I had this problem with the app Guru Maps Pro, but I found that if I let the GPS acquire for about a minute or two then the track would be OK. I used the app GPSdiagnostic to tell when the satellites are all acquired. And Guru Maps Pro uses GPS filtering, which is settable by the user. For those who see weird stuff with their hiking or running apps - do these apps do any GPS filtering? I would bet that apps like Google Maps do use GPS filtering.
I have had zero problems with Google Maps in the car. I do notice with GPSdiagnostic that the satellite data is worse in the car than outside. No surprise here, since you are enclosed by metal.
I do think this problem is real, but I guess my phone is slightly better than some folks' phone. But look into GPS filtering for hiking and running apps. It is interesting that redmonk78 had no problems in the car (I assume Google maps or Apple maps) but did with the hiking app. I suspect the hiking app had no filtering.