Apple CarPlay GPS wrong location issue

Yes. We had the exact same problem. I don’t understand why car manufacturers are installing apple car play. It’s useless for navigation. Everybody having this problem should complain. I filed a complaint with Ford.

I have been having this issue as well with a 2017 Range Rover, I had an iPhone 12 and it was driving me crazy.

Especially since my wife's phone works fine when plugged in.....

So I can sort of rule out the car being an issue.

I recently got a new iPhone 15 and was so excited to not have this issue! But it is still happening!

Not sure I have s setting that is messing my phone up particularly. I reset my location and privacy, hopefully that helps will see when I take car out again tmr. I asked apple and they said to restore....

Also just plugged into a friend car earlier and it worked fine. No real rhyme and reason to my problem!

Same issue, plug the phone directly into the car with USB cable. Solve the problem. I think that the car turns off the Wi-Fi on the phone when it’s connected to CarPlay but normally the phone uses Wi-Fi to triangulate so this causes the discrepancy. But if you plug the phone in the phone, then uses the cars and antenna or whatever to get your location and it seems to fix the problem.

I've had no experience of your exact problem myself, but again it would be a problem with the car GPS position being relayed to CarPlay. So it would still likely be fixable by a vehicle software update.

I have had the exact same problem. It seems to work fine locally, but we were on a 5-1/2 hr road trip and the GPS just went off and on. It’s pretty scary when you are on a major highway with cars going 80 MPH and you’re missing exits because the GPS is not working. Apple needs to do something about it. I brought my car back to my dealership and they ran diagnostics on it, but said it was fine and that it’s an “Apple Car Play” problem.

Yes, GPS loss on busy roads is a bad situation to be in. But it's the car's job to give CarPlay the GPS data. A dealer running diagnostics isn't going to find issues in their own software. And yeah, of course they are going to say it's an Apple problem. Did they update your car system & mapping software to the latest versions?

Yeah, I guess you might be completely up to date then. In which case you might have this problem until their next software update ☹️. With wired systems you can usually work around the issue by disconnecting your phone from the car when the nav screws up (and continuing on your phone which should now show the correct position). But I don't know how difficult it is to disconnect on the move with wireless systems.

Yes it absolutely needs to be fixed. I checked to see if Android Auto users were having the same issue, which of course they were. However at the end of this thread I was interested to see an Android Auto team member say:

A software update has been released to fix this issue with GPS. Please reach out to the car dealership for the updates.

So it looks like Android were able to work with the car manufacturer and get a fix out. One can only assume Apple is doing the same. Although it is worth noting that this Android fix still took well over a year to arrive.

Do your phone maps show the correct position when not connected via CarPlay? If so, you need a car software update. Just remember that after your dealer has updated system & maps software, it might still show the wrong position. You will need to drive your car for a couple of miles for it to pick up the satellites again, after which the position should fix itself.

That's bad. If your car is still under warranty then they should offer to replace the hardware, as software updates don't seem to be fixing the issue. That's what my dealer did when they thought the software updates hadn't worked. However for me the software updates actually had worked, but the car just needed to be driven a bit. So I ended up getting them to cancel the order for the new hardware unit.

I found a solution that fixed the issue with my CarPlay. It appears that the map app had never properly updated previously and was using an old format and graphics display.

1) Delete your phone profile from your vehicle then do a forced reboot of your vehicle's system. You'll need to find the instructions for your specific vehicle make;

2) Delete the maps app from your phone;

3) Delete the CarPlay profile from your phone for the vehicle (settings, general, CarPlay). From the list under "My Cars" tap your vehicle profile/name and select "Forget This Car";

4) Do a forced reboot of your phone (in quick succession tap volume up, volume down, then press and hold the power button for approximately 15-30 seconds until the phone restarts;

5) Reinstall the maps app;

6) Pair your phone with your vehicle.

These steps have resolved the issue with my vehicle's CarPlay. In addition the map display is now showing an updated graphics display.

RE: jhferguson5

Thank you!

Was that for Apple Maps or Google Maps app? What exactly were you seeing as far as the format and graphics (which is really not what this thread is about)? How can I tell if there is a difference in the graphics before and after?

Here's the thing... I was experiencing exactly the same location issues with both the Apple and Google maps. Do you suspect that fixing one will fix both? I failed to check my car's native navigation maps at the time I was seeing a severe case.

It would be interesting to figure out which of those steps is the one that's the key (since there are two main steps that may be it -- 1. removing the maps app and reinstalling, and 2. removing the CarPlay profile from the iPhone-Car setup and adding it back.)

Thanks for the details and helpful info.

I've now tried this a couple of times without success. Location did improve for a little bit but then went back to placing me about 2 miles away from where I am.

Based on what I'm reading, and my spouse's experience it seems this solution is inconsistent at best. It's still working for me, but did not work for my spouse (we both have VWs); maybe I lucked out even if it ends up being temporary. I spoke to the dealership and they been receiving a lot of calls lately about this. There is a firmware update which they are applying, though in a couple cases they had to replace the navigation module. I have an appointment Wednesday; wish me luck.

I was using Apple Maps. I just gave an update below that the steps I took have inconsistent results. It's still working for me at the moment but that luck may run out.

As far as the map display improvements, I've seen significant improvements in detail and display vibrancy, so I do think that my maps app had not updated properly previously. I realized it when I noticed the difference in my spouse's map display compared to mine.

I'm taking my vehicle to the dealership Wednesday for a firmware update.