Apple CarPlay GPS wrong location issue

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 letting you know that my problems are done!

offset location issue, and erratic connection.

I had tried several cables which were fine with my iPhone and my previous car so I thought it wasn’t a cable issue.. but it was!

All it took was using a genuine Apple iPhone (or iPad?) cable, and no more problem!

I have the same head unit and the same issue for years with different phones including iPhone 14 Pro that has the two GPS antennas for the most precise location ability . I moved the GPS antenna for the head unit, which was installed inside the dash just below the center dash speaker, and placed it on top of the dash near the windshield. After 7+ days, the issue has not returned.

I had this same issue after updating my iOS. I found that by unplugging my device from CarPlay and setting my Google Maps location settings to “Always on” , then plugging back in, fixed the problem immediately.

This is clearly a Toyota issue. I have the same issue in my 2024 Toyota Highlander with my iPhone 15 Pro. Additional data points for you:

1. The car GPS location is accurate when I switch between CarPlaya and the Toyota navigation functions.
2. As soon as I turn CarPlay off, the phone corrects its location within 60 seconds.
3. Resetting the phone or reinstalling the app does not help.
4. When I plug the phone in and use CarPlay in a wired capacity, it corrects itself within 60 seconds. If I unplug the phone again and return to wireless CarPlay, it drifts again.
5. I have not had this issue with dozens of other CarPlay pairings in my other cars or in rental cars.

I thought CarPlay was universal - brut it clearly does not work well with wireless instances in Toyotas.

We were able to convince our dealer that it was a problem with the infotainment system and they replaced the system. New one works.

I'm guessing the GPS chip that is in these units is susceptible to manufacturing defects / variations that can make affected units unusuable.

There are post on reddit about this. See https://www.reddit.com/r/rav4club/comments/10bvex4/2023_rav4_carplay_navigation_issues/

I made a printout of the redditt post and brought it into my dealer so I could show this wasn't a "my phone" issue. I didn't get any push-back from the dealer (I was concerned I'd get a "its your phone" response, so before showing up at the dealer, I tested with multiple phones and had the reddit printout to show this wasn't a "me" issue - I went in prepared for some resistance, but my dealer was really good about the whole thing. I've read others weren't so lucky.). Consider doing the same - i.e., showing up with the reddit printout as it explaines the issue..

Same issue here. I bought a 2023 Rav4 XLE Premium in September. The GPS worked the first week I had car and then next trip went afoul to the point it showed me driving in the middle of a river. Luckily my google search landed me here and I took the car back to dealership armed with intel from posts with same problem. Turns out it is a faulty Head Unit. They were able to recreate the problem on the test drive and with several technician's phone in the shop. Ruled out it is NOT the phone as the customer service rep has exact same model of phone and vehicle and his works fine. 10 days ago they told me part was ordered. Called today since no word and found out the part is "ordered" but they have no definitive ETA. Meanwhile i have brand new car which basically has no functionality. I have a severe handicap (it's almost embarrassing) when it comes to directions and rely on my GPS for even ridiculously easy routes so connecting my phone is not practical. The dealership states they have done all they can do since this is a supply issue with Denso. They apparrently have had issues with them in the past. I have very little confidence this will be resolved in a timely manner so I asked if I could return the car and they basically said they would only give me trade in value and I would eat the taxes and tags. My other option is to contact corporate engagement services which I will do before I look into legal implications of the lemon laws. I was a 20+ year Nissan owner and regret jumping ship.

I found a fix for this, for my Audi Q5. Basically long story short Apple considers the google maps background activity depending on your settings. Follow this instruction. https://geekschalk.com/how-to-fix-apple-carplay-gps-not-working-showing-wrong-location/

Basically you change location settings to “always” for google maps instead of “while using”. This makes sure the map does not switch back to the in-car unit and only uses google maps.

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 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.

I have the same issue on a new Smart#1 that's about 6 weeks old. Smart just issued an OTA update 1.3.0 that implemented Carplay and Android A so I was pleased as I use Apple Maps a lot. Anyhow, this problem surfaced immediately.

HOWEVER, I followed up the 9-5 Mac article link posted in this thread - this related to an article written in September. About half way down the (many) comments was this one:

I sent a lengthy email to the author yesterday after reading this and the comments. Yes, this is an issue. Yes, I've experienced this issue with and without CarPlay. The issue was caused by the manufacturer of my vehicle - Mercedes Benz - and was resolved just a few weeks ago in both of my vehicles.

