Live tracking bug
Iv discovered a bit of a bug in the live tracking feature. Both my wife and myself have Karoo 3's, and the same issue happens with both. When we start a ride from home the Karoo is connected to the home Wi-Fi. We receive an email saying that a ride has been started, but when you hit the link a few minutes after the person has left it just says that the ride is paused. We have discovered that if you restart the Bluetooth & dashboard app (turn off and on again) on your phone, the Karoo connect via Bluetooth, and service is restored. Something to look into Aishwarya and the team? Might just need something added to the code, to make it swap to Bluetooth when WiFi is lost. Regards Fraser
-
Hi Fraser,
Thank you for contacting us and for sharing your experience and feedback.
I would like to clarify that the Karoo live tracking functionality operates as designed. It uses the internet connection provided via Bluetooth through the Companion App. For this to work, your Karoo must be paired with your phone via the Companion App, and your phone must have a stable internet connection.
Regarding the initial issue you faced, the Karoo is not always required to be connected to Wi-Fi; it must be paired and connected with the phone to maintain a stable link, as Live Tracking on the Karoo functions through the Companion App.
We suggested and designed this functionality like this because you will have wifi when you are inside your home, i.e., indoors, and not when you are outside. -
Both myself and my wife have our Karoo's connected to our phones (Bluetooth) via the companion app, as well as to the home wifi. If we start a ride when still within the range of the home wifi, then ride away so as to be outside of the wifi range, the tracking does not continue as it's lost the wifi connection, despite it being connected via Bluetooth to the companion app with the phone (which has a stable internet connection).
How do we best resolve this issue?
As I previously said, restarting the phones Bluetooth seems to reestablish the connection with the Karoo and then the tracking works. It's less than ideal having a safety feature like this needing constant management, in order for it to work.
-
I believe I am facing the same issue as Fraser, and I do not believe your tools operate correctly.
I have a Karoo 2. I have an Android phone. I have home WiFi. All these have been the same for years. My Karoo 2 is connected to home WiFi. My phone has the latest Companion App. My Karoo 2 to shows a connection to my phone. My Companion App shows a connection to my Karoo 2. My Karoo 2 shows live tracking on, with a QR code. My Companion App has live tracking on. There's a tracking link I can share. I have auto-share on, with my wife's email as well as my own entered. When I start a ride on the Karoo 2, I get a notification on the Karoo 2 that I have a new email with the tracking link. I can open that email, and see my dot at my house as green and labeled Active. But as soon as I get outside WiFi range, I see it orange and labeled Paused. I can open the tracking link on my phone during the ride, so clearly my phone has a cell connection. But I don't believe it's sending my live location via that cell link, because I don't show up as Active. As soon as I return home and get into home WiFi range, my entire ride shows up on the live link - but the intent of the feature is for someone (my wife in my case) to know where I am while I am riding, not to see my ride when I am back home.
This used to work. It doesn't anymore. I am a software architect myself, and my assessment is that the Karoo 2 is not properly using the Companion App and the phone's cell connection to send location data but instead it tries to use the home WiFi - that's why it works at the start, and syncs back up at the end.
I was getting worried that a functioning Live Tracking feature had been removed from Karoo 2 to encourage updates to Karoo, but seeing Fraser have the same problem on the newest hardware makes it clear that that's not the case.
If there is something I am doing wrong, I'd appreciate knowing what it is. I know I can buy an external SIM card - but that's silly, since I carry a phone with a proper connection. Using my phone is the way to go.
Lars Andersen
-
Thank you to Fraser and Jan for the workaround. I hadn't discovered that, but I will try it. The fact that it works for you both is essentially proof that you have a linked Companion app and a functioning cell link - otherwise it wouldn't work, per their stated design. So somewhere in this space of connections (WiFi/Bluetooth/cell, and Karoo/Companion) there's a problem. As a software architect, I get that there's a lot of combinations/cases here, and that it's certainly possible that it works for many, including when you do your testing. But I assert that there's a problem, and it needs to get tracked down, so I ask that you don't close this ticket with "operates as designed" and instead get a developer involved.
Lars
-
Yea maybe it could be as simple as a piece of code that says to only use the paired phone connection (BT) to start ride tracking?
I cant see a scenario where someone would want track a ride using a WIFI connection, so seems like a simple solution is to disallow that option for the firmware. That would prevent this issue from happening and make the system far more robust.
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
8 comments