# How precise can phone GPS tech be right now?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-precise-can-phone-gps-tech-be-right-now/824702>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 17, 2018, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-precise-can-phone-gps-tech-be-right-now/824702 "2018-11-17T20:48:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 41

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2018, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-precise-can-phone-gps-tech-be-right-now/824702/41 "2018-11-23T22:19:03Z")

</div>

> [@rat\_avatar](#):
>
> It uses all three, Cell Tower triangulation, wifi naming maps and GPS.
> 
> In an urban area the error in your location is about:
> 
> Cell towers: ~1000+ feet  
> WiFI: ~100+ feet  
> GPS: ~10+ feet
> 
> So obviously waze will typically use the GPS signals when at all possible

Aren’t the first two kind of dependent on how many cell towers or wifi hotspots you’re within range of? I mean, they’re both basically identifying transmitters of known range, deriving a range based on signal strength, and overlapping those range circles and seeing where they all overlap. Seems to me that to a certain extent, more is better.

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-precise-can-phone-gps-tech-be-right-now/824702)._