UPDATE (February 12, 2019): I have unpublished the HowFarNow app on the Google Play Store because the permission to send SMS messages automatically is no longer available to apps that do not serve as the main SMS Messages app and do not fit into other narrow categories defined by Google. Google changed this policy recently in order to eliminate malware apps that scanned one’s SMS messages looking for sensitive security codes, etc. (My app does not do that and never did, but because permission to send SMS messages is no longer available to apps like mine, the HowFarNow app’s ability to automatically deliver text messages in a hands free manner has, in effect, been removed by Google. I did try to convince Google that my app was using the permission in accordance with one of their predefined categories, but did not succeed. I also tried to convince them to create a new category for apps such as mine, but failed there too. I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.)

HowFarNow is an app I wrote. As you drive, it automatically sends text updates of your distance from a specific destination to a recipient from your contacts list.