Users were able to access this dashboard through Google Assistant by saying, "Hey Google, Launch Driving Mode". This voice command opened up a special dashboard, which is a miniature version of your navigation map, an audio control module for your music app, a shortcut for your contacts app, and various other widgets that could prove useful to drivers while on the road.
Since it was controlled entirely by the Google Assistant service, users were able to switch between any of the functions just by using voice commands, which made it pretty useful while driving. In fact, as we mentioned above, it was introduced back in 2019 to replace the original Android Auto app, which offered many of the same functionalities but in a dedicated app interface.
The Android Auto app was discontinued after the launch of Android 12, just like this dashboard is being discontinued now that we are on the cusp of widespread Android 13 release. One thing to keep in mind is that you can still access a lot of the same features within the Driving Mode that comes in-built into Google Maps. However, having it on a separate dashboard just made it a lot easier to control and manage.
