Dashboard Warning Lights Decoded by iPhone – New iOS 17 Feature

• No need to feel intimidated by the growing array of icons on your car’s dashboard, at least not if you have an iPhone with the upcoming iOS 17 update.

• iOS 17 introduces Visual Look Up, a way to identify objects in pictures. The new feature explicitly identifies in-car symbols, offering a way to know what those squiggly lines and trapezoids mean.

• Not everyone needs this kind of information, but for people who don’t drive often or might otherwise feel uncertain about a car’s features, this promises to be a simple way to learn what that button does.

Modern smartphones have the power to connect to satellites, reach people around the world, and, finally, tell you what that unknown dashboard light means.

Okay, okay, we hear you. This is news? Cars have had actual paper manuals that should help any driver understand what this red or that orange warning light is all about. But not everyone wants to read a paper manual when a phone is at hand, and sometimes we just like pretending we're from the future.

Enter Apple's upcoming software update for the iPhone, called iOS 17, and its ability to identify dashboard lights using Visual Look Up. Visual Look Up does exactly what you would think it does: identify something in a picture or video and then searching for information on that item. A Reddit user noticed an "auto symbol" category in the beta version of the software and shared three examples: hazard warning, windscreen defrost and ventilation airflow.

The Apple-focused website 9to5Mac tested the beta software and found the symbol look-up feature to "just work" and that it can "identify multiple symbols and icons in the same picture." 9to5Mac found that Visual Look Up can identify such features as dashboard lights, climate control symbols, headlight options, and defrosting. The phone's results provide a short description of the icon and a link to find more information.