CarPlay GPS Issues

[Maquis]

This happens to me at the worst times. I've missed exit notifications and it's turned me the wrong direction on city streets multiple times due to the bad gps signal (or car play bug or whatever is going on). Super frustrating.

I almost always use Apple Maps and can't recall if Google Maps on an iPhone does the same thing. Can anyone confirm? If Google Maps doesn't lose signal I will switch to it.

I’ve had the same problem with Google Maps and Waze.
But….I still have an iPhone 7P.

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[Tangible]

Unfortunately I spoke too soon. On a second ride with the new phone the problem was back, almost as bad as ever. The successful ride was in good weather; the unsuccessful one was stormy. That may account for the difference.

Good news, everyone: I replaced my iPhone 14 Pro Max with an iPhone 15 Pro Max, and now my problem is gone. The map tracks perfectly with the phone in my left pocket. A simple $1,100 solution.

There are several possible explanations:

1. The 15 has better GPS, so even if it’s still not using the car’s system it’s good enough.

2. There was something wrong with my 14.

3. The new phone had to establish a new connection to the car, and the old phone‘s connection was corrupted in some way That survived rebooting and new ios17 phone software.

My guess is #3.

Good news, everyone: I replaced my iPhone 14 Pro Max with an iPhone 15 Pro Max, and now my problem is gone. The map tracks perfectly with the phone in my left pocket. A simple $1,100 solution.

There are several possible explanations:

1. The 15 has better GPS, so even if it’s still not using the car’s system it’s good enough.

2. There was something wrong with my 14.

3. The new phone had to establish a new connection to the car, and the old phone‘s connection was corrupted in some way That survived rebooting and new ios17 phone software.

My guess is #3.

 

[NewGuy]

Unfortunately I spoke too soon. On a second ride with the new phone the problem was back, almost as bad as ever. The successful ride was in good weather; the unsuccessful one was stormy. That may account for the difference.

I'm glad I kept scrolling; I was going to post option 4 - that you just hadn't tested enough.

 

[SprManKalEl]

I have noticed that this problem has not been fixed by iOS 17 not iPhone 15 Pro Max. in fact, I think it's worse.

 

[azerik]

I have noticed that this problem has not been fixed by iOS 17 not iPhone 15 Pro Max. in fact, I think it's worse.

Yep. Same here

 

[SprManKalEl]

I ordered a MagSafe phone mount in the hopes that it’ll keep the phone up where it can get a good GPS signal. It comes tomorrow.

 

[Stang68]

I’m seeing this too with my iPhone 15 Pro Max. Really annoying. Seems the worst when on the area where the charging pad is. And I’ve been using the excellent twraps MagSafe charger but now that area is not really useable bc of this issue.

 

[Tangible]

Some entity calling itself Ford Motor Company posted here asking me to DM them with my VIN etc and offering to help. After a bunch of back and forth, the “help” turned out to be a recommendation to refer my problems to my dealer. OK, I guess.

Meanwhile, 9 to 5 Mac ran an article describing this as a CarPlay issue affecting many vehicles. That would place a solution in Apple’s lap, not Ford’s.

https://flip.it/LDVO9z

 

[thenew3]

We experienced this for the first time yesterday. My son was driving and using his iphone 15 pro with carplay. For the first 2-3 miles it was spot on, then it suddenly thought we were about 1/2 mile away heading east instead of north. As he kept driving north, the phone kept thinking he was driving east and further and further away from where we actually were.

We canceled navigation in apple car play, and then it instantly found our correct location. We restarted the navigation and it stayed correct for the remainder of the trip.

This is the first time we've seen this in the last 2 weeks (roughly 300 miles using car play during that time on the same phone).

 

[Logal727]

Some entity calling itself Ford Motor Company posted here asking me to DM them with my VIN etc and offering to help. After a bunch of back and forth, the “help” turned out to be a recommendation to refer my problems to my dealer. OK, I guess.

Meanwhile, 9 to 5 Mac ran an article describing this as a CarPlay issue affecting many vehicles. That would place a solution in Apple’s lap, not Ford’s.

https://flip.it/LDVO9z

But the problem goes away if you place the phone on the dash behind the screen, I've tested this multiple times. So it's clearly some sort of GPS interference, which I'm not sure how it would be fixed on Apple's side.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Some entity calling itself Ford Motor Company posted here asking me to DM them with my VIN etc and offering to help. After a bunch of back and forth, the “help” turned out to be a recommendation to refer my problems to my dealer. OK, I guess.

That’s Ford’s official presence. While the help seems a bit minimal, they also contact your dealer once you have an appointment so the dealer is under the impression that this needs to be taken care of.

 

[Tangible]

So it's clearly some sort of GPS interference, which I'm not sure how it would be fixed on Apple's side.

Yes, it is interference with the phone’s GPS, but CarPlay is designed to utilize the car’s own gps, which has an external antenna. It has stopped doing that, instead forcing the phone to take over, giving us the location-dependent result we’re seeing.

It‘s an open question whether this is happening for everyone, or just some of us. It’s possible that it affects everyone, but it may not always be noticeable because of where people are geographically in relation to the satellites, or other local factors.

 

[dml105]

We experienced this for the first time yesterday. My son was driving and using his iphone 15 pro with carplay. For the first 2-3 miles it was spot on, then it suddenly thought we were about 1/2 mile away heading east instead of north. As he kept driving north, the phone kept thinking he was driving east and further and further away from where we actually were.

We canceled navigation in apple car play, and then it instantly found our correct location. We restarted the navigation and it stayed correct for the remainder of the trip.

This is the first time we've seen this in the last 2 weeks (roughly 300 miles using car play during that time on the same phone).

i've experienced exactly this problem of the phone thinking I was going north when i was actually going east. I was on a long trip where I didn't know the destination, so it could have been pretty disastrous had I not been able to use an in-car nav. However, I didn't consider turning off the directions and so I'm surprised that the phone knew exactly where it was once you did.

That suggests that the phone is also using the motion processor or something from the car telling it what direction it is heading, and that that direction is sometimes incorrect.

 

[khbkhb]

My experience is that it is fundamentally the Ford GPS … the iPhone alone is always OK. The Ford GPS is sometimes wildly off. Bluetooth CarPlay is sometimes hosed, the wired CarPlay hasn’t failed. But the most consistent failure is purely native (indeed, it sometimes screws up charging as it thinks the MachE in my garage is 10 or so miles away from my charger (attached to the wall of my garage).

To the extent it is a *CarPlay* issue, I think it is because Apple foolishly(?) is yielding to the auto native GPS under some set of conditions and ignoring its own internal estimates.

 

[mpshizzle]

I've not seen a single Android user complain about this issue, and I have personally seen it across dozens of iPhones and vehicles of different makes.

Just saying ?‍

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