When driving, the main distraction culprit is your phone. This is not good when it comes to your safety. However, with the help of google assistant, you can perfectly handle any kind of distraction without necessarily touching your phone. Here is how. 

N.B: You can launch Google Assistant by long pressing the home button.

Searching for and Playing Music

These days, most people play music in their cars from their phones, not the radio. But if you’ve ever searched for music on Spotify (or Google Play Music) then you know it involves typing in a search and browsing through albums and playlists. Doing this while driving is nearly impossible. Google Assistant makes the process of launching a song as simple as asking out loud. All you have to do to get this working is set up your favourite music service in Google Assistant:

Launch Google Assistant and tap the blue drawer icon.
Click the three-dot Menu button and choose Settings.
Select Music
Link your favourite music service and set it as the default.
That’s all it takes. The next time you want to listen to music in your car, just say “OK Google, play [artist, album, song, or playlist].” Google Assistant will use your default music service, but you can append “on Pandora” or similar to use another.

Google Assistant will automatically launch the app and start playing your requested music.

Making phone calls

If there’s an emergency or you have no choice about making a phone call, don’t pick up your phone to start dialling. That increases your odds of having an accident significantly. Instead, simply say “OK Google, call [contact].” Keep in mind that holding a phone conversation is still a form of distracted driving. It isn’t nearly as dangerous as holding your phone and typing, but it’s still proven to reduce your reaction time while driving. If you must make a call while driving, do it using Google Assistant, and do so sparingly.

Checking and Sending Messages

Typing a text message is one of the most dangerous ways to use your phone while driving. Usually, your attention is on typing for much longer than five seconds.

Google Assistant makes it extremely easy to send a text message to anyone in your contact list by saying “OK Google, send a message to [contact name]”.

The name of the contact you speak should match a single contact in your contact list. If there are multiple people with the same name, you’ll have to tap the name you want, so try to make sure all contacts have a distinct label.

Google Assistant will call up another window and ask you to speak your message. It’ll then type it up for you and send it off. You don’t have to glance at your phone once.

Launching GPS navigation

Google Maps is another one of the many Google services integrated with Assistant. There’s no reason that you need to type addresses into Google Maps while you’re trying to drive. Like other tasks we’ve mentioned, Google Assistant makes it easy to find your way anywhere. Leave your phone in the cradle, and just ask it how to get to your destination with a “Navigate to [location]” command. Google Assistant will locate the business or address you’ve stated, and automatically open up that route in the navigation view. The key here is to make sure you start the statement with “navigate.” Make sure the location name is something Google can identify in your local area.

Other things you can do with Google Assistant:


Turn on Bluetooth: If your phone audio connects to the car with Bluetooth, this command will come in handy.
Turn volume to [percentage]: You can adjust your phone volume to any level using your voice.
How is traffic on the way to [destination]: Learn how heavy traffic is and how long it’ll take you to get to your destination.
Where is the closest [business]: Find the nearest gas station, grocery store, restaurant, or any other business.
When is my next event?: Be prepared when you get to work or school by having Google Assistant prep you for your first calendar event of the day.
Create appointment [event name] for [date and time]: Google Assistant will create whatever event you’ve described at the time and date you set.

Source: https://innovation-village.com/how-google-assistant-can-keep-you-safe-in-cars/