i do have it running in the background (always have), and i haven't noticed any location issues lately. just came back from a long road trip and used waze the entire way with no issues.
is there a certain setting for blocking location other than the regular location permission?
The app updated in the past few days and when Android updates an app, it kills it to do the update, but doesn't restart it. That's one possible contributor if it was a one-time problem.
For location issues, for example I had Waze running and it just couldn't figure out where I was, getting confused around in a 500m area or so.
If your phone updated to Android 10:
Settings -> Apps and Notifications -> Get to the Tesla App (Might need to do the "See all ### apps" link)
Tap on "Permissions"
Tap on "Location"
Select "Allow all the time"
If it was set to "Allow only while using the app", it would be sad. It can get that way if a change was made in response to notification alerts from Android about the app getting your location in the background. The alert makes it very easy to accidentally block that for any app.