GPS errors and speed sign confusion

[AZBill]

I made a trip to Tucson from Phoenix this weekend and had my GPS providing erroneous positions. Right after starting out from Tucson and heading to a fast charger, it showed the car about 1/4 mile west of actual position, and even driving through a golf course. Since I knew where the charger was, I turned off the nav. After charging, it was still acting up, so I switched to Apple Maps, just to see if maybe Vladimir was hacking the satellites. Those maps were correct.

About 50 miles down the road, the car suddenly started decelerating from 80mph and I notice d the speed sign went to 45. There were no side roads or ramps in that area. I overrode the setting manually and then it happened again in another minute. Turned off automatic speed signs at that point. Then I noticed the Ford nav was telling me I was still in Tucson, and actually moving slow in some neighborhood. At one point the speed limit sign jumped to 5mph. It seems that if the camera does not read a new sign after some time limit, it must revert to using GPS with a known limit.

After arriving home, I reset power a few times, but the car still thought I was in Tucson. I was able to fix the position by selecting the Next EV Charge mode, then it jumped to the current location and showed chargers near my house.

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[macchiaz-o]

Weird stuff. I saw a few others report a similar GPS off-by-so-many-feet issue today, too.

My car charged to 100% when I plugged in at home on Saturday night. I wonder if it was having a similar issue, thinking I was plugged in a few blocks away (i.e. not in a saved charge location)?

 

[AZBill]

I did look at the satellite signals in the GPS, cannot remember off hand how I got to that page on Sync, but it was showing GPS and Glonass. Wonder if Russia is doing something to those signals. Apparently iPhones also use Glonass, at least they used to as far back as 2011 and the iPhone 4.

 

[RickMachE]

I would suspect an update in progress, or a satellite issue. The speed decrease is due to signs. I have never had the car slow down when a sign wasn't present, i.e. from the navigation by itself.

 

[mpshizzle]

I made a trip to Tucson from Phoenix this weekend and had my GPS providing erroneous positions. Right after starting out from Tucson and heading to a fast charger, it showed the car about 1/4 mile west of actual position, and even driving through a golf course. Since I knew where the charger was, I turned off the nav. After charging, it was still acting up, so I switched to Apple Maps, just to see if maybe Vladimir was hacking the satellites. Those maps were correct.

About 50 miles down the road, the car suddenly started decelerating from 80mph and I notice d the speed sign went to 45. There were no side roads or ramps in that area. I overrode the setting manually and then it happened again in another minute. Turned off automatic speed signs at that point. Then I noticed the Ford nav was telling me I was still in Tucson, and actually moving slow in some neighborhood. At one point the speed limit sign jumped to 5mph. It seems that if the camera does not read a new sign after some time limit, it must revert to using GPS with a known limit.

After arriving home, I reset power a few times, but the car still thought I was in Tucson. I was able to fix the position by selecting the Next EV Charge mode, then it jumped to the current location and showed chargers near my house.

I had the same thing happen to me twice in one day about two weeks ago. It messed up Android Auto too (apparently it uses the car's GPS). Both times a sync reboot fixed it. Never happened before or since


As much as I love a good conspiracy theory, if Russia did something to GPS that would be making national news

 

[PrimeFuture]

I've been having this kind of GPS error with decent frequency lately... for the past couple weeks the GPS position will be off, and about 50% of the time it messes with my Google Maps location as well. @Ford Motor Company are you aware of this problem?

 

[benk016]

Just to clear up some things here. The map data does have speed limit data in it. So if the car thinks you're on a different road, it definitely can change the speed limit used to the one on the road it thinks its on. It won't do this immediately, It seems to only change to the map data speed limit, if you drive past a change in speed limits on the map, or you change to a different road. It will use the map data for speed limit on a new road so that it can adjust if it doesn't see a sign right away.

Also, if you are using CarPlay or Android Auto, your phone will use the car's GPS signal for its location since it is typically more precise than your phone that is inside the car.

