How-To: Find Your Car with iPhone 3G
Have you ever experienced the frustration of parking your car in a massive parking lot or parking garage and then almost panicked when you couldn’t find it? If you haven’t, well, good for you. Your pink Hummer with curb feelers and fuzzy dice must make things REAL easy for you. Me, on the other hand, not so lucky. Let me tell you how your iPhone 3G can be your best friend for finding where you parked! After the break, of course.
Long before I had my iPhone 3G, I had the good fortune of watching a college football game at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Having never attended an event there, I was a bit fascinated how the golf course adjacent to the stadium is literally used as a parking lot for event attendees. Yes, that’s right. The entire golf course is one ginormous parking lot and one lost car fiasco waiting to happen.
After the game, it was dark and disorienting. Even though there were large balloon markers spaced avery 100 yards or so, it was nearly impossible to find my car and almost an hour was spent tracking it down. If only I had my iPhone 3G! If only it had been conceived!
Why, you ask? GPS. Fast forward a couple years to CES in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. Driving down the strip in the heart of Vegas on a Saturday night is NOT for the patient. I was meeting up with Dieter Bohn and several others bloggers for a fancy-pants dinner and quickly realized that I would reach my location much faster if I abandoned my ride and hoofed it – the good old “ankle express.”
I found a massive parking garage that barely accommodated the height of my truck, parked, and then froze. I knew I had a good jaunt in front of me and I wanted to be sure I could easily and quickly locate my truck again. I’m easily disoriented and have a poor sense of direction – when people call me “Magellan”, it’s NOT a compliment. My iPhone 3G to the rescue! I simply opened up my Maps app, tapped the “target” in the bottom left of the screen, and dropped a pin for my current location and bookmarked it (just tap the pin after you drop it and then “Add to Bookmarks” in the bottom right of the following page).
Is the iPhone 3G’s GPS precise to the foot? Not exactly, but I was able to easily return to my truck because I could rely on my iPhone’s GPS to point the way and return me to the parking garage, even in the busy hustle and bustle of the Las Vegas strip. So if you need to leave a trail of virtual breadcrumbs the next time you park your car or plan on wandering far and wide from your base camp, give your iPhone 3G’s Maps app a try, drop a pin, and have fun!
[Note: Above photoshops are for comedic value, no actual trucks were impaled on giant map pins in production of this how-to]
February 12th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Good tip. I’m gonna try this the next time I to to Mall of America!
February 12th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
go to
Doh..
February 12th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Nice crooked park job there. ***-end of your truck looks like it’s in the next space.
February 12th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
HOW TO FIND YOUR CAR USING YOUR 2G IPHONE:
Don’t forget where you car is…
February 12th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Great tip Brian! Heck, with my poor sense of direction and memory, I could use that just about anywhere
February 12th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
But what happens, when you leave your iPhone in the car that you forgot where you parked?
February 12th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
@Moe wait, you actually let your iphone out of your hand?
It’s not on your mental checklist when you leave the car: 1) keys (check) 2) tickets (check) 3) iPhone (check) 
February 12th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
What if it is a multi level car park?
February 12th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Does GPS work inside parking garages really??
February 12th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
@chonx
Ha, prob work better if you walk outside first. You could always snap a pic of the section/level markers too, especially if they’re in view from your car.
February 13th, 2009 at 8:50 am
There’s a great free app called Take My Car (I think) that lets you just push a button saying “I parked here” that will record the GPS coordinates so you can find it again.
I’ve found it handy when parking in neighborhoods I don’t frequent.
February 13th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Stupid me, how do you clear the pin after you get back to your car?
February 13th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
@Jeff Tap on the pin and there is an option to remove the pin.
February 14th, 2009 at 7:12 am
Bob,
Tried to find this “Take My Car” application, but no luck. Any pointers? Thanks!
February 14th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Just use search in the app store and search for “my car”..pops right up
February 15th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
That’s why they put the panic button on your car’s remote lock fob, right?
December 17th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Brian, based on that pic, I you also definitely need an app “Park My Car.” Geeze bud are you from Texas or something – drive a truck and thus entitles you to two parking spots and two lanes on the road?