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GPS problem with Model X

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hgpc

Member
Oct 19, 2016
5
3
AZ
On the second day of bringing the model X home noticed that the GPS was not working...it was not tracking. The red arrow stayed fixed at my home location even when the car was moving.
I called the service center and did a reset of the main console and also the display but did not change anything..still broke, also disconnected from home wifi. Was told it could be the GPS antenna and asked me to bring it in to the service center. I wasn't too pleased with having to drive 100+ miles and needless to say the time away from doing important stuff, but did it anyways to get it fixed. They kept the car for the weekend and said after doing a firmware reset it was fixed and did not require a hardware change.
Brought the car back and was happy driving it around. Within a few days again same issue... pulled the car out of the garage this am and the GPS does not track and stuck at my home location. Called the service center and was told to bring the car back in. I refused to and wanted to speak with the service manager to find out what was wrong in the first place. Left my cell number and haven't received a call.
I'm not a stickler when it comes to minor imperfections like the FWD not lining up or some scratches on the paint etc.. But this is absolutely ridiculous! I work during the day time like most of us on this forum and dont have the time to drive 100+ miles each time to fix the same issue. I love the car but if I only had an inkling of the kind of trouble I would be going through to get an absolutely brand new car working like it should, I honestly would not have purchased it. I understand Tesla is a relatively new company and has its growing pains but they seem to focus on churning out new products and software developments than address issues with current customers. They are spreading themselves out too thin.
If any of you have a solutions for the problem I'm facing please let me know...I totally appreciate it.
I even asked the tesla service team in the past if I should pull the yellow fuse to reset the system and was told not to do it. I dont want to void the warranty. I havent reset it to factory condition yet because I'll lose the home link and phone setting and driver profile etc but if that works I dont mind doing that rather than making this long distance trip back to the service center.
What I find most irritating is the fact that I'm told "you have to bring it back"...Do they even understand that we have day time jobs...the one that pays for the car...and there is a life outside of driving the tesla back to the service center each time.
I guess I have vented enough.
I can empathize with the folks that have been having issues...All we can do is comply with what needs to be done..What can you expect from a new car that only costs a 100+
 
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Yeah..Thats what I was going to do. Although Im not sure if it is going to be feasible for them either given the distance. I guess Ill find out.
I'm always polite when talking to them. I understand its not their fault and they are still trying to figure things out but the situation is frustrating.
 
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I had the same problem as the OP, and it disappeared after a sleep cycle; i.e. park your car and wait until the car sleeps (typically after two hours) then it was fixed. At least that was my case.

Guess that was a software bug. The service guy with Tesla tester said everything is normal, and he said he'd seen a few cars with similar symptoms and he said those people commonly turned off always connected. He recommended to me to turn it on. I thought it's not logical so I keep it turned off until now and haven't seen the issue since then.
 
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Mine is working again, I called tesla service and they said they would pull my logs and look into it. After getting off the phone the display was freezing and bluetooth screwing up, so I reset a couple more times and then the gps started working again.

I called service back later in the day and they were still waiting for the logs, but said she had "poked" the car, and maybe that woke up the GPS system. It also could have been that I let the car turn off, and turned it back on again by sitting in and depressing the brake pedal, so that could have done it as well, as implied by hiroshiy.

Other things I had tried, were resetting the driver screen which did nothing, and I even pulled the three 20Amp fuses which also did not fix it. Yeah, I'm somewhat risk tolerant ;-)

Anyway, maybe power off/on, maybe a "poke," I will try "Always Connected" if it happens again.
 
Well— this in now happening to me on a new MX (less than 100mi).
The GPS did work before, but this is the 1st time using it since setting up WiFi. I’m at a cafe now and both the mobile app and the car think I’m at home. I reset both displays a couple of times with no luck. Per the other suggestions above, I’ll try power on/off and toggling ‘Always Connected” when I walk back to the car. Else, I guess it will be a call to Service... at least I can take care of the due bill at the same time ;)

Any report backs on what finally worked for folks?
 
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No luck with the power off, nor toggling Always Connect— I set a service appointment for next week.

Here is a bit more info for anyone else who may encounter this:
The street & city that is listed as an overlay on the bottom of the map is correct. It’s just the red arrow that is stuck in the wrong spot— which also causes turn-by-turn directions to behave as if the car is moving (on both displays).
 
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careful. on the Model S, the GPS antenna is in the rear trunk lift deck. Sometimes installing rear windows, this wire gets cut and there goes your GPS. It must be replaced. Not sure how it works on an X.
In any of the cars, you do need to be careful fishing wires through the boots when you install rear dashcam cameras. One thing I saw in one video I didn’t see elsewhere was silicon lube (and not that kind!). Meant for pulling cables. It made the fishing a lot easier and I bet the odds of breaking the other ones a lot lower.
 
This is also happening with the new S. Some mention about the car going into a deep sleep at night. Last time it happen to us one evening, the next morning as soon as I rolled out of the garage, it popped directly to the correct location. So, I would believe it's more software rather than hardware mainly how quick it move to location after I move the car. If it was hardware I would think it would take time to receive signal and determine where the car is located. When we called customer service they mention to contact service center and have them pull the logs. That was over the weekend. We'll see what they say today.
 
