Vehicle GPS issues

Reasons for incorrect vehicle location reasons, customers unable to end their rides and missing GPS location in your dashboard

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Written by Liene Brokane
Updated over a week ago

Before diving into the solution of why GPS is not always working as expected, it is important to understand how the system works. GPS is built in the IoT and once you insert the card for mobile data, the system can receive information from the IoT. The information that the device is sending is the location of the vehicle and the commands are sent from the system.

GPS broadcasts signals in space with a certain accuracy, but what you receive depends on additional factors, including satellite geometry, signal blockage, atmospheric conditions, and receiver design features/quality.

The ride trajectory looks unrealistic / no GPS location seen in your dashboard

When you check the ride trajectory or the ride history on a specific vehicle, you might sometimes see the trajectory "jumping" around which seems to be illogical or impossible. This can happen even to a vehicle that hasn't moved during some time and is caused by GPS signal disruptions.

The IoT also may be sending a signal, but without any GPS coordinates, so make sure to also check the IMEI number of the IoT device in the IoT data log section of your dashboard under More -> Settings -> IoT data log - you will be able to see when the last GPS coordinates were sent and check if the location listed there is correct or not.

If the GPS information received is incorrect or missing, it can cause issues for your customers to end their rides, as they appear to not be in the designated parking zone or if the IoT connection between the vehicle and ATOM system is missing.


Reasons for described cases

  1. Bad mobile internet connection;

  2. The vehicle is in an underground parking lot or an area with no direct connection to satellites, for example, area enclosed by tall buildings;

  3. GPS location is not precise and the customer is shown in a no parking or a no-go zone as a result;

  4. IoT device information incorrectly synchronized with the ATOM system and your dashboard.

Possible solutions

  1. Contact your mobile network provider in order to check if there are no issues from their side with the connection and that they have enabled/activated your SIM cards for you;

  2. Move the vehicle to a better location where there are more possibilities for the IoT device to successfully connect to a satellite;

  3. The customer can try moving the scooter to trigger sending of the GPS info and to have a better chance to connect to a satellite. If this doesn't work, they should ask you to end the trip manually from the dashboard for them;

  4. Please make sure you have connected the IoT devices and vehicles correctly to the dashboard, the IP and PORT configured in the device is correct and the hardware connections (IoT -> vehicle) are in order.


In case the above suggestions didn't help fix your problem, the best would be to reach out to your IoT provider as there might be an issue on the hardware side.

If your hardware provider checks and confirms everything is in order on their end or if they require ATOM to help further, please contact our support team at help@atommobility.com.

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