Navigation -- Car's location not accurate

[jeff_h]

Trying to see if there's a pattern here... looking higher in the thread my car became a world traveler on Aug 13th, then again on Sep 27th, and now again this morning.  Seems to happen once every 6 weeks or so, maybe the site that MFM calls for display of the navigation location undergoes an update around that time -- but then again why would my car be the only one affected?

 

 

[Russael]

I'm telling you, your car is suggesting vacation places for you.  It thinks you're working too hard.  :jump_earth:

[murphy]

Can you get the latitude and longitude read out from the car's GPS when this happens?  They are in one of the diagnostic menus in the center screen.  Press and hold Eject and Fast-Forward at the same time until the menu pops up.

Edited November 4, 2014 at 01:34 PM by murphy

[Hybridbear]

Our Energi did the same thing last night. But our car thought we were just about 20 miles west of home in the middle of a lake.

[jeff_h]

Can you get the latitude and longitude read out from the car's GPS when this happens?  They are in one of the diagnostic menus in the center screen.  Press and hold Eject and Fast-Forward at the same time until the menu pops up.

 

OK I'll give that a try next time it happens... when I see that, I'm at the office checking the charge level, and the car is a mile down the road at the Chargepoint charging spot (despite what the map is telling me), I'll have to remember to check it when I get back to the car rather than just jumping in and going.

Edited November 4, 2014 at 04:44 PM by jeff_h

[Hybridbear]

Can you get the latitude and longitude read out from the car's GPS when this happens?  They are in one of the diagnostic menus in the center screen.  Press and hold Eject and Fast-Forward at the same time until the menu pops up.

I usually haven't noticed ever until after the fact when I'm looking at the "trip & charge log". Last night when I adjusted the Go Time for this morning the car said "The Snow Queen is at home plugged in, waiting to charge". At some point during the night it changed locations.

[stevedebi]

Our Energi did the same thing last night. But our car thought we were just about 20 miles west of home in the middle of a lake.

Oh dear, all that water is really bad for the electrical system... ;)

[jeff_h]

Oh dear, all that water is really bad for the electrical system... ;)

 

I thought it would be too, but the system is pretty resilient as it keeps charging, no matter what part of the seven seas she roams.... OK 2 days later is again reporting another adventure, am going to follow murphy's note above and try the following (have not tried this yet, crossing fingers):

 

1 - Go to car and press power on audio system, should power up without car being turned on

2 - Press and hold Eject and Fast-Forward at the same time until the menu pops up.

3 - Get the latitude and longitude read out from the car's GPS

 

Edited November 6, 2014 at 01:27 PM by jeff_h

[jeff_h]

OK I did the steps above and may have found something interesting, unless it is a routine thing that all cars do? See several pics below:

1 - Without turning car on, hit power button for radio and it came on.  Held eject button and fast-fwd button together, diagnostic menu came up about 1 second later.  Went to FCIM menu, then saw option for GPS and selected that.  Screen came up (timestamp 14:21:37) and had same lat/long as '1016' well that's not right...

 

2 - Sat there looking at the various values and taking a couple more cellphone pics to try and avoid the blurry ones, and DOINK the lat/long updated (timestamp 14:22:05) to the proper coordinates.

 

3 - Then DOINK there it goes again (timestamp 14:22:07) and lat/long again shows invalid value.

 

4 - Sat there trying to get the best cell pic, and there is goes changing again (timestamp 14:23:09).

 

5 - Watched it change again (timestamp 14:23:39) and figured I had enough pics of the behavior, backed out of the menus and exited diagnostics (never touched any settings whatsoever while the screens were changing, was trying to take more pics).

 

So - I am going to check this behavior on my wife's Energi to see if it goes back and forth, and then also check it again on my car when the location noted on MFM is showing correctly, to see if it is still going back and forth with the reported lat/long or if it remains steady at the proper location.  So any feedback from others on the behavior of what their car does is appreciated, thanks.

Edited November 6, 2014 at 03:19 PM by jeff_h

[larryh]

HDOP and VDOP are huge. Is the car in a garage? GPS needs an unobstructed line of sight to the GPS satellites.

[Hybridbear]

HDOP and VDOP are huge. Is the car in a garage? GPS needs an unobstructed line of sight to the GPS satellites.

What are HDOP & VDOP? Our car is always parked in a garage when it does this, the same is true with my parents' Energi. All our cars are always parked in a garage when charging at home.

[larryh]

HDOP and VDOP are the horizontal and vertical dilution of precision, i.e. the position error. Anything over 20 is considered bad, position is off by 1000 or more feet. A typical garage at home should not cause that much err. However, an underground garage could.

