🌏 GPS Accuracy and Route Quality
Understand how AutoDrive handles GPS accuracy and smooths your recorded routes.
GPS signals can vary in precision depending on your environment. AutoDrive applies a 50-meter accuracy threshold, meaning any GPS reading with an estimated error greater than 50 meters is discarded. This prevents wildly inaccurate points from distorting your route.
Several factors affect GPS accuracy:
- Tall buildings — signals bounce off surfaces, causing multipath errors
- Tunnels and parking garages — GPS signals cannot penetrate solid structures
- Heavy cloud cover or storms — atmospheric conditions can degrade signal quality
After a drive is recorded, AutoDrive uses the Douglas-Peucker algorithm to simplify the route. This removes points that fall along a straight line, reducing data size while keeping the shape of your actual path. The result is a clean, lightweight route that loads quickly on the map.
If GPS coverage drops out mid-drive — typically a tunnel, parking deck, or signal handoff — the recorded path will show a dashed gray line bridging the gap, instead of a solid line implying we tracked through it. AutoDrive’s goal is to record the exact route you took, so a dashed segment is an honest "we lost coverage here" rather than a guess at where the road went. Solid segments before and after a dashed gap are still your real recorded path.
If you notice a route that looks jagged or has unexpected detours, it is usually caused by one of the environmental factors above. Starting your drive in an open area with a clear view of the sky gives the best results.