"CarPlay death zone" confuses drivers in Boston
Drivers are reporting that there are areas in Boston where iPhone vehicle support is failing. Android Auto is probably also affected.
CarPlay in the car.
(Image: Hadrian / Shutterstock.com)
In the US metropolis of Boston in the state of Massachusetts, there are said to be areas in which Apple's CarPlay, the vehicle integration for the iPhone, reproducibly fails. There have been reports of this since last spring. The “CarPlay Dead Zones” exist in at least four urban areas. Apparently, not only Apple technology is affected, but also the Google counterpart, Android Auto. It is “extremely frustrating” for users, according to the local media Axios Boston in April—“especially when it happens every day—in the same place.”
GPS gone, CarPlay gone, CarPlay reset
At least one off-ramp near the Harvard University athletics area, a bridge, an area at Soldier's Field, and another spot on a nearby road are impacted. The problems range from GPS navigation no longer working to a complete crash of CarPlay or at least a failure of its display. It does not appear to be the cable connection via USB that is impacted, but rather Wireless CarPlay, which uses WLAN radio frequencies (around 2.4 GHz).
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On Reddit, one affected person says that his CarPlay system shuts down completely and resets itself when he drives past a certain location in Boston. “It only happens here, every time, guaranteed.” There are also reports on Reddit that Android Auto also has “cutouts” at certain locations—particularly at the Fenway station. “My wife thought I was crazy, but then I told her to just watch it.” Then it happened at that spot too, according to another Reddit user.
Antennas near and microwave connections
The search for the reasons for the issue revealed that microwave transmitters, which are used for internet connections and appear to belong to Harvard University, may be causing the interference. These also operate partly in the 2.4 GHz range, the free WLAN main frequency that Bluetooth also uses. In addition, there is another antenna system from a radio station (WBZ), which is likely to be transmitting in other ranges.
Those affected should try to use the USB variant instead of wireless connections with CarPlay or Android Auto. This is standard anyway. For a long time, only very few models had wireless CarPlay on board. A cable also has the advantage that the iPhone is supplied with power when using CarPlay.
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