 

[RickMachE]

Just to clear up some things here. The map data does have speed limit data in it. So if the car thinks you're on a different road, it definitely can change the speed limit used to the one on the road it thinks its on. It won't do this immediately, It seems to only change to the map data speed limit, if you drive past a change in speed limits on the map, or you change to a different road. It will use the map data for speed limit on a new road so that it can adjust if it doesn't see a sign right away.

Also, if you are using CarPlay or Android Auto, your phone will use the car's GPS signal for its location since it is typically more precise than your phone that is inside the car.

I have not noticed this in 4,800 miles of highway driving. I saw it being said by others after my last trip, but haven't taken a trip with it to prove that right or wrong since. Upcoming one though.

I do agree that the speed limit DISPLAYED changes based on map data. What I have not seen is the cruise control adjust the speed based on map data with no sign present. Nor have I seen it change when I switch roads to a road without speed signs present.

I plan on testing this during an upcoming trip by noting whether speed changes a single time without a sign present. I use the car's navigation, not Android Auto or CarPlay.

 

[ChasingCoral]

I had that happen once in January on our first day coming back from FL. It was a few days after the 2.3 upgrade (note Blocks and Tiles in the screen cards).

I used Waze the rest of the day and everything was normal the next morning.

 

[AZBill]

As much as I love a good conspiracy theory, if Russia did something to GPS that would be making national news

Glonass is owned and operated by Russia, and Ford does show it is listening to Glonass satellites as well as GPS.

 

[mpshizzle]

I have not noticed this in 4,800 miles of highway driving. I saw it being said by others after my last trip, but haven't taken a trip with it to prove that right or wrong since. Upcoming one though.

I do agree that the speed limit DISPLAYED changes based on map data. What I have not seen is the cruise control adjust the speed based on map data with no sign present. Nor have I seen it change when I switch roads to a road without speed signs present.

I plan on testing this during an upcoming trip by noting whether speed changes a single time without a sign present. I use the car's navigation, not Android Auto or CarPlay.

I've got 22k miles and this has only happened to me twice, in one day like I mentioned above.

A little note about how the speed sign recognition works if you use intelligent speed control the displayed speed limit on the IPC will ALWAYS be what the cruise control uses.

It uses the GPS database for those speed limits, although if it visibly sees a speed limit sign on the road, that will take priority.

In this case, it is possible that the GPS thinking that you're on a parallel Road will use the speed limit from that road, but only until it sees another speed limit sign and that will take priority

 

[RickMachE]

I will be carefully looking for that. When I get on a highway, that has a published speed limit, but no sign has yet appeared, it definitely doesn't offer me a limit or set it to a database limit.

 

[benk016]

I have not noticed this in 4,800 miles of highway driving. I saw it being said by others after my last trip, but haven't taken a trip with it to prove that right or wrong since. Upcoming one though.

I do agree that the speed limit DISPLAYED changes based on map data. What I have not seen is the cruise control adjust the speed based on map data with no sign present. Nor have I seen it change when I switch roads to a road without speed signs present.

I plan on testing this during an upcoming trip by noting whether speed changes a single time without a sign present. I use the car's navigation, not Android Auto or CarPlay.

There is a spot on a highway I drive all the time that has the speed limit change from 65 to 55 at the exact same spot every time. No signs anywhere around with 55 or anything close for it to be reading on. And then about half a mile later, it sets itself back to 65. Again, no signs around to adjust it. Its pulling from the map data. I can reproduce this every single time I drive that area.

 

[RickMachE]

Interesting. I will carefully pay attention to that on my upcoming 600+ mile trip.

 

[mpshizzle]

I will be carefully looking for that. When I get on a highway, that has a published speed limit, but no sign has yet appeared, it definitely doesn't offer me a limit or set it to a database limit.

There is a spot on a highway I drive all the time that has the speed limit change from 65 to 55 at the exact same spot every time. No signs anywhere around with 55 or anything close for it to be reading on. And then about half a mile later, it sets itself back to 65. Again, no signs around to adjust it. Its pulling from the map data. I can reproduce this every single time I drive that area.

Yeah the database is not great. I've experienced stuff like this too...
This is why I'm glad visual speed sign recognition takes priority

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