The issue was the Local Search section of the nav units was walled off from the HERE MapCare services. I'm in the US, one of our vehicles is garaged in France and has had the same issue for about 10 months; my local vehicle's nav worked until February - both are working as expected again.

Mercedes recently pushed an OTA update connecting vehicles with NTG 5.5 and newer to the new Google Cloud Services, which includes at a minimum traffic, POI, and navigation services.

HERE MapCare was used by at least 23 vehicle manufacturers (refer to the Wiki) including many of the vehicles many of the commenters have posted about. Mercedes owners have aired their complaints for some time now. I'd been working with my vehicle's Service Department on this since March. The PR by M-B for the OTA update was announced on 9/3/23 and was pushed to my vehicles about 10 days later (there is no record of the update in the Connect app). I hope that this issue gets resolved shortly for each of you.

If this is correct, the common factor here across all the brands is the HERE mapping, which would make sense.

I have sent the post to my Smart dealer (who of course is also an M-B dealer in the UK) and will push them for a response next week.

Update — I took my car to the dealer and there were no system updates available to install. They didn't know of a specific fix (they said). They advised me to totally reset the infotainment system and remove the CarPlay configuration from my phone. I did these steps (I'm very particular about all my settings so it was quite a frustrating and time consuming hassle to get it all set back how I had it in the car).

That was a couple weeks ago and so far it's been working fine. However, I'm not convinced that that actually fixed the issue. I'll post another update soon.

2023 VW GTI

Wireless CarPlay

iPhone 15

To summarize what I think is the issue:

Apple CarPlay treats the vehicle's GPS source as the #1 priority location source and uses it in CarPlay maps and that location overrides the iPhone's own location (what you would see on your phone if the iPhone were not connected to CarPlay). As long as the vehicle has a location available CarPlay uses it, even if the location is inaccurate (like showing you 1/2 mile off).

Test to troubleshoot while the location is bad:

If your vehicle has built-in navigation:

1 - Disconnect from CarPlay — If you have wireless CarPlay: put your phone in airplane mode. If you don't have wireless CarPlay just don't plug in.

2 - Check the location in your vehicle's maps. If it's still wrong, this confirms that the problem is with the vehicle's GPS/nav system. Contact your dealer for a fix.

If your vehicle does not have built-in navigation:

I'm not aware of anyone in this situation, so please post a reply and let me know if this is happening for you.

This is an Apple CarPlay problem, so contact Apple customer support and let them do a detailed troubleshooting session with you. They will eventually assign a support engineer to dig into the problem.

Finally fixed mine! Had the issue where CarPlay maps was showing me about 20 meters off the road, giving me wrong turn directions. Basically the fix is to use wired CarPlay instead of bluetooth connection, and to make sure you disconnect the navigation antenna from the back of the head unit.

I basically went into the radio settings and deleted the bluetooth account so my phone wouldn't connect via bluetooth, got a usb to lightning connector for my phone and plugged that into the back of the radio. I also went into settings on my phone and found the wifi connection for the radio and turned it off and changed the setting to "auto connect: no"

Even with all of those settings turned off and the phone connected to CarPlay with a wire, the navigation still showed the wrong location, UNTIL I physically disconnected the navigation antenna from the radio. Tested it for 6 hours driving everywhere yesterday and can confirm that it now works flawlessly.

Yes, I lost wireless connection to the radio but I always charge my phone in the car anyways so needs to be plugged in for that.

So glad it finally works!

I have the same problem on a Volvo XC60 hybrid, MY2024, with AAOS (up to date).

It's a wired CarPlay system.

I tried different things (hard reboot of AAOS and iOS, new cable, deactivation of Location history in my Google account, reinitialisation of the network settings of the iPhone) without any success.

But what seems to work since yesterday is to turn off the WiFi on my iPhone while driving.

I have the same issue on a RAV4 2023 car, I was able to find a workaround for this by following the below steps:

1. Start the car
2. Wait for wireless CarPlay to start
3. Open the desired navigation app (add a route or not, depending on the needs)
4. Connect the phone via cable to the car.

From my point of view this is strange but it does work in my case. I saw the CarPlay connection remains on wireless after connecting the cable, but the location issue is gone.