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Model X Plaid GPS “Stuck” in Last Location (Parking Garage)

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Hi

I was wondering if anyone has an idea what could be the reason of my Model X Plaid “stuck GPS location” and if there is a simple fix.

In general the GPS works fine except after I park in a public garage (mall, office, etc.), after which the GPS still thinking that the car has not moved away from the garage area. It will take 15 min or so for it to realize after I drive away from the garage and automatically it works fine again. The whole day it would work fine except when I park in another covered parking garage.

To be more specific, I could see a “blue dot” moving as the car moving however the red arrow stays at the last parked location in the Tesla App (sample still screenshot shown below where you can see a blue dot and red arrow when the car is parked inside the public garage last time).

I have tried the double scroll wheel resets, power off (safety menu) and the wheel size reset (after following kind suggestion from a fellow TMC member) but none seems to resolve this “lag” GPS.

I am hoping there is a simple fix that someone could suggest before I schedule a service appointment to check this out.

Thanks in advance.

PS: No tint on front windshield
 

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It will take 15 min or so for it to realize after I drive away from the garage and automatically it works fine again.
So it is not as simple as it lost track of the satellites and it resync'ing (triangulating)? Is the garage blocking the reception?

My X occasionally lose track even in my garage (under and bedroom and roof). It takes several minutes for it to find itself again.

GPS triangulation - A global positioning system (GPS) device uses data from satellites to locate a specific point on the Earth in a process called trilateration. To trilaterate, a GPS receiver measures the distances to satellites using radio signals.

UPDATE: Good site: How GPS Receivers Work - Trilateration vs Triangulation - GIS Geography
 
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So it is not as simple as it lost track of the satellites and it resync'ing (triangulating)? Is the garage blocking the reception?

My X occasionally lose track even in my garage (under and bedroom and roof). It takes several minutes for it to find itself again.

GPS triangulation - A global positioning system (GPS) device uses data from satellites to locate a specific point on the Earth in a process called trilateration. To trilaterate, a GPS receiver measures the distances to satellites using radio signals.
Hi thanks for your kind and detailed note and information.

There is a possibility that it tries to triangulate after the garage parking however I was wondering

- if other Model X Refresh owners experience the same thing (i.e., it takes that long: 15 minutes drive for the GPS to represent the correct location of the car) after they park under public garage?

- if anyone knows what exactly are the difference between the blue dot (I assume it’s my something on my car because it moves as the car moves) and the red arrow (that seems to be static when I had the “stuck” issue).

Thanks again
 
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Does this happen after you park in any parking garage, or just specific ones? If in some locations, like shopping centers and malls, have their own GPS and Wifi transmitters so you can get guidance while indoors (ex. guidance to the food court or a store using your phone). Theis possible could mess with in-car system location systems.
 
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Does this happen after you park in any parking garage, or just specific ones? If in some locations, like shopping centers and malls, have their own GPS and Wifi transmitters so you can get guidance while indoors (ex. guidance to the food court or a store using your phone). Theis possible could mess with in-car system location systems.
Hi, thanks for your kind note; it seems that the issue occurred in all if not almost all public parking garage I have been (malls, offices, clinics, etc.). If I park outdoor, I didn’t seem to have the issues.

Thanks again.
 
Hi, thanks for your kind note; it seems that the issue occurred in all if not almost all public parking garage I have been (malls, offices, clinics, etc.). If I park outdoor, I didn’t seem to have the issues.

Thanks again.
"almost all" does seem like a lot but you may want to clarify if there are 1 or often 2+ floors above you at these?
Parking in the center area or on the outside edges typically?
Do you park in a garage at home? If so does it every happen there?

15 minutes is a long time. Mine are often 5 minutes it seems but I've never timed it (it did happen today).

I'd consider getting it checked out if it was my X. Perhaps there is a loose wire or a weak antenna in some way making it 'cold start' longer. [I had a cell antenna in my X not be plugged in properly after the MCU2 upgrade. It worked near the tower but faded dramatically as I drove.]

Perhaps they have a service mode that lets them watch the 'cold start' work. Something like various phone apps out there (example image below.

Perhaps you could use a phone app as well and reboot your phone while you are in your X at one of these problematic locations. See how long the app indicates until your phone locks on to 4+ satellites. Just a thought.

Below from here: (find GPS for other info): Undocumented – TeslaTap
Antenna location in the past:
pFuFC1C.jpg


uSvLzPT.jpg
 
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"almost all" does seem like a lot but you may want to clarify if there are 1 or often 2+ floors above you at these?
Parking in the center area or on the outside edges typically?
Do you park in a garage at home? If so does it every happen there?

15 minutes is a long time. Mine are often 5 minutes it seems but I've never timed it (it did happen today).

I'd consider getting it checked out if it was my X. Perhaps there is a loose wire or a weak antenna in some way making it 'cold start' longer. [I had a cell antenna in my X not be plugged in properly after the MCU2 upgrade. It worked near the tower but faded dramatically as I drove.]

