The briefing
A short spoken summary of your drive, stretch by stretch, written for the time you leave. Play it once before you set off.
- APPLIES TO
- ALL DEVICES
- KIND
- CONCEPT
- UPDATED
- 02 OCT 2026
What it covers
The briefing is a short show: two hosts, Alex and Sam, talk your drive through. Its length follows the drive — a few lines for a short hop, a minute or two and an overview of the day for a long one. It starts with the drive as a whole: how long, when you arrive, the towns on the way, sunrise or sunset where it matters, and how to get ready — a warm layer and a scraper below freezing, sunglasses, the lights after dark, a break on a long stint. Then it takes each stretch in the order you drive it, leading with whatever would change how you drive — and where and when you meet it. A calm drive gets a short, cheerful briefing.
A stretch joins neighbouring road with the same kind of weather and the same rating, and is named after the places on it: “Denver to Boulder”, “Near Clines Corners”, “Into Albuquerque”.
How it is made
Every fact in the briefing — each time, temperature, distance, rating, sunrise and sunset — is worked out from the forecast by the app’s own code, the same way as the timeline. An AI language model then turns those facts into the hosts’ conversation, and two synthetic voices read it aloud. The model chooses the words and nothing else; it is not asked to calculate or to guess. The one thing it may add is, once or twice, something a town on your route is widely known for.
Play it
Open the drive and choose Briefing. When it is ready it reads “Your drive, read to you.” Play and pause with the button, drag the bar to move through it, and tap a stretch in the list to jump to it. Most severe stretch jumps straight to the worst of the drive.
Open the drive and choose Briefing beside Timeline. It plays and scrubs as on iPhone, and each stretch in the list can be clicked.
Open the drive and choose Briefing. It reads “The drive, read ahead.” while it plays. The text of each stretch is listed under the player.
Open the drive and choose BRIEFING. It starts writing straight away, which takes a little while — longer for a long drive. Each line shows who is speaking, and the line being spoken is highlighted as it plays.
- Play and pause
- Each stretch, in the order you drive it
- Refresh briefing
The first time you open a drive’s briefing, it is written for you — the screen says “Writing your briefing…” for a little while. It keeps playing if you switch to another app. The text shows each host’s line after their name, and the highlighted stretch follows the voice.
When it is rewritten
A briefing describes the forecast at the time it was written. After five minutes the app says it may be out of date; choose Refresh briefing before you leave. If the voice could not be made, the app shows the text so you can still read it.
Stretches and sections
The briefing is built from a coarser division of the route than the timeline, so its stretches and the timeline’s numbered sections do not always line up one for one. Both come from the same forecast; they are two ways of slicing the same road.
Its language
The briefing is written and spoken in your device’s language — which can be a language the app itself is not translated into. Place names stay as they are on road signs. Languages has the detail.
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