Apple CarPlay GPS wrong location issue

Update: With CarPlay in my 2023 VW Taos, the GPS will suddenly and unexpectedly show me to be in the wrong location. The error is several hundred feet to several miles. This is very dangerous when you are on a highlway and it suddenly tells you to turn on a road that does not exist. I updated my iPhone to iOS 17.0.2. It did not help. I have rebooted both the car system and the phone. It does not help. Most recently, this happened when I was parked in my driveway. I was connected to CarPlay. The map in the car AND on my phone showed the same WRONG location. I simply turned off Wi-Fi on my phone and immediately as the iphone disconnected from the car, the map on my phone switched to the correct location. Incidentally, my phone works fine with CarPlay in my Bolt.

I have been facing the same issue with

• iPhone 15
• Carplay on my Toyota Hyryder.
• iOS version: latest 17.2.1

Whenever I enter my car and start using the navigation on carPlay it works fine until my phone screen gets auto-locked.

Once the screen gets locked the location starts showing incorrectly. Once it goes to this state it does not improve even if I unlock my phone or go to Apple maps, Google Maps, compass app, etc.

It goes wrong as much as more than 4-5 km away from my real location. I have even recorded a video where my car is infront of renowned Hotel landmarks and on my AppleCarPlay Apple Maps, it shows me that I am 4.6 km away from that Hotel :(

Now in this broken location state if I disconnect carplay, immediately my location gets corrected.

From what I have understood, Apple CarPlay has built an architecture to gather the user's location using other location sources like radio, etc that come with the car. I am not sure why they are not ready to rely on the GPS receiver available in the iPhone where the hardware is built and controlled by them.

This is the first time Apple built software on top of hardware (the car head unit) not owned by them and has not done a technically correct job. The gimmick (of making cars discoverable even in hard-to-track locations) has screwed up here. I would suggest Apple keep it simple and fix the basics.

Android on the other side has no such issues.

Apple could have used other sources as a fallback instead of as the primary source. The moment the phone screen gets locked the navigation goes insane.

It's clear this issue is from Apple itself given iOS devices and CarPlay OS is owned and built by them. Apple should rectify its flawed architecture and provide updates.

PS:

The same issue never happens when I use any of my Android phones with Android Auto in the same car.

Even after such a long discussion thread running for so long where people are facing issues across the world, let's see if the Apple Customer Support team has any empathy toward the customers who have trusted Apple while purchasing such costly devices.

Yes! Note to Apple: This can be a very dangerous driving issue when navigating in unfamiliar, busy areas!!

I'm not sure how they would not be sued for negligence here.

This is potentially EXTREMELY DANGEROUS and LIFE THREATENING!

Please take this very seriously and take action immediately.

We just purchased a 2024 VW Atlas. I am having this issue with carplay. I had a 2014 suburban before and never had an issue with it in the past. Not sure if it is a VW carplay software issue as I have never had a problem before.

The reason of this behavior is Apple CarPLAY default to use Vehicle's GPS Antenna.

They do not rely on iPhone antenna once connected to Vehicle unlike Android Auto.

This is the reason Android Auto works well.

If your vehicle has inbuilt GPS Navigation, then ensure that works fine whenever you face issue with CarPlay navigation.

If your vehicle does not have inbuilt Navigation, then check if it has a working GPS antenna. If the GPS antenna is not working properly then your CARPLAY will get wrong location information and will pass to Maps apps.

If no Antenna, then CarPlay is built to behave like a dumb - guy and will rely on FM Antenna and will get and feed wrong GPS data to CarPlay.

Is not this fallback mechanism being Stupid?

DO NOT DEPEND ON HARDWARE OR SOURCES THAT YOU HAVE NOT MANUFACTURED OR CONTROLLING.

Simply go back to the Basics of iOs 14 where Carplay will use the Device Antenna always.

IF More number of Users will raise "iPhone Feature request" asking to make CarPlay to use Device antenna always or at least the Device Owner must have some means to override this weird CarPlay settings, then APPLE might listen giving up their arrogance.

i just got a 2023 ford edge with apple car play. Recently went on a road trip and my navigation was useless. Kept telling me to “proceed to route” then would work for a few minutes and the back to “ proceed to route” very annoying.

The VW's GPS is wrong and it is being used as the primary source in CarPlay which causes the phone to use that bad location while running CarPlay. My car and iPhone with CarPlay behaves exactly the same way. Great video showing the issue, thanks!

It seems to be primarily the VW system bad location. Questions that don't have answers yet:

1. Why is the VW GPS so terrible?

2. Why can't Apple CarPlay allow you to choose the phone's source as the location instead of the car's GPS source?

Surely by now both Apple and VW know what the real issue is. Neither will admit responsibility for a solution.

I spent over 4 hours on the phone with Apple tech support and that yielded nothing.

I have opened a support case. Apple is going to reach out to both my head unit manufacturer and the other car manufacturer I was able to reproduce this on. I am going to take a video of this happening in my vehicle and then upload those case details. I’ll post back here when I have more.

Your dealership is misinformed and of course they are pushing the problem off their plate when it is in fact them. The issue has been happening since I got my 2021 Atlas back on iOS 15, so it’s not possible that recent updates are causing this. Furthermore, CarPlay works perfectly in my other CarPlay enabled vehicle. From what I’ve gathered from other posts, this has something to do with a faulty carnet or telematics module. My Atlas has been at the dealer for the last two weeks as I put my foot down recently and told them I don’t want the car back until they fix the issue since it has been going on for over two years. Supposedly an update just came out that may fix the issue. We will see, am likely to get the car back sometime next week.

I took my VW Atlas 2021 to the dealership and this is what they told me.

There is no repairs at this time. It is on the apple communication side with VW. VW is aware of the concern and it occurred with Apple's latest update. They have no ETA at this moment when the update will be available but it will come over the air, so you we get an alert for the update through the infotainment screen.

I did a case last night as well. I found information online that eventually helped. Speaking for just Pioneer radios. The radio is sending data from the vehicles speed sensor for “offline” usage in the event GPS signal is lost and CarPlay can can function offline until signal is restored. Example going through tunnels or mountains. The android auto is not using this feature from the radio so it is not effecting Android devices. I tested this yesterday. I went into the radios settings and found the 3D Calibration Status setting and was able to clear the old data. This instantly fixed my issue with CarPlay and made “My Location” in maps accurate again.

Just bought a 2023 VW Taos with Car Play. At first maps worked fine. Then it became glitchy - the location was off by 100 feet. Now it says I am 3 miles from where I actually am located and prompts me with a route to get to to where I really am! Same problem with G maps and Apple maps. I rebooted the Infotainment system - no change. My phone navigates fine when disconnected from the Infotainment system. IOS 16.6.1.

Same here. I tested with three different apps and took screenshots. the GPS accuracy isn’t different, +/- 16 feet. When I do a delta between the readings I get 100 ft off.

What I did to test:

1. Fire up maps app, note my position and coordinates.
2. Step into my vehicle and fire it up, within a minute or two, I’m 100’ NE of where ever I am.

I am able to reproduce this with multiple GPS apps, Apple Maps, Google Maps, Tomtom and Gaia GPS.

I'm having the exact same issue with a i4 BMW. It was working perfectly for a week and all of a sudden, the GPS is putting me 30ish meters away. The phone alone works fine and the same with CarPlay in our other BMW X3M (older version of BMW Connected). I removed and re added the iphone to the car and still no luck!

We’re having the same issue as most others have described in a 2024 BMW X5. The wrong location is shown in Apple Maps and Google Maps while in CarPlay. Once disconnected from CarPlay, the location is correct on the phone.