Perhaps they have a service mode that lets them watch the 'cold start' work. Something like various phone apps out there (example image below.

Perhaps you could use a phone app as well and reboot your phone while you are in your X at one of these problematic locations. See how long the app indicates until your phone locks on to 4+ satellites. Just a thought.

Below from here: (find GPS for other info): Undocumented – TeslaTap
Antenna location in the past:
pFuFC1C.jpg


uSvLzPT.jpg
Thanks very much @scottf200 for your kind help and detailed info (and also for the link: How GPS Receivers Work - Trilateration vs Triangulation - GIS Geography)

I did not check how many floors for all the parking garages that I have parked recently when the problem occurred but yesterday I checked, there was only 1 floor above and I parked mostly in the "center" area.

Interesting point about the phone app test; in my attachment shown in my original post, my phone (depicted by the blue dot) immediately "moved as I left the parking garage(s) but the car location (depicted by the red arrow) stayed in the same garage location. Throughout the day, while I parked outside (and including at home), no "cold start/lag" per se

I am guessing (as you kindly pointed out) it could be a weak antenna, loose antenna, defective antenna or GPS module as the potential culprits.

I will get it checked out, thanks much!!
 
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Hey @BonB,

Not sure if it helps, but I had a similar (but not quite the same) situation with my wife's Raven Model X.
I wrote about the issue here...

Long story short, we took our Model X to our local Service Center back in August 2021, and they had it for a little over 10 days. They weren't able to determine the cause of the issue and added that everything was working as expected. They highlighted that they even escalated the situation with the engineering team in order to fully diagnose the vehicle, but they weren't able to determine the cause or even replicate the issue either. As with all things Tesla, they took the easy road and told us that "probably" a future software update would fix the issue.

So we took our Model X back home and with the GPS issue still present, I performed the following actions which ended up fixing the issue for us:
  1. I performed a Factory Reset (which as you know erases all data).
  2. Once the MCU came back, I lowered the driver's side window and opened the passenger door. I then opened the frunk and unplugged the fireman's loop and unplugged the 12v battery's negative terminal.
  3. I left the vehicle unplugged and alone for 25 minutes in order for all the capacitors to drain fully.
  4. I then reconnected the 12v battery's negative terminal and reconnected the fireman's loop.
  5. As soon as everything came back online, I did another Factory Reset.
Something or the combination of everything ended up fixing our issue.
As of today, everything is still working perfectly, even after several firmware updates and while still parking 2 levels down in an underground parking at our apartment complex and at work.
 
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Hey @BonB,

Not sure if it helps, but I had a similar (but not quite the same) situation with my wife's Raven Model X.
I wrote about the issue here...

Long story short, we took our Model X to our local Service Center back in August 2021, and they had it for a little over 10 days. They weren't able to determine the cause of the issue and added that everything was working as expected. They highlighted that they even escalated the situation with the engineering team in order to fully diagnose the vehicle, but they weren't able to determine the cause or even replicate the issue either. As with all things Tesla, they took the easy road and told us that "probably" a future software update would fix the issue.

So we took our Model X back home and with the GPS issue still present, I performed the following actions which ended up fixing the issue for us:
  1. I performed a Factory Reset (which as you know erases all data).
  2. Once the MCU came back, I lowered the driver's side window and opened the passenger door. I then opened the frunk and unplugged the fireman's loop and unplugged the 12v battery's negative terminal.
  3. I left the vehicle unplugged and alone for 25 minutes in order for all the capacitors to drain fully.
  4. I then reconnected the 12v battery's negative terminal and reconnected the fireman's loop.
  5. As soon as everything came back online, I did another Factory Reset.
Something or the combination of everything ended up fixing our issue.
As of today, everything is still working perfectly, even after several firmware updates and while still parking 2 levels down in an underground parking at our apartment complex and at work.
Hi @Art VandeIay thanks very much for your kind and detailed sharing. It seems that, as you kindly shared, any/combination of the resets and 12V battery disconnection helped to completely fix your wife’s Raven Model X GPS issue.

I am not very car-savvy when it comes to disconnecting the 12V battery but will look into this.

After the 15-20 min of “lag”, my GPS always came back online for the rest of the day as long as I did not park underground/inside parking garage..quite strange indeed.

Thanks much again!
 
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I would say about 20 minutes, it kept saying you are not on a know road, from there it showed my position at a gate at LAX

Going from “boat mode” to “jet aircraft” modeView attachment 827871
hmm..thanks for sharing; interesting indeed...how yours jumped from boat mode to the aircraft mode; somewhat similar issue but not identical..my GPS location would not "move" from the garage and suddenly within 15-20 minutes of driving, it will automatically re-triangulate/re-sync to the correct location.

once it auto-corrected, did it stay OK for the rest of your driving or will it suddenly/intermittently went haywire again randomly?

Did you get Tesla service check it?