Does gps function work on ipad air with wifi only and no internet connection?

Not even an GPS "antenna" inside of WiFi only iDevices to pick up the satellite signals?

This, also, works on my latest 6th Gen iPod Touch with the Apple Maps application.

Again, works very well.

Do you know anyone who has a WiFi only iDevice with Apple Maps that you can see and test this functionality yourself in your area?

I am then at a loss as to why this works and has been working so well, since my own discovery.

I sware that this works the way I have documented that this works!

This is NOT some thing I am just making up or throwing out there.

This works for Wifi only iDevices that have Apple Maps on it!

I haven't tried this method with Google Maps app, only with the Apple Maps app because I like the way the Apple Maps app displays the turn by turn directions in very large print at the top of the Apple Maps screen.

You need to test and try this and see for yourself with a WiFi only device using the Apple Maps app.

Program the route ahead of time and start the turn by turn directions while still on WiFi, then bring the Wifi only iDevice with you tomyour vehicle and start driving to your programmed destination.

If you follow the route driving, the round vehicle cursor on the Apple Maps screen will follow along and the turn by turn directiins will advance as you go.

You need to be careful driving though, because you need to read those larger turn by turn instructions at the top of the Apple Maps app as you go.

There is no voice telling you the directions.

If there is a voice for Apple Maps to read the directions out loud, I haven't discovered this, yet.

Not even the antennae. If you look at the tear downs at ifixit and other sites, there is no GPS hardware at all.

I'm not saying it doesn't work as you describe, just that it cannot be using any GPS data to do it.

For road maps, the device should be capable of some sort of dead reaconing using the accelerometer - I don't know if the maps software includes that sort of programming, but it's possible. As long as the map is cached and the start and end points are well defined (submarines use that basic sort of system to navigate and have for decades). And then there are the other sources it can use whenever they are avaialble, like wifi nodes and BT beacons at rest stops, gas stations, some camping sites, national and state park entrances and so on.

Also, I am no expert on the most bleeding edge crowd sourcing services, but Apple, Google, Yahoo and many others have been collecting massive crowd sourced location based databases with plans to use individual users devices as beacons and so forth. Apple so far doesn't seem to have any system for users decides anonymously serving as beacons (and it would have to be a user opt-in system so we'd all know about it) but I have no idea what sort of beta products and/or services may be out in the wild either.

Well,

All I reallly know, now, is that this works, but it works using other signal sources other than those from a GPS satellite source.

Good to know next time someone brings this topic up.

However this works and how the iPad is getting its navigation signals, it has been working very well for my wife and I, to date.

FWIW: I cannot reproduce this on a wifi-only iPad Mini.

Launch Apple Maps, You need to put the start and end points of your destination, then start the turn by turn route directions while still on a local WiFi source.

Then, take a drive to your destination.

The vehicle cursor will move along the route as you drive the route and the top turn by turn instructions should, also, advance while you are driving.

We have used this method many times to drive to PA and MD to visit friends and on a trip to upper state NY.

This works my on my iPad 2 (which is, basically, internal hardware indentical to the iPad Mini), iPad 3, Pro and my 6th Gen iPod Touch.

My Wife and I have been using our iPads as a GPS replacements in our vehicle since Apple Maps got introduced.

Nto to beat a dead horse here, but I also am unable to replicate the described experience. I have an iPad Air 2 64GB wifi only unit and cannot get it to work as described with Apple maps. To expand a bit on this ..

While it isn't very accurate, there does appear to be some form of location tracking going on. It says it can't navigate and I certainly can't initiate a journey with directions when out of wifi range, but the map somewhat displays a location "circle" which I believe corresponds to the uncertainty range of the location calculation. All in all, it isn't useable in any realistic sense. So, I'm at a loss as to how this works at all.

Whole I love Apple products, I don't understand why they don't state clearly what is possible and what isn't regarding navigation with a wifi only unit. Samsung tablets for example clearly advertise GPS capability on their wifi units.

One other comment, on my iPhone 6 I use the app HERE by Nokia. It works wonderfully even in Airplane mode and directly uses the GPS signal with no telecom signal or wifi. This is very useful out of the country, including Canada, where I can navigate quite easily and very accurately without paying any roaming fees. Also, you don't need a signal at all, which is often the case in the west or mountainous areas. Give it a try, it's free and fantastic. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with my iPad wifi only unit, I believe due to the lack of GPS capability and likely the necessary antenna.

Congratulations to those of you who can make this work. Hang onto those units, I doubt you can replace them.

Sorry for the typos in my earlier post, my errors.

Yeah,

You get a location circle (I call it cursor) but it has flawlessly followed whatever route I have set up and if I do lose whatever signals these Wifi only iPads use to get some location tracking (the location circle/cursor will start to drift/wander off the prgrammed route), as soon as my iPad picks up whatever signal it picks up for this, the location circle/cursor will immediiately snap back and correct itself.

Since Michael mentioned Wifi nodes/Bluetooth beacons, I wonder if part of the reason the route gets tracked so well is if my WiFi only iPads are picking up intermittent Bluetooth signals from cars or passing cars on the highway as we drive and these signals are keeping the route and turn by turn directions pretty true.

All I know is that this works as has been working on all of my iDevices, which are ALL WiFi only devices, that all have Apple Maps on them.

It has been pretty reliable here in my part of the U.S.

We haven't, as yet, run into a problem of this not working, but if for some reason, the route tracking stops, you CAN slide scroll the turn by turn directions manually to stay on route. The automation of it just ceases until the iPad can pick up a location signal, again.

I really do not undestand how and why it all works, just that it does and I am grateful that it works the way it works!

I just am not willing to believe that this is some freak exception and my iDevices are working in some contrary manner the is an exception and not the norm.

Not when it works on 3 up to date iOS devices that were purchased at very different times.

I haven't tried this with Google Maps, though, to see if this works with their turn by turn navigation.

Maybe at some point, see if this works with Google Maps.

Maybe Apple has programmmed something into Apple Maps to allow Wifi only devices to be able to use different signals to use the Apple Maps application as a "workable” GPS mode.

Maybe something special to the Apple Maps app?

A Wifi only device is never going to be quite as accurate as a GPS enabled device. Your wifi only iPad primarily uses wifi nodes - it scans all detectable wifi SSIDs and gets the MAC address for those nodes, and then Apple's wifi locations database provides the best estimated known location for that node. BT iBeacons are a newer technology so wont be as wide spread, but they are even shorter range than wifi so may provide a more precise location fix. Sometimes a wifi location can be wildly off, if that wifi node has moved and its change has yet to get picked up in Apple's database (for about 6 months after I moved to NC, my Mac thought it was still in VA since that is where the database said my wifi router was).

BT iBeacon technology, when presented at WWDC in 2013, was discussed as one method for precise location fixes inside large buildings or structures, where GPS signal will be blocked by the structure itself.

WIth a GPS iPad, or iPhone, the GPS system can work entirely standalone. Airplane mode used to turn it off, but since iOS 8.something, airplane mode only turns off the transmitting radios and leaves the GPS receiver on. So now you can use an iPhone in airplane mode and it will work just fine for location tracking as it will simply use its GPS. The initial location fix may take longer, since it cannot use aGPS, but once it locks onto the available satellite signals it should work fine. If you have a standalone map app, or have cached maps (Google maps allow caching) you can even have real time map tracking showing.