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I have used LoJack on my car for about 15 years now. One benefit of LoJack is that there is no recurring fee (other than battery check / replacement), and it is supported by most law enforcement agencies.

The disadvantage of LoJack for something like $400 vs a DIY thing for $200ish (all told after you pay for EVERYTHING related to it) is that you can't play with it and do your own location of your scooter when it isn't really stolen.

If you value the play factor, you might consider getting one of the GPS kid tracking cell phones, but monthly fees will get you up to over $400 before you finish 4 years of school, even for the cheapest of cell phones.

If you want to go full nerd on it, you can get a HAM foxhunt type solution with or without GPS. If you're honest about what you spend on such a setup, you'll be far above the cost of a LoJack which is essentially the fox transmitter, with the local Police picking up the tab on the hound locator/receiver for you.

Apart from the questionable legality, there's the expense (that'd take a cell connection with a monthly charge, or a big ol' broadcast tower)

I'd imagine that insurance companies pay for a chunk of it. Some major auto insurance companies already give a discount to the owner of a car equipped with a LoJack device.

Actually a lot of stolen cars are on the streets at any given time. Car theft is a much larger problem then you think. 1.2 million cars are stolen each year... http://lojack.com/stolen-car-list.html

I also like the idea of equipping cars with wireless stuff like this. The owner reports it missing, the car starts reporting its location to the cops and they can nab the perps.

It's already done:
http://www.lojack.com/

We have something like that in the US as well, it's called LoJack.

Except for that fact that Lojack doesn't work in all parts of the us.
http://www.lojack.com/where/lojack-coverage-areas. cfm

if it can't get a signal it can't send. since it rides traditional communications services.
http://www.lojack.com/lojack-faqs/index.cfm

They can remove the transponders rather quickly if they are experienced car thieves.

I had a 2004 Dodge Ram that was stolen for the gear in the bed of the truck since it was a capped truck with a security system it was easier for them to take the whole truck and work on the locks elsewhere. They found the lojack unit and threw it in a dumpster 3 cities over, police found that 3 hours after I reported the truck missing. They found my truck in a Southern State 6 weeks later completely stripped. They even took the Navi dvd's and the sirius radio tuner.

Except for that fact that Lojack doesn't work in all parts of the us.
http://www.lojack.com/where/lojack-coverage-areas. cfm

if it can't get a signal it can't send. since it rides traditional communications services.
http://www.lojack.com/lojack-faqs/index.cfm

They can remove the transponders rather quickly if they are experienced car thieves.

I had a 2004 Dodge Ram that was stolen for the gear in the bed of the truck since it was a capped truck with a security system it was easier for them to take the whole truck and work on the locks elsewhere. They found the lojack unit and threw it in a dumpster 3 cities over, police found that 3 hours after I reported the truck missing. They found my truck in a Southern State 6 weeks later completely stripped. They even took the Navi dvd's and the sirius radio tuner.

This is why there is a need for more than one security level. If one anti-theft device fails, there should be a backup - whether it's a simple thing such as "The Club" or a retrieval mechanism like LoJack.

It's amazing that people will invest so much money in a car and won't take any additional steps to protect that investment.

Customer: My computer has just been stolen, could you please disable it?
MS Rep: What is your WGA license number, mother's maiden name, and favorite color?
Customer: THX1138etc...
MS Rep: Thank you. Your computer is now being disabled, tracked, and if not surrendered within 24 hours, it will self destruct (in the interest of security). Have a nice day!

MS Drone: Sir, we've detected another user trying to switch to Linux.
Bill: Disable the process, and then re-assimilate his computer.

P.S. Lojack probably has a patent on this sort of thing so if MS wants to use it for good, they'll be paying.

It's not entrapment, it's like LoJak for movies.

Without the blaring alarm and cops chasing you, that is.

There's a stolen car tracking device called LoJack. It's international, too. Of course, you need to have it installed before the car is stolen.

Instead of requiring RFID in plates, why don't we create a car tracker system that is totally opt-in. The people who want it, pay for it themselves. No government intervention necessary. We could even run a company based on this idea. I propse we name the company Lojack

No, it couldn't be this, it had to be grand theft auto.

Let's not. Instead, let's remember that this is a car we're driving, and not a mobile party room. A car with more kinetic energy than a bullet.

I know this sounds boring and pedestrian, but not everything that has a high 'cool factor' is a good idea to put into practice.

For your alarm idea, we already have LoJack.

So, this is kinda like LoJack, but for people, right?

They have something similar already. If you have LoJack installed and file a police report, the car will tell the police, "I'm stolen. Come get me." There's also an option where they will call your cell phone if the car moves without your keys so you can check on it. (Probably goes off when you are being towed.)
http://www.lojack.com/

Satellite tracker? The popular (lojack, http://www.lojack.com/what/index.cfm, for example) services use land/air-based radio location equipment for tracking. I suspect satellite equipment would be too expensive to maintain for this kind of purpose.

Lojack doesn't use Satellites for tracking, they use ground-based antennas http://www.lojack.com/what/see_how_lojack_works.cf m

As has been stated in other threads, GPS receivers are passive.

You can do similar things with ameteur radio (Brett Neilson's presentation at Defcon covered this -- track him at http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=kc7iib! Brett%20&radar=***)

Why not just pay for Lo-Jack installation? Or what about On Star?

Well, that's one way to look at it. Another way (the way that I, as a nerd-recently-become-father, am inclined to think of it) is that if your kid disappears (against their will) in a department store or at the park you've got at least as good a chance of finding him/her as you would your LoJack-equipped SUV. Of course, you wouldn't want to advertise to the world that you've got a chip implanted in your kid's arm (like this fool), and it would have to be something that wasn't "always on" but rather could be remotely activated in the event of an emergency (again, sort of like LoJack...)

= 9J =

For $420 a year, you're also getting a call to emergency vehicles instantly when your air bag deploys, a Lojack-like tracking system, remote door unlocking when you lock your keys in the car, and more. That seems like a pretty good deal.

It seems to me that if you've bought OnStar with your car, it's not for driving directions. Or at least, not just for driving directions.

After actually READING the article and not reading much into the headline, it looks a lot like lojack - available right here is the USA as well if you want to track your own car to prevent theft and misuse (in the case of corporate vehicles). /. editors are wannabe NYT headline writers...

So what you're saying is it's kinda like a LoJack, but for humans.

Lojack For Humans.

It's called lojack, and due to the expense of the transponder itself, you wouldn't dare use it on anything less than $10K.

One last suggestion: if someone shows up and threