GPS not accurate

[P.crawford]

GPS did not tell me that my car had been towed away 5 days ago. ?!? Why???
I had parked my car at my complex on Nov 16 and had hip surgery on Nov 17. After surgery I looked at my app daily for location and honked the horn. Sometime in the middle of the next week I honked the horn and no response but GPS said it was where I left it. I also heard about Tesla app outage and my charge was low (70 miles left) so I thought nothing of the non responsive horn. On the 24th I asked my mate to check on my car which was gone. GPS still said it’s location was at my complex whole car was at a impound several miles away. Seems like a HUGE flaw. Has anybody else had a similar experience???

 

[Tam]

...?!? Why???...

I don't know why but it's been a known issue: GPS does not update if the wheels don't turn. That's a security problem.

Why is the location of my Tesla wrong?

Why does the car think its in Freemont? And why does the internet think I'm in Holland?

tesla-info.com

 

[stopcrazypp]

I don't know why but it's been a known issue: GPS does not update if the wheels don't turn. That's a security problem.

Why is the location of my Tesla wrong?

Why does the car think its in Freemont? And why does the internet think I'm in Holland?

tesla-info.com

Thanks for pointing that out. I guess that puts a reminder not to rely on the GPS to avoid a tow, which I don't do anyways (I have remote cameras installed instead).

Reading more into the issue, it seems Tesla is trying to save battery by not updating the GPS until the car is moving in drive, but there really should be a function in the app to force GPS to update just for this situation (apparently customer service can force a ping).

 

[EVRider-FL]

Why didn’t you enable Sentry Mode if you were concerned about the car? Better than honking the horn and annoying passersby.

 

[afadeev]

Why didn’t you enable Sentry Mode if you were concerned about the car? Better than honking the horn and annoying passersby.

Because he didn't want to deplete his battery!?
Sentry Mode is ridiculously power hungry, and not appropriate for cars that are parked for days on end:

Sentry Mode battery usage 7% per day

My Sentry Mode uses roughly 7% per day of battery, does this seem right? I live in an apartment complex, so no home charging, but I want to keep my Sentry Mode always on in case anyone does anything funny near my vehicle. I go to the supercharger once I hit around 20% (since that's when Sentry...

teslamotorsclub.com

w.r.t. inaccurate GPS - yes, it happens.
GPS position is finnicky, and is more of an infotainment feature.
Even when starting a drive, about 10% of the time the GPS puts me either miles or hundreds of feet away from the road on which I'm driving. Which makes navigations directions utterly useless. 5-15 minutes later, it usually does "catch up".

 

[EVRider-FL]

Sentry Mode uses a lot of energy, but the OP said they were parked at their home complex, so they probably could have left the car charged up enough to use Sentry Mode if they were concerned about it. Not the same as parking in a garage away from home for an extended period and having to worry about having enough range to get home.

I’m puzzled as to why the car was towed if it was parked at the OP’s home. I don’t think we got the whole story.

 

[KenC]

I left my AirTag inside my car today, when I went skiing. After a few minutes, it notified me that I had left it behind! I would just leave an AirTag inside your car if you leave it, and need to check its location. Less battery hungry.

 

[stopcrazypp]

I left my AirTag inside my car today, when I went skiing. After a few minutes, it notified me that I had left it behind! I would just leave an AirTag inside your car if you leave it, and need to check its location. Less battery hungry.

Note AirTags can only update their location when there is another supported Apple device in Bluetooth or UWB range for it to piggyback on the internet connection. So while it works in most places (as the probability someone has an Apple device nearby is quite high), in more remote locations (or if it just happens the neighborhood you parked in don't use Apple devices), it might not work. This is a bit different than devices that have their own LTE connection for internet.