I grew up in an area where car crime was rife. I even had my own car stolen once. Friends with nice cars would purchase GPS trackers so that if their car was stolen they would hopefully be able to find it. Assuming the thief hadn’t removed the tracker that is.
I wasn’t sure how today’s car trackers worked. The technology has probably moved on a bit so I started doing some light reading.
Essentially they make use of GPS to track their current location, utilising storage to record their location against time. Some devices can store additional information such as engine start and stop times, speed, electronics operation such as lights, windows, radio, etc. This data can then be accessed when a car returns to base or by being transmitted via a communication method such as via a wireless network when near a specific base station or other cellular communications. The devices may be self-powered via a battery or hook into the vehicle’s electrics in order to receive power from the car battery. Some may use their own battery when the car is turned off and charge from the car battery when the car is operational.
The vehicle owner can access the data from the tracker in near real time via a web site or app. Depending on the device and features offered it can report nothing more than current location to location, speed, and car telematics.
Vehicle tracking is popular among vehicle rental companies, fleet management, and security vehicle companies such as those offering to transport money, valuables or people.
Trackers that feature GPS and recording only are referred to as passive devices. They need to be accessed physically in order to access the recorded data. Active devices can transmit data using cellular or satellite communications and do not require physical access.
Commercial trackers come in various shapes and sizes and range from cheap passive models that connect to the car battery, to those that try to disguise themselves as part of the car and utilise active technology to broadcast their position and other data in near real time or whenever they have a strong enough signal. They tend to be waterproof and dust proof, may be made of a heat-proof material, especially if residing in the engine compartment, and may have no discernable markings to identify themselves as a tracking device.
Other types of tracker may also be used such as an asset tracker. These can be in the form of adhesive stickers that can be stuck to a car’s windshield, or tiles that can be left in the glove box or other storage area of the vehicle. These are relatively cheap and are harder for a potential thief to locate.