Gemini on Android Auto can now draw on your Gmail

Your car's assistant can now read your inbox, if you let it.

Google said on Oct. 20 that Personal Intelligence, the feature that lets Gemini draw on your own Google apps, is starting to roll out on Android Auto. Cars with Google built-in get it in the coming months.

What Gemini can see from the driver's seat

With your permission, Google says, Gemini in the car can use Workspace apps including Gmail and Google Calendar, plus Google Photos, Google Maps, YouTube and Search.

Google's own examples show the point. You can ask for your flight's gate and whether it is on time in one question. You can navigate to a doctor's appointment without knowing the address. You can find a car wash from a photo you took, or head back to a coffee shop you talked about the day before.

The limits are tight:

• Personal Google accounts only. Workspace business, enterprise and education accounts are excluded.
• Users 18 and older.
• Not in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, the United Kingdom or Nigeria.

If you already turned on Personal Intelligence in the Gemini app, Google says it comes with you into the car.

A personal assistant is the useful kind

Yes, you have talked to a car before. Playing a song, calling a contact and setting a route never needed to know anything about you.

This is the change. "Take me to my doctor's appointment" requires the assistant to know there is an appointment. Google is betting that tying Gemini to your mail and calendar is what makes talking to a car worth it, and for anyone who lives out of Gmail, it probably is.

It also puts your inbox and calendar in a shared space. A car is not a phone. Passengers hear what it says.

Google says it has thought about that. In cars with Google built-in, personal responses are shared only when you are in the car with your phone connected. Your apps are not connected until you turn the feature on, and you can turn it off in Gemini settings. Without it, navigation, music, calls and general questions still work, just without answers tailored to you.

Set it up before you need it

If you want this, do the setup parked, not on the highway:

• Open Gemini settings and decide whether to turn Personal Intelligence on at all.
• Think about who rides with you. If your calendar or email is sensitive, a spoken answer is not private.
• If you share a car with Google built-in, check how it behaves when your phone is not connected, once it reaches your model.

If you use a work Google account, this is not for you yet. Google limits it to personal accounts.

And if you are in the UK or the EU, you will not see it at all for now.

What to watch

Google has not said which car makers get it first in cars with Google built-in, or when "the coming months" ends. Watch for that date, and for whether Google opens it to Workspace accounts. That is when it reaches your work calendar, and your commute.