Autoknowtive
How to play
Autoknowtive is a car-recognition game. You see a photo, or part of one, and name the car. Here’s how each mode works and how the scoring goes.
The Daily
One car a day for everyone, and 6 guesses to name it. Each guess is a make, a model and a model year. After every miss the photo zooms out a little, so you see more of the car.
On weekdays the car is a world car, one sold in North America, Europe and Asia, so everyone plays the same one. At weekends you get a car sold where you live; you can change your region in Settings. A new car arrives at midnight US Central time.
What the tiles mean
- Green: that part is right.
- Amber on the year: within two years of the answer. That still counts as a win.
- Plain: wrong. On the year, an arrow shows whether the answer is newer or older.
The colour-blind friendly setting swaps green and amber for orange and blue.
Stuck? Hints tell you something new about the car, like its class or engine. The Daily has up to 3 and Free Play has 5. “What we know” adds up every clue for you and counts how many cars in the game still match them.
Answers use the model family you can see. A pictured BMW 340i is a “3 Series” and a Golf GTI is a “Golf”, so you never have to guess an engine or option package from the outside.
Ways to play
Daily
One car a day. Six guesses to name it. A six-guess challenge that changes at midnight CT. Monday to Friday everyone gets the same world car, sold in North America, Europe and Asia. Saturday and Sunday bring a local car from where you live (set it in Settings). Guess the make, model family and year; the photo zooms out after every miss. Answers use the model family, so “Golf” works for a pictured Golf GTI and “3 Series” works for a 340i. Progress saves between reloads and a win adds the car to your garage.
Free Play
The Daily, as many times as you like. Daily rules with no limit: six guesses, up to five clues and a photo that zooms out after every miss. Choose cars sold where you live or from everywhere, and well-known cars only or the deep cuts. Wins join your garage and build a separate streak.
Road Trip
Every game mixed into one run. Drive until the tank runs dry. A survival run through four legs — City streets, Open highway, Mountain pass and the endless Autobahn. Each stop is a different kind of question. Right answers add miles (perfect ones pay 1.5×), wrong answers burn one of three fuel cans, and five clean stops in a row refill a can. Every leg raises the difficulty and the miles per answer.
Quick Play
Pick one game, play ten rounds, chase your best. Seven focused games — Spot It, Cockpit, Find It, Model Year, Higher or Lower, Timeline and Fact or Fiction — each played as a ten-round sprint scored out of 1,000. Choose Everyday, Enthusiast or Expert; your best score is kept for every game at every level.
Garage
The cars you’ve identified, plus the whole catalog to study. Every car you identify — in the Daily, Free Play, or a Spot It, Cockpit or Find It round — joins your collection. Browse the full catalog, filter to what you’ve collected (or haven’t), and open any car for its exterior and interior photos, specs and story.
The seven round types
Quick Play lets you pick one of these and play ten rounds; Road Trip mixes all seven.
- Spot It
- Name it before it’s in focus. The shot starts blurry. Sharpen it when you need more — each step costs points, and a wrong pick scores nothing.
- Cockpit
- Name the car from the driver’s seat. Dashboards, wheels and gauges, sharp from the start. Name the car from its cabin — a wrong pick scores nothing.
- Find It
- Four photos, one name. We name a car — tap its photo. Faster picks score more.
- Model Year
- Date the car to the year. Slide to the model year. Exact is 100, each year off costs points.
- Higher or Lower
- Power, weight, size, MPG and more. Does the second car beat the first? Right answers carry over as the next benchmark.
- Timeline
- Put the cars in order. Tap the cars from oldest to newest, then lock it in.
- Fact or Fiction
- Call the bluff. One claim about a real car. True or made up?
Levels
- Everyday: Household-name cars from 1990 on, decoys from other brands.
- Enthusiast: Adds sports cars, exotics and classics.
- Expert: Every production car, deep cuts and same-brand decoys.
Tips
- Start with the brand. Even a cropped photo usually shows a grille, badge or light shape. Getting the make right on the first guess narrows everything after it.
- Use the year arrows. A grey year with an arrow halves the range. Guess the middle of what’s left rather than your hunch.
- Read the clues together. “What we know” counts the cars that still fit. When it’s down to a handful, think about which of them the photo could be.
- Study the cars you miss. Every car is in the car guide with its other model years, so you can see how a facelift changed the lights or bumpers.
Want the long version? How to identify a car goes through badges, grilles, lights and proportions, and how to date a car to its generation.
Your progress
Streaks, best scores and your Garage are saved in your browser. You can sign in from Settings to keep them in sync across devices, but you don’t have to. The About page has an FAQ on streaks, regions and saving.