Google has been particularly slow with rolling out Assistant Driving Mode, which was announced at I/O 2019 but only made available in late 2020. Even then, it was limited to users in the US. But that's no longer the case as Google is now making the feature available for users in other countries too.

The official support page previously stated that it was only available in English in the US. It now reads that some features "aren't available in all languages or countries," suggesting that it's rolling out to other countries too — it doesn't spell out which ones. However, we can confirm that the UK is one of them — one of our readers there got it on his Pixel 5.

If you're not aware of it, Google Assistant Driving Mode is intended to replace Android Auto's on-phone mode. It can help you read and send messages, make calls, and control media with your voice so you don't have to leave the navigation screen.

To check if you've received Assistant Driving Mode, open Google Maps and head over to Settings > Navigation Settings > Google Assistant settings. If you have, this should lead you to a new panel for Driving Mode. If not, it'll open the general Assistant settings screen that you can access from multiple other Google apps.

UPDATE: 2021/04/19 7:07am PDT BY PRASHAM PARIKH

Rolling out to more countries

Google has finally shed light on which countries the Assistant Driving Mode is rolling out to. At the time of writing, Android users in English in Australia, Great Britain, Ireland, India, and Singapore should be able to access the early preview.

If you're not residing in any of the listed countries and want to try this out, you could try changing your phone's language to English (US). This worked for our very own Rita who currently lives in Lebanon.

Thanks: Pawel, Tristian