Our GPS also got stuck last night when we stopped to have dinner. The system on our MX is currently running 2017.42.1 94435ee on HW 2.5. Resetting the MCU several times did not work. Waking from a deep sleep and trying to reset the MCU (by holding the scroll wheels) did not work. I called customer service and was advised that the problem is an "emerging issue." They reset the GPS system on their end and, after several minutes, asked me to try resetting the MCU again. GPS was still not tracking. The advisor then suggested putting the vehicle into Drive and to try moving the car back and forth. That worked! The GPS panned over to my current location. The rep stated that it could likely freeze again but that a fix is included in the current software push that was released on Nov 5th. Still waiting to get the update.
 
On the second day of bringing the model X home noticed that the GPS was not working...it was not tracking. The red arrow stayed fixed at my home location even when the car was moving.
I called the service center and did a reset of the main console and also the display but did not change anything..still broke, also disconnected from home wifi. Was told it could be the GPS antenna and asked me to bring it in to the service center. I wasn't too pleased with having to drive 100+ miles and needless to say the time away from doing important stuff, but did it anyways to get it fixed. They kept the car for the weekend and said after doing a firmware reset it was fixed and did not require a hardware change.
Brought the car back and was happy driving it around. Within a few days again same issue... pulled the car out of the garage this am and the GPS does not track and stuck at my home location. Called the service center and was told to bring the car back in. I refused to and wanted to speak with the service manager to find out what was wrong in the first place. Left my cell number and haven't received a call.
I'm not a stickler when it comes to minor imperfections like the FWD not lining up or some scratches on the paint etc.. But this is absolutely ridiculous! I work during the day time like most of us on this forum and dont have the time to drive 100+ miles each time to fix the same issue. I love the car but if I only had an inkling of the kind of trouble I would be going through to get an absolutely brand new car working like it should, I honestly would not have purchased it. I understand Tesla is a relatively new company and has its growing pains but they seem to focus on churning out new products and software developments than address issues with current customers. They are spreading themselves out too thin.
If any of you have a solutions for the problem I'm facing please let me know...I totally appreciate it.
I even asked the tesla service team in the past if I should pull the yellow fuse to reset the system and was told not to do it. I dont want to void the warranty. I havent reset it to factory condition yet because I'll lose the home link and phone setting and driver profile etc but if that works I dont mind doing that rather than making this long distance trip back to the service center.
What I find most irritating is the fact that I'm told "you have to bring it back"...Do they even understand that we have day time jobs...the one that pays for the car...and there is a life outside of driving the tesla back to the service center each time.
I guess I have vented enough.
I can empathize with the folks that have been having issues...All we can do is comply with what needs to be done..What can you expect from a new car that only costs a 100+
I had the same “GPS Freeze” issue two months ago and again tonight. Researching and trying to document/clear issue prior to calling service to pull logs.
 
Our GPS also got stuck last night when we stopped to have dinner. The system on our MX is currently running 2017.42.1 94435ee on HW 2.5. Resetting the MCU several times did not work. Waking from a deep sleep and trying to reset the MCU (by holding the scroll wheels) did not work. I called customer service and was advised that the problem is an "emerging issue." They reset the GPS system on their end and, after several minutes, asked me to try resetting the MCU again. GPS was still not tracking. The advisor then suggested putting the vehicle into Drive and to try moving the car back and forth. That worked! The GPS panned over to my current location. The rep stated that it could likely freeze again but that a fix is included in the current software push that was released on Nov 5th. Still waiting to get the update.
Going out to try this now.
 
Going out to try this now.
It worked! My wife asked if I stood on my head and made the right face. She had me almost in tears laughing while we were driving home. The gps pointer was stuck...she works in software Quality Assurance testing user interfaces...so for 66 miles she was “testing” the gps on our Model X. After she got the GPS Pointer to move 40 miles closer to our current position and stick there, she reminded me that we had only had the car back from the body shop for 24 hours before a fault occurred (small parking lot ding from backing our trailer). In the week prior we drove a Volvo XC60, she was asking me...”Do you remember the rental car? Did it’s GPS ever get stuck? How many days did we have that car? And how many hours have we had the Tesla?” She said, “Perhaps gps uses radio waves so they don’t use those in the Tesla., Volvo kills birds with the GPS and cows with the leather seats. Not like the pleather seats in the Tesla...for over 100k you would expect to get leather seats and a gps...but Tesla owners know where they are going, they don’t need no gps. And fine Naugahyde.”
Anyway we had fun poking at the screen and after driving back and forth in the driveway like a “proper” Tesla driver, all is well. I will email service tomorrow (New Years Eve), this isn’t critical IMHO for a phone call, but I might call tomorrow so they can try pulling the logs, not sure it will help them fix this SW bug (or loose gps connection?).
 
Tesla just bought my Model X back a little over a week ago as it was having tons of issues. I had the same issue that is listed here along with a bunch of others. Since I ordered another Model X they kindly gave me a loaner Model S until the replacement arrives. It was great for the first few days then one morning the GPS got stuck, I got a steering assist reduced car needs service notice and a notice saying the emergency braking system had been disabled. It seemed strange for it to start having all these issues at once. The only change I made was the night before I setup HomeLink. So I removed HomeLink and reset the MCU. It took about an hour for the GPS to start working again and I have not had any issues since. Both of these vehicles have AutoPilot HW2.5.