It might be worth holding off on updating your iPhone to iOS 16, at least for now, as users are reporting a serious bug in Google Maps when using Apple CarPlay.
Although the timing could be coincidental, iPhone users have reported on Reddit about the bug appearing since upgrading to Apple’s latest version of iOS. The bug appears to be affecting the GPS location of an iPhone running Google Maps.
Specifically, the problem occurs when Google Maps is running on CarPlay, Apple’s iPhone-powered car infotainment system.
The bug isn’t affecting everyone – we haven’t seen any issues with iPhone 14 Pro running iOS 16 – but some users have described their Google Maps app as going “haywire”. One user said on Reddit: “The directions go haywire and don’t show me on the road and to turn somewhere completely incorrect.”
One user said how Google Maps on CarPlay has been “extremely buggy” since iOS 16 arrived, with another saying: “The map shoots to the middle of the ocean”.
Yet another said: “My Google Maps, while open, will cause everything else to be laggy and unresponsive. For example hitting ‘skip’ on audio will skip to the next track immediately but the next song will not show for 5-15 seconds. Tapping anything gives a massive delay of the same amount. Only happens while Google Maps is running. Apple Maps doesn’t do the same.”
The issue has also been experienced and reported by AutoEvolution, which adds that a workaround doesn’t seem to exist just yet. Other users claim force-closing Google Maps on the iPhone (while parked, of course) fixes the issue, but only temporarily.
For now, if your iPhone is showing the same issue it could be worth switching to an alternative navigation app, like Waze or Apple Maps.
