A Mysterious Force Is Disabling Apple CarPlay in Boston

      Getty Images (edited by the author)

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      Unusual situations are occurring in Boston, and this time, the disorder isn't linked to extensive government transit projects or the city's street layout. Navigating Boston can be challenging on a good day, but those who depend on Apple CarPlay (or Android Auto, it seems) are facing even greater difficulties due to a series of mysterious dead zones that have left local drivers baffled, as reported by Axios Boston.

      What these users are experiencing isn't the typical urban signal loss usually caused by tall buildings or dense metallic barriers that can function like a large Faraday cage. Instead, users are finding that the local WiFi connection used to pair their phones with their vehicles is failing, disconnecting them from their cars while their actual cellular service remains unaffected.

      Axios compiled a map based on crowdsourced reports from local drivers, identifying four main dead zones. Two of these are located on Soldiers Field Road near the Harvard campus (one just south of the Eliot Bridge and another just to the east). A third zone affects drivers at the intersection of Brookline and Riverway close to Fenway Park, and the fourth is situated near the Hatch Shell on Storrow Drive.

      Boston is familiar with curses, yet the issues troubling these smartphone users likely stem from human causes, according to a few experts who have taken note. Other devices working within the same wireless frequency can cause disruptions, and with sufficient interference, even devices positioned just inches apart may lose their connection. Some social media users pointed to the antenna array of TV station WBZ located near the intersection of Soldiers Field and Everett, while others speculated that a 2.4Ghz point-to-point microwave communication system used by one of the nearby universities might lead to similar issues.

      This phenomenon isn't exclusive to Boston. I encountered the same problem in a rural town in North Carolina. A seemingly benign block of surface street disrupted the Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connections in various current GM vehicles, leaving both myself and several other journalists equally confused—and we didn’t have M.I.T. technicians nearby to blame.

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