Apple CarPlay GPS wrong location issue

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.

I hope you never get this problem again but I do wonder if this might just be a temp fix ? … I had taken my Fabia 2022 model in for a software update to fix the issue and that got rid of the problem for some time, probably a couple of months, but then after an ios update it broke again and this time neither wired or wireless would work correctly. It’s been a couple of months since that happened and carplay over cable suddenly works again but who knows when it will decide to stop working again…

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.

Same here, and even weirder!

I've got a new used car, Peugeot Rifter 2021, with wired carplay.

Using an iPhone 13 Pro Max.

At the beginning I noticed some rare difficulties to connect (had to unplug/plug a few times so that carplay pops-up in the car.

Then, after a few days, while I was driving, boom, same problem than this topic (position offset by a few meters).

Happens on Google Maps and Waze. When I disconnected the phone, position came back OK on the phone, when I reconnected to the car, after a few seconds, position came back offset.

Weirder part : the next day, the car doesn't recognize at all my phone. On the phone, carplay settings, I delete the car profile, plug it, and see like during 500ms the popup asking to accept carplay in locked mode. No time to accept it, the popup disappears, and the car is not registered.

After a few tries I got this message on the phone "water detected in lightning port, charge will not be active".

Never got it wet..

So I quit trying to make it work, make my drive with the phone not connected..

The next day, each time I try a connection it's the same story (the connection happening during 500ms... not the water detected part). Once on like 50 tries, connection establishes OK, I see carplay on my car, and a few seconds after it disappears for ever.

I've tried to connect the phone to a charger, a computer, everything works perfect.

I cleaned the lightning port which had A LOT of dust in it, but it's the same.

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!

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.

J-Apple324 wrote:

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.

Apple doesn't read here for feedback or suggestions. You can, however, let then know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

Meanwhile, I would point out that your post is somewhat hyperbolic. Many of us managed to navigate in busy areas without cell phones for decades without incident. In fact, in the U.S., auto fatalities have increased in the last 50 years, not decreased.I'm not blaming cell phones for that, merely pointing out that they are not the panacea you seem to think.

Stay alert and always keep a road atlas in your car.

For VW -- how to change the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth names:

Note: I have a 2023 VW GTI.

1st go to the main infotainment screen with all the icons. You may have to scroll down a page to find the settings icon (gear).

Change VW Wi-Fi hotspot name:

• Settings <gear>
• Wi-Fi
• Infotainment system as hotspot
• Network name: "My VW 1234" (edit name to anything else that's unique)
• OK

Change VW Bluetooth name:

• Settings <gear>
• Mobile devices
• <gear> (settings, top right of the screen for mine)
• Device name: New Name (edit name)
• OK

When I changed these names, my iPhone picked them up automatically. Pretty nice!

I did this two days ago and have driven through areas where I had experienced this issue before and so far it's been working great. Maybe just a coincidence...

If you are having trouble and have a VW, please try this and see if it helps and let us know what you find.

I no longer think that's the real problem/solution (what I had previously said about the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth names).

Today I noticed the inaccurate location issue and I switched my phone to Airplane mode so that it wasn't connected to the car at all. I brought up the VW native Navigation maps and it was showing the same inaccurate location as when it was connected a minute before.

So now I believe my real issue is with the vehicle's native GPS location getting distorted. Likely due to various obstructions like trees, clouds, smoke, etc.

While using CarPlay, the vehicle's own GPS location is used in the CarPlay maps (both Google, Apple maps, Waze etc.) and not the location originating from the phone. This location propagates back to the apps on the phone itself. So, even if the phone would have provided a more accurate location, it doesn't matter and CarPlay (in my case at least with a VW) uses the vehicle's location.

I'm not sure if this is realistically fixable... I saw that some folks had gone to a dealer for a Infotainment software or hardware updates. I tend to think that won't make much difference.

I think I've caught more details of what's going on:

Here is the 'reported' accuracy of the GPS with GAI GPS while I am parked: Note, in the past it has report ~15-16 ft accuracy and still be off by a 1/4 mile.

I turn off my vehicle and for about two seconds it shows the ACTUAL accuracy:

Then about 10 seconds later: my accuracy of my phone normally:

If is very clear that the iPhone is NOT using what it has for greater accuracy when doing CarPlay. It's comically bad.

J-Apple324 wrote:

dangermen: Looks like the car's location info is being fed back to the phone and overriding the phone's own location info while connected via CarPlay. ?

I agree. That’s what it looks like. I have an aftermarket head-unit and it’s like the iPhone is just ignoring that it might have better data than the GPS in the truck. I think my screenshots caught IOS in a lie. I have tried to cable up but my head unit really only wants to do wireless carplay too.

dangermen wrote:

I have an aftermarket head-unit and it’s like the iPhone is just ignoring that it might have better data than the GPS in the truck.

Interesting that it works this way for an aftermarket system too. So it's probably a CarPlay design choice/flaw and not the vehicle manufacturer design choice.

Do you know how your head-unit is getting the GPS data? What model is it?

I have the same issue with my 2022 VW Tiguan. Both maps go about 2-3 miles off course but both the car nav and iPhone map are in the same wrong location at the same time. If I reboot the infotainment system, the Apple Maps goes to the correct location while the car nav stays wrong but will correct itself in about 5-10 minutes. Very frustrating. It’s like they are feeding off of each other. I had the software updated to 0841 and it still does it.

Same with me, this issue happened in my 2024 Audi A3 where I would open Google Maps and my starting location would be correct, but as soon as I connect to Car Play either through WiFi or through a wired connection, my starting location would change to something several miles behind me where I was originally parked. I reboot my phone, did a system reset on my car and nothing seems to have worked.

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.