MapCar – Car: Speed Alerts

MapCar shows the speed limit of the road you are on right now and says so out loud before you go over it. Made for the Android screen fitted in your car, or an Android phone in a cradle.

WHAT YOU SEE WHILE DRIVING

• A speed limit sign drawn like the real one on the roadside: round, red rim, black number
• A big speedometer that changes colour when you are over the limit
• A map that follows the car and turns with your heading, so you see the road ahead
• The name of the road you are on, traffic lights and road signs ahead
• Distance, time, average speed and top speed for the trip

All of it big enough to catch at a glance, without touching the screen.

WHERE THE SPEED LIMITS COME FROM

On roads where the data exists, the app reads the exact limit for that stretch of road. Where it does not, the app works one out from the type of road and the vehicle you chose (car, truck, bus or truck with trailer), following Vietnam's official speed table. A limit the app worked out itself always carries a ~ sign, so you know it is an estimate and not a real sign.

WARNINGS YOU CAN HEAR

• A recorded Vietnamese voice built into the app. Older car screens with no text-to-speech voice still hear every warning
• Prefer quiet? Switch to a beep, or mute with one button on the driving screen
• A safety margin of a few km/h, so GPS error does not set the warning off by mistake. You can adjust it

DIRECTIONS

Search for a place, even without Vietnamese accents. Pick a result and directions start right away: each turn is spoken, the route is recalculated if you go a different way, and the app remembers the roads you usually take.

WORKS WITHOUT SIGNAL

Download the map, the place directory and the routing data for the whole country once over Wi-Fi. After that you still see the roads, find places and get directions in tunnels, in the mountains, when mobile data runs out, or on a car screen with no SIM. Even before downloading, the app keeps the roads you have already driven.

REST REMINDER AFTER 4 HOURS

The app counts the time the car is actually moving and reminds you to take a break after 4 hours of continuous driving. Waiting at a red light does not count as a break. A stop of 15 minutes or more resets the clock.

COMMUNITY MAP

See a speed sign, a speed camera or a traffic jam? Tap one button to tell other drivers. A speed sign only appears once three different people have reported it, so nobody can plant a fake one. You can switch this off in Settings.

FREE

Every safety feature (speed warnings, directions, rest reminders, community map, offline data) is free and will stay free.

The Pro plan (yearly subscription, or pay once for Lifetime) is for people who want to see more about their car: speed, engine RPM, coolant temperature and fault codes read straight from the car through an OBD adapter (plugged into the diagnostic port under the steering wheel), and your car maker's badge on the driving screen. 30-day trial, no card, no automatic charge.

GOOD FOR

Long-distance and motorway driving · rideshare and delivery drivers · trucks, coaches and container lorries held to their own speed table · newly licensed drivers · fleets that want their drivers to keep to the limit · anyone who has just paid one speeding fine and would rather not pay a second.

DATA FOR VIETNAM ONLY

MapCar's map, speed limits, places and directions cover Vietnam only. You can install it from any country, but outside Vietnam the app only shows a basic map and tells you so on screen.

WORTH KNOWING FIRST

• MapCar is not a certified speed measuring device and does not replace real road signs. The sign on the road is always the final word.
• A speed limit with a ~ sign is the app's estimate and may be higher or lower than the real one.
• Speed warnings need the map on screen, so the app keeps the screen on and pauses the warnings when you switch the screen off.
• Road data comes from OpenStreetMap, an open map kept up to date by volunteers.

No account, no sign-in.