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What to Know
- Open the camera app, and take a photo of the dashboard symbol you’re curious about.
- Open the photo, and tap the info button (i) > Look Up Auto Symbol.
- Tap the symbol to open an explanation on the International Standards Organization (ISO) website.
This article explains how to look up car dashboard symbols and see what they mean using the Visual Look Up feature on your iPhone.
This is the same Visual Look Up feature that can identify what kind of plant you’re looking at or provide information about a famous landmark, but Apple added the ability to identify car dashboard symbols in iOS 17.
How to Look Up Car Dashboard Symbols With Your iPhone
The lights on your car’s dashboard are standardized, so the same basic icons have similar meanings regardless of what kind of vehicle you drive. If you aren’t quite sure what one of these indicators is trying to tell you, your iPhone can fix help using the Visual Look Up feature.
Here’s how to look up car dashboard symbols with your iPhone:
Open the camera app, and take a photo of your dash.
The symbols need to be in focus for this feature to work, so you may need to zoom in and take a close-up of the specific symbol you’re curious about.
Open the photo.
Tap the info button (i).
If the info button (i) doesn’t have a star, Visual Look Up isn’t available for that photo. Try taking another shot, and make sure you have an internet connection.
Tap Look Up Auto Symbol.
Tap the symbol.
If multiple symbols are visible in your photo, they’ll appear here. Tap and drag the card up to view the entire list if necessary.
Visual Look Up will open an ISO.org webpage that explains the symbol.
Can My iPhone Tell Me What’s Wrong With My Car?
Visual Look Up can tell you the meaning of the symbols on your dashboard, but it can’t give you any further information.
For example, if Visual Look Up identifies a check engine light, it will present you with a link to a webpage that explains the meaning of the symbol, but that won’t tell you what’s wrong with your car.
In that example, you would learn that your car’s onboard computer has registered a trouble code but nothing more specific. Since so many things can cause a check engine light to turn on, you would need to use a car code reader or scan tool to get any further without professional assistance.
In other cases, simply knowing the meaning of a symbol is enough. For example, if Visual Look Up reports that the symbol you’re seeing on your dashboard is the defroster indicator, you’ll know that you can stop worrying because it just means that the defroster is on.
Other lights are more serious, like the one that indicates the engine is overheating and the one that indicates low oil pressure. Visual Look Up can’t tell you why your engine is overheating, or the oil pressure is low.
Still, since it’s unsafe to continue driving with those warning lights on, you’ll at least know that it’s time to seek professional help and can avoid damaging your engine any further.
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