The map

The coloured route

The route is drawn in the colour of the forecast at each point along it — about every five kilometres — so a band of snow shows exactly where it starts and stops rather than as a block. By default the colour is the rating. Under Colour the route by, in Route options, you can choose:

SEVERITY

Every forecast point in its rating’s colour. The default.

TEMPERATURE

Blue below freezing, warm above it.

DAYLIGHT

Night, dawn, daylight and dusk at the moment you reach each point.

TIME ZONE

Each time zone in its own shade, so you can see which stretches keep which clock.

TRAFFIC

Congestion when you get there: live for a drive leaving within the hour, the usual traffic after that. A stretch Mapbox reports closed is dashed. iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Whatever the route shows, its markers keep the rating’s shape and word. On the web the route is always coloured by rating.

On iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android a key on the map says what the route’s colours mean and, while they are on, which radar picture and which hour of wind the map is showing — and, on iPhone, iPad and Mac, whether live traffic is on. Tap its route row for Key, which explains every colour, marker and chip and leads to Route options; tap its wind or roads row for Weather. On iPhone the key sits just above the card at the bottom of the screen; on an iPad or a Mac, at the foot of the map.

On iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, the radar row opens Radar options; wind and roads still open Weather.

Markers

Each section has a marker beside the route, on a short stem, showing its temperature and rating; from HAZARD up it also names the weather, such as SNOW. Markers sit beside the route rather than on it, and stay put while you move the map.

• Zoomed out, neighbouring sections gather into one marker for the stretch, labelled with its range, such as 03–06.
• At section level, each marker is one numbered section — the same number as in the timeline.
• Zoomed in, a long section can split into parts that keep its number.

Tap a marker, or the route itself, to see what is there: the section or stretch, its condition and temperature, the place, and when you arrive. From a stretch you can zoom to its sections; from a section, open its details.

In Route options on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, or Layers on the web, you can switch marker style between Pill, the temperature and the word in a capsule, and Badge, the rating’s shape with the temperature below.

Chips on the route

Two more kinds of mark sit on the route, and both can be turned off in Route options on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, or Layers on the web:

• Sunrise and sunset — where the light changes on your drive. Tap one to see how long that light lasts and the weather in that stretch.
• Time zones — where the clock changes, with the zones either side. On the web, tap one to see the change.

While Traffic is on — or, on iPhone, iPad and Mac, while the route is coloured by traffic — Mapbox’s traffic reports sit beside the route too: roadworks, a crash, a lane or a road closed. Tap one for the report. Map layers and radar has more.

Moving around

On iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android the buttons on the map come in two groups: Map and Weather, then the location button and — with a drive open — Show the whole drive, which fits the route back on screen. On the web they are Layers, the location button and Show the whole drive. Pinch or scroll to zoom.

On iPhone, iPad and Mac the location button follows you: tap it once to follow you with north up, again to turn the map with the way you’re facing, and again to turn it back to north up. Moving the map yourself stops following. A Mac has no compass, so there the second tap stops following. On Android the location button centres the map on you once; it does not follow you.

On iPhone only the drive’s map card moves in the bottom dock. Drag its handle down to see more of the map, or up to expand the card; the route moves into the space. The drive title, Map/Timeline/Briefing picker and tabs stay in place. Tapping something on the map raises the card. Dragging upward inside the card expands it before its content scrolls, just like Explore. Pull down from the top of the content to lower it again.

On Android the drive’s card stays put above the tabs, and has Explore live for live exploration.

On the web the map comes in three styles, also in Layers: Standard, the app’s own style (called Readout), and Satellite. On iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, Map sets how it looks, below.

Map layers and radar covers radar, wind and the other layers.

How the map looks

On iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, Map sets how the map looks, and your choice follows your account to your other devices:

COLOUR

The app’s own style — App theme on iPhone, iPad and Mac, Readout on Android — keeps the app’s light and dark. Standard, Faded, Mono, Warm and Cool are Mapbox’s, and take the lighting.

LIGHTING

Auto is day in light mode and night in dark mode; Sun follows the sun where the drive starts, at the time it leaves; Dawn, Day, Dusk and Night stay put.

SATELLITE

Photographs of the ground, lit by day.

3D BUILDINGS

Buildings, landmarks and trees, close in. Not on App theme, Readout or satellite.

TERRAIN

Hills and mountains in relief.

LABELS

Place labels and points of interest. App theme and Readout always show place names and never points of interest.

Turning on 3D buildings or terrain tilts the map. With a drive open, the 2D and 3D button lays it flat or tilts it again. The web shows the nearest of its three styles. The route, the radar and the wind keep their own colours whatever the lighting and colour.

Stops on Android

Android shows stops as square pins, separate from weather markers: pause bars for a break, a bed for a night and a flag for a destination. Select a pin for its arrival and leaving times, then open its details. Show on map in a stop sheet selects the same pin. A route with destinations follows those places; the forecast waits for that route before drawing it. The drive card’s driving time excludes stops, while arrival includes them. Long and overnight drives explains the stop controls.