When you click on the ‘Start’ button on maps, the map auto-rotates according to the direction of movement. But how is ‘direction’ estimated? Is it vehicle heading, cartesian coordinates, or something else?
In: 5
A literal IC chip in the phone is a “compass” that sends a signal to the software about which direction the phone is facing, moving the phone even slightly gets the software to figure out which direction you are heading. Between this info and the gps signal it gets things sorted out showing correctly.
This is why it often takes a few seconds when you open it for it to figure out where exactly you are and which way to head and the map spins around a bit.
Probably two coordinates taken at a short interval, I don’t see what else could be used, or maybe the phone compass if it has one, but since the phone will probably be vertical when you use the GPS I don’t think that would be working.
It may get a couple of readings from the GPS radio and does a comparison to find direction of travel
Your phone would not know vehicle heading. It only knows your location and location history. If you had not been driving yet, it assumes that the map heading is toward the correct path. So if you are in a driveway, for example, it assumes your path is toward the road. You are the one to figure out to use reverse or drive. If you manage to change location at driving speed in the opposite direction of the assumed heading, the map re-orients to match.
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