NHTSA Complaint #11587735 — 2023 SUBARU FORESTER

Our car’s Android Auto navigation system is failing. This is not just a navigation failure. When we drive, especially at night, and our navigation system fails, it becomes a security and safety hazard. The problem: 1. After connecting a phone, TCL A30 Android 11, via the USB cable to the car navigation system and entering an address, frequently, the system gets frozen. After a few tries at physically connecting and disconnecting the cable, we were able to get the system going. 2. While driving, the navigation system frequently fails. Occasionally, it points in the wrong direction, freezes, or shows that the navigation position is lagging by miles from our actual position. Disconnecting and reconnecting the USB cable tends to resolve the problem. When we use the Subaru navigation system and, at the same time, concurrently employ a second phone navigation system, that standalone phone navigation system does not experience the failures we are seeing with the Subaru navigation system. 2. Frequently, we get a message about a lost GPS signal. This is an erroneous message. We know that because a second phone, not connected to the car navigation system, does not give GPS error messages at the time the car navigation system announces GPS errors. We did the following tests to verify that the navigation failures we observed were not phone or USB cable issues. We tested the car navigation system with two different phones and observed the same failures with both phones. We tested the system with two USB cables, and the failures persisted. We tested the USB cables for data transfers by downloading files from the phones to a computer. The file transfers from the phone to the computer were quick and accurate. It appears that the communication protocol that links the phone with the car’s navigation system is broken. We communicated our concerns to Subaru customer support. To the present time, we have received no response from Subaru.