[robby891]

I've been having an issue with the CarPlay Maps issue since I've had my i4. When using Google Maps/Apple Maps through CarPlay, after some amount of time the GPS location becomes inaccurate, showing my location around 100 feet from where I actually am. The longer I am using the navigation the further off the GPS location is. It appears to lose location when I drive under overpasses or near obstacles that may cause the car to temporarily lose GPS signal.

The problem persists even after restarting the car. It is only fixed once I reboot my phone and/or reset iDrive by holding the power button for 70 seconds. I don't think its an issue with my iPhone because I have tried multiple phones and all of them have the same issue.

I looked up the problem and other people have the same issue with different cars. Apparently, the iPhone uses the car's GPS when connected to CarPlay. The car is sending bad location info. People were only able to get it fixed after getting a new headunit in their car or updating their firmware.

Here is an Apple forums post describing the issue: Everything works in Apple CarPlay except … - Apple Community

Does anyone else have this issue with their i4?

*Looks like there is still no permanent fix for iDrive 8 as of 2/6/23. Running version 11.2022.44 and still have the issue.

 

[Accident]

CarPlay doesn’t use the car’s GPS. It wouldn’t work with cars without navigation. If you have the phone in the charging tray the accuracy will probably drop, especially if you are driving in areas with high rises that might block the phone’s GPS antenna signal.

 

[KBS]

Is/was the phone in the charger in the console, or in your pocket? I had some screwy GPS things happen with Apple maps until I took the phone out of my pocket and put it in the charger. Remember when using Carplay it's the GPS in the PHONE that has to get the satellite signals. With the HUD I will typically use the built in nav as it shows the graphical road map during turns. With Carplay you only get arrows and text.

 

[robby891]

Thanks for the replies. CarPlay actually uses the car's GPS, not the phone's, when connected wirelessly. It's in the specs for CarPlay. They did this because the car's antenna should work better than the phone's as its exposed on top of the car.

The strange thing is that the car's navigation works properly.

 

[PRBMiE]

Thanks for the replies. CarPlay actually uses the car's GPS, not the phone's, when connected wirelessly. It's in the specs for CarPlay. They did this because the car's antenna should work better than the phone's as its exposed on top of the car.

The strange thing is that the car's navigation works properly.

Being 100 feet off is still within the GPS specifications for the C/A code for civil signals vs military. The cell phones use assisted GPS, they rely on wifi cellphone signal gps time for initial position acquisition.

 

[bmwiscool]

This is happening to me with CarPlay on the i4 as well. Haven’t found a way to fix it yet…

My gps location always shows me about 3 blocks away from my actual location. Kind of funny to see it show that I’m driving over buildings

As mentioned earlier in the thread, the idrive gps location works fine, but the incorrect location only appears in CarPlay.

I’ve tried rebooting the phone, rebooting the car’s infotainment, with no success.

Sometimes it decides to work just fine, though…

This never happened in my 330i which also had wireless CarPlay. Hopefully this gets fixed with a software update

 

[trmoore47]

My i4 is about 10d old and I have the same '100 feet away' on the CarPlay Map. Crazy because the car is being shown on the road next to the road I am driving on. I will try putting the phone in the charging slot.

 

[bimmerbahn]

I experienced this issue recently in my dealers demo i4…. I haven’t noticed it in my M50, yet…. But I’ve only driven it about 10 miles, from the PC to the detailer. Will see how it goes on the 500 mile trip home on Saturday.

 

[ssh]

I experienced this issue recently in my dealers demo i4…. I haven’t noticed it in my M50, yet…. But I’ve only driven it about 10 miles, from the PC to the detailer. Will see how it goes on the 500 mile trip home on Saturday.

Location of the phone itself can impact this. In the charger bay, there's a booster for GPS reception, but in other parts of the car, the GPS reception can be impacted and so it can go wonky. Same is true in my 330.

 

[rollermonkey]

GPS is, of course, originally a US military system. The guidance for using GPS units in military manuals states that the GPS signal can be blocked by dense foliage.

I'm pretty sure that a car's roof and chassis is better a blocking RF signals than some leaves. This is why car GPS units have always either had an antenna outside the car or was mounted to a window.

In order to get an accurate position, at least 3 satellites must be in line of sight of the receiver. That's certainly easy enough when you're not inside a Faraday cage.

Just sayin'.

 

[Wrecks]

GPS is, of course, originally a US military system. The guidance for using GPS units in military manuals states that the GPS signal can be blocked by dense foliage.

I'm pretty sure that a car's roof and chassis is better a blocking RF signals than some leaves. This is why car GPS units have always either had an antenna outside the car or was mounted to a window.

