My CarPlay Chronicles - Dealing with the sticky Wi-Fi on iOS

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Hi everyone,

Note: This only works with wired CarPlay. If you have Wireless CarPlay, this tip may not work for you.

I often drive for work so I’ve spent some time configuring CarPlay like I want it to. Initially I was writing one big post but it had too many topics at the same time, so I decided to split in smaller ones.

In today’s topic I’m fixing one very specific problem which I call the Sticky Wi-Fi.

I have one parking spot in front of the house within the range of our home Wi-Fi when I’m sitting in the car and fire up Waze. Due to the roads around my house, Waze thinks every time that I can take a right from my house and shows me a route accordingly, but I can’t - I have to take three lefts around my block instead.

Now here’s the issue: By the time Waze realises that I’m not going its way, it tries to reroute, and iOS still promises that it has Wi-Fi, yet doesn’t, and Waze fails. Either Waze reroutes offline or it shows an error and I have to deal with it, and neither options are suitable for me.

Here’s my solution to that: add an automation for CarPlay to let go of Wi-Fi early and rely solely on Cellular when in the car.

Shortcuts > Automations > + > Create Personal Automation > When CarPlay Connects

  1. Enable Cellular (in case it wasn’t already)
  2. Disable Wi-Fi

I don’t have unlimited data on the phone, so I want the Wi-Fi to be available again once I leave the car, so the opposite automation is also necessary.

Shortcuts > Automations > + > Create Personal Automation > When CarPlay Disconnects

  1. Enable Wi-Fi

Now I have an uninterrupted network as long as I’m driving!

I’ll post more CarPlay findings in separate posts, stay tuned.

Drive safe everyone :wave:

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Hi @sebastienkb. Thanks for this post, it has taken me back to working on a very similar automation, but without CarPlay. My car is pre-CarPlay.:disappointed:

I use a successful Bluetooth connection to my vehicle as the trigger to shut off my Wi-Fi, same reason. Works well, except it will not run withiut me hitting the ‘Run’ button, sort of defeats the purpose. I then use shut off ‘Driving’ focus to reactivate Wi-Fi, this works OK, not super relaibly though.

Am I going about this all wrong, for a pre-CarPlay solution?

Thoughts, ideas, questions welcomed.

Cheers,
Mark

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Hi @mark.eaton

I believe I heard Rosemary say that Focus-Mode-based automations work where that trigger-specific still ask confirmation.

I have not tested this but you could try the following:

  • Automation when Bluetooth is “Your Car”: set focus mode to Driving
  • Automation when Driving focus mode is enabled: Disable Wi-Fi & enable Cellular
  • Automation when Driving focus mode is disabled: Enable Wi-Fi

I also heard that the next iOS version (15.4) will also allow to disable asking for confirmation altogether. The future is bright!

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Thanks so much for writing this up, its going to help me with a similar problem!

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