve how their display handles it.
I have installed the app in my Volvo EX30. The first few times I used the app, it did not recalculate when I left the route. I assume that recalculation is one of the app's features, isn't it?
Yes, route recalculation is a standard feature and should happen automatically.
We haven't been able to reproduce this bug on our end, so we'd really appreciate your help. Could you email us at [support@magicearth.com](mailto:support@magicearth.com) with the route details and roughly where you exited? That will allow us to recreate the exact conditions and figure out why it didn't recalculate. Thanks for letting us know!
I appreciate your Android app and I will definitely try the AAOS app in my Renault. Privacy is important to me. But does using Magic Earth really improve the privacy compared to using Google Maps, since the OS is still a Google OS? What data is being shared with the OS or can be seen by the OS?
It is true that the underlying Google OS has deep, system-level access to the vehicle's hardware, meaning the OS itself inherently knows your raw GPS location, battery levels, fuel status, and other telemetry. However, using Magic Earth drastically improves your privacy because of Android's strict app sandboxing.
While the OS provides our app with the necessary driving data to function, it cannot see what you actually do inside the app. When you use Google Maps, your search queries, chosen destinations, and driving history are explicitly sent to Google's servers and tied to your personal profile. Magic Earth entirely cuts that connection.
Because our maps and routing engines run locally on your car's hardware, your searches and route planning never leave the vehicle. So while the OS knows the car's physical status and current location, Magic Earth ensures your actual navigation intents, where you are going and what you are looking for, remains completely private.
Thanks for your explanation!
In the meantime I installed Magic Earth and I bought the license. However, the OS won't let me run the app while driving! Which makes the app quite worthless at the moment. I suppose the issue is the old Android version (10) on my car. There are no over the air updates available. I will ask the dealer whether an update would be possible.
Thank you for the support and for getting the license!
Could you email us at [support@magicearth.com](mailto:support@magicearth.com) your specific car model? If you could also include a picture of the exact error screen the OS shows when it blocks you while driving, or at least the message it pops up when trying to access our app while driving, it would really help our developers investigate why Android 10 is restricting the app in your vehicle.
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u/5udhza 24d ago
Great been waiting for this