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.

 

As far as I understand, this is not correct, it is an Apple requirement for Developers that wireless CarPlay must use the Car provided GPS. You can see the WDC documentation from Apple that states this here and the reasons why (primarily assumption that wireless CarPlay may mean the phone is in a bag or a pocket and suffer poor GPS 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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

<-- Holding back a snarky comment.

You're welcome.

 

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 ).

 

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!!

 

Yeah rebooting/resetting everything is a temporary fix. But the issue is going to crop up again for you.

 

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

 

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

 

Same issue here. Can’t figure it out

 

Likely bad signal from the car antenna somehow.

 

My thing is how is it that the stock Navi is spot on?

 

I’m having the same issue aswell. It’s annoying because the cars GPS never tells me about road closures or construction. also leads me to roads that are closed during certain hours and refuses to choose another route so I decided to go with Apple Maps. What a nightmare it has been also. Google maps has worked flawless but doesn’t integrate with the car nearly aswell

 

I should add that I took delivery back in July and I've only noticed this issue over the last month or so. If it was happening before I never noticed it.

 

It seems that the reception system on the car is interfering with the GPS satellite signals.

 

Sorry I don't follow. What reception system and how would a reception system interfere with GPS signals?

 

I suppose it’s possible the code path for onboard nav compensate for something the iPhone nav is unaware exists… GPS is all about timing signals from multiple satellites, so if anything impacts signal timing, it will throw off the location calculation.

 

I just bought an Audi E-Tron and am having the exact same issue using wireless CarPlay also. So, not just a BMW problem. I also had the issue in my Tesla Y, oddly...without CarPlay. I thought it was my phone so I used it as an excuse to order the new iPhone 14. Very interesting that other are having the same issue.

 

I've never had an issue with wireless CarPlay in my other cars, but they were not fully electric vehicles. The i4, e-tron, and model Y are all fully electric. I wonder if the battery may be a potential source of interference?

I should add that I had a Model 3 for 3 years and never had a GPS issue...so who knows.

 

I had this happen to me today. CarPlay GPS was consistently off, but the BMW map was accurate. The CarPlay map updated its position and direction consistent with my motion. I checked at one point, and CarPlay thought I was exactly one kilometer due north of my actual location. Very strange bug.

 

What baffles me the most is that in my i3s (2018) CarPlay is absolutely flawless.

 

This happened to me again last night. Turning off CarPlay and back on from the i4 devices screen didn't work. Instead, what happened was:

1. Turn CarPlay back on, wait a bit for it to connect
2. Once music starts playing again, switch to the CarPlay screen and open Maps
3. See that the position is correct on GPS
4. Watch the position suddenly migrate to nearly 1km south from my location

Interestingly, the location it moved to was the approximate location of a cell tower. The last time this happened, the offset (at the end of my commute) was 1km north, and there's also a cell tower just about 1km north of my driveway. Theory: the initial positioning data being provided by wireless CarPlay is garbage and it's falling back to the location of the cell tower it's connected to.

 

If you take it off CarPlay and look at Maps, it should show the cellular circle if it's not using GPS. But, if you take it off CarPlay, it corrects, doesn't it? I think something's weird about the reception in the car and its communication to the phone.

 

Last time I had this problem I noticed a couple other issues I didn’t notice before.

• Car Navigation worked fine
• Apple Carplay location 3 miles south of my current location
• My BMW app location sames as CarPlay. 3 miles south
• All apps on my iPhone showing the wrong location. Starbucks app also thought I was 3 miles away
• Car navigation still fine
• No changes after rebooting phone
• After I got home, My BMW app showed that my car was parked 3 miles south
• Problem was fixed next day after I rebooted iDrive holding the volume button 30 seconds

 

Last time I had this problem I noticed a couple other issues I didn’t notice before.

• Car Navigation worked fine
• Apple Carplay location 3 miles south of my current location
• My BMW app location sames as CarPlay. 3 miles south
• All apps on my iPhone showing the wrong location. Starbucks app also thought I was 3 miles away
• Car navigation still fine
• No changes after rebooting phone
• After I got home, My BMW app showed that my car was parked 3 miles south
• Problem was fixed next day after I rebooted iDrive holding the volume button 30 seconds

...and once you were off CarPlay, I assume your location showed correctly in the other apps?

 

It can be proven to be an issue with the car pretty easily. Connect your phone to carplay, notice the location in maps.
then open the bmw app and look at the cars location that the CAR is self reporting to BMW. You’ll see these locations match.
the incorrect information is coming from the car and we don’t know why. I have yet to do a reset to idrive, but I’m going to try and it and see if it works Even if temporarily.

 

Hello. I have exactly the same problem with my VW Passat 2015. I use Carplay wired to Iphone 13.
A lot of people with different brands of cars complain over the internet about this problem. Some older cars, some newer cars.
My wife`s Android phone works flawlessly in the same car. So it can`t be a car problem.
On the other hand there are a lot of people that use Carplay with no problem.
I believe it`s a software bug in Carplay that only surfaces in certain situations.

 

Count mine in as well.
My i4 M50 was delivered a week back.
Has 85 miles in it so far.
I was taking it home after Ceramic Coating yesterday when Google Maps in Carplay decided to route me in strange ways. First I thought it was legit and obeyed , but then I noticed it's giving me very strange instructions. My phone was charging via wired USB and sitting inside the cup holders at the time.
I disengaged car play navigation and came home.
Then later in night I used the BMW app to check on the car and saw that it show location 0.5 mile from home.
This morning when I did a quick drive and came back home the location incorrectness was gone.

Clearly there is something wrong with hardware and/or software.
I plan to start asking my CA tomorrow.
If anyone here has followed up with BMW/dealers for further clarity , please share any input you got.