In order to get an accurate position, at least 3 satellites must be in line of sight of the receiver. That's certainly easy enough when you're not inside a Faraday cage.

Just sayin'.

No modern systems are completely reliant on GPS alone, they also use cell tower triangulation and wifi to assist with geolocation which have no problem with going through a window.

There's something wrong with the software. I have had the exact same problem and I had it 2 days ago. I was driving with a friend and both Apple and Google Maps had me 100-200 meters off the road so it looked like I was going through the yards. I joked to my friend that Google is gonna start serving me ads for ATVs.

When my friend opened Google Maps on his phone while in my car, it was spot on, no issues with the signal.

 

[ssh]

No modern systems are completely reliant on GPS alone, they also use cell tower triangulation and wifi to assist with geolocation which have no problem with going through a window.

There's something wrong with the software. I have had the exact same problem and I had it 2 days ago. I was driving with a friend and both Apple and Google Maps had me 100-200 meters off the road so it looked like I was going through the yards. I joked to my friend that Google is gonna start serving me ads for ATVs.

When my friend opened Google Maps on his phone while in my car, it was spot on, no issues with the signal.

The maps come 100% from the phone. I don’t see how the car could have anything to do with it. I suppose it’s possible that the car is handing the phone a GPS signal, but I haven’t seen evidence of that.

Is the built-in nav accurate?

 

[Wrecks]

The maps come 100% from the phone. I don’t see how the car could have anything to do with it. I suppose it’s possible that the car is handing the phone a GPS signal, but I haven’t seen evidence of that.

Is the built-in nav accurate?

Yes the built in nav works fine, which leads me to a conclusion:

The car shares the GPS signal to CarPlay but doesn't include the other supplementary telemetry data it gets from cell and wifi that it uses for its own nav. This limitation would make sense because the cell and data is limited so people don't try to abuse the free signal.

Then, CarPlay expects to get all location data via that feed and so it turns off its own geolocation services on the phone which would normally bolster the accuracy to eliminate redundant processing.

Thus, when the GPS satellite coverage is spotty, so is CarPlay nav, because there's no other telemetry to lean on.

At least, that's my armchair QA theory, there's no way to really tell without seeing the data feed

 

[ssh]

Yes the built in nav works fine, which leads me to a conclusion:

The car shares the GPS signal to CarPlay but doesn't include the other supplementary telemetry data it gets from cell and wifi that it uses for its own nav. This limitation would make sense because the cell and data is limited so people don't try to abuse the free signal.

Then, CarPlay expects to get all location data via that feed and so it turns off its own geolocation services on the phone which would normally bolster the accuracy to eliminate redundant processing.

Thus, when the GPS satellite coverage is spotty, so is CarPlay nav, because there's no other telemetry to lean on.

At least, that's my armchair QA theory, there's no way to really tell without seeing the data feed

Weird question: did you hard reset the iPhone to see if that fixed it (up vol, down vol, hold the lock button until you get the logo)? I’ve seen weirder things get fixed with that. And I don’t think it’s systemic; this happens rarely to me in my 330, but isn’t consistent with location or anything. And seems to happen mostly when I have the phone somewhere weird (like under my leg ‘cause I tucked it there and forgot!).

 

[rollermonkey]

<-- Holding back a snarky comment.

You're welcome.

 

[rzag]

I have notice same issue - very annoying.
Can not figure out what is the trigger. Same route one day works and other day not (it shows car in parallel road or middle of the field ).

 

[Ash]

Hey everyone, I was having this same issue and came to the forums looking for a fix. In the meantime, though, I decided to do a quick reset in the car by pressing the volume knob and holding it in for 30-ish seconds. As soon as the system finished rebooting, my GPS location in CarPlay was correct again. That may not work for everyone, but it’s worth a try!!

 

[Accident]

Well, I was checking some of the Apple documentation, and wireless Carplay gets the GPS location from the car, so it seems like it’s a bug with iDrive 8.

“Satellite location information from the vehicle is used in addition to the iPhone's sensors to determine the location of the user. This data from the vehicle may be better since a larger antenna can be integrated into the car. This is the recommended configuration since it will result in the best maps user experience. Sending satellite location information to iPhone is required if the vehicle has the technology on board. GNSS information is also required for any system supporting wireless CarPlay since it's more likely that the phone will be in a pocket, bag, or somewhere where the phone itself has poor reception.”

Developing CarPlay Systems, Part 1 - WWDC16 - Videos - Apple Developer

CarPlay is a smarter, safer way to use your iPhone in the car. Learn how CarPlay works and how to design your car's infotainment system...

developer.apple.com

 

[Donna]

I’m having this exact same issue! Let me know if you find a permanent solution.

 

[Jose1977]

Same issue here. Can’t figure it out