A Solar Superstorm Caused a GPS Glitch Bad Enough to Crash Self-Driving Cars

On November 11, 2025, the Sun unleashed a series of solar flares that struck Earth, triggering a severe geomagnetic storm that peaked for around six hours. The event triggered beautiful auroras across the skies, but it also wreaked havoc on crucial technology we rely on for our daily lives.

In a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a team of scientists measured the disruption to global navigation systems caused by the geomagnetic storm. The results revealed significant positioning errors, large enough to mess with precision agriculture and autonomous vehicles across the U.S.

During a solar storm, the Sun blasts Earth with bursts of radiation and charged particles that overload and distort the planet’s upper atmosphere, called the ionosphere. This slows and bends GPS radio signals passing through this layer.