Edited November 6, 2014 at 06:14 PM by larryh

[murphy]

I just checked my Energi and it is oscillating between those bogus numbers and actual readings.  I have 8 satellites in view.  When the readings come back the speed indicates 255 before it changes to 0.  Speed is probably stored in an 8 bit unsigned variable.

[stevedebi]

I just checked my Energi and it is oscillating between those bogus numbers and actual readings.  I have 8 satellites in view.  When the readings come back the speed indicates 255 before it changes to 0.  Speed is probably stored in an 8 bit unsigned variable.

You indicate 8 satellites in view, but each of those screens says zero satellites...

[murphy]

You indicate 8 satellites in view, but each of those screens says zero satellites...

I didn't post any photos.  The photos were posted by jeff_h.

Edited November 6, 2014 at 09:55 PM by murphy

[stevedebi]

I didn't post any photos.  The photos were posted by jeff_h.

Ah, my mistake. But those photos do pose a question - how did he get any location without satellites?

[jeff_h]

I just checked my Energi and it is oscillating between those bogus numbers and actual readings.  I have 8 satellites in view.  When the readings come back the speed indicates 255 before it changes to 0.  Speed is probably stored in an 8 bit unsigned variable.

 

Thanks for the feedback, now I feel better... but still don't know why MFM shows the car out in the ocean when it does - have posted a PM to FordIVTTeam to see what they say.

 

Good call on larry's part, yes the car is obstructed as it' was parked at a Chargepoint station that is on the second level of a parking garage, see below.

[jeff_h]

As noted above, murphy confirmed that his car did the same behavior of switching values back and forth, but I think something still may be incorrect with mine.

 

I went to google earth and checked the value that was being reported, and yes that is the same ocean location that MFM was reporting.

 

[Hybridbear]

Here's what my car showed while parked at Trader Joe's last night. No switching back and forth for me. All the values stayed constant.

[stevedebi]

As noted above, murphy confirmed that his car did the same behavior of switching values back and forth, but I think something still may be incorrect with mine.

 

I went to google earth and checked the value that was being reported, and yes that is the same ocean location that MFM was reporting.

 

 

Maybe it is an inside joke - that is very near the location of the RMS Titanic sinking.

[Hybridbear]

I haven't checked the Fusion while parked underground at our apartment but the Focus showed 7 satellites and the DOP numbers were all quite low.

[jeff_h]

I haven't checked the Fusion while parked underground at our apartment but the Focus showed 7 satellites and the DOP numbers were all quite low.

 

Well as I was doing my walk this morning back to the Chargepoint station to get the car, I was trying to think of times when the MFM location was inaccurate and my car was parked in places other than that Chargepoint station -- I think it may only occur when parked there, not 100% sure but 90% sure.  Only once has it reported a false location on the screen while I was driving, all of the other times were related to location reported by MFM and I think all when I'm at the office and the car is down the road charging.

 

I already noted in the other pic that the charging is in the parking deck, level 2 of 4... and I also realized during this morning's walk that maybe the below item that is located 1/4 mile from the parking deck is causing some interference, who knows?  

[FordIVTteam]

... have posted a PM to FordIVTTeam to see what they say.

...

Thanks jeff_h, 

 

I've responded to your message. :)

 

Kim

[HotLap]

Kim (Ford) thanks for the assistance, I too have been having NAV issues the last couple of times I've used mine. The map and vehicle location is correct, but the driving directions are NUTS!  Good thing I knew about where I was going, it was a 140 mile trip (each way) and from mile 1 my Nav was telling me to take non-existent streets/turns, uturns, etc.  Only when I was within several miles of my actual destination did it correctly guide me...the first time it did it I though perhaps a setting must have changed and was on "don't use freeways/highways/common sense route) or something similar, but yesterday was just nutty stuff, it was even interrupting itself, had to smile at that one...

[FordIVTteam]

Kim (Ford) thanks for the assistance, I too have been having NAV issues the last couple of times I've used mine. The map and vehicle location is correct, but the driving directions are NUTS!  Good thing I knew about where I was going, it was a 140 mile trip (each way) and from mile 1 my Nav was telling me to take non-existent streets/turns, uturns, etc.  Only when I was within several miles of my actual destination did it correctly guide me...the first time it did it I though perhaps a setting must have changed and was on "don't use freeways/highways/common sense route) or something similar, but yesterday was just nutty stuff, it was even interrupting itself, had to smile at that one...

 

Hi HotLap, 

 

Which navigation SD card is currently in your vehicle? The SD card is spring loaded, so you can just press it to make the card pop out of the slot. Let me know which version you have. 

 

When the navigation system was showing you the incorrect routes, did the screen seem to be freezing at all? If so, a master reset should be performed by following these instructions: http://support.ford.com/sync-technology/perform-master-reset-sync-myford-touch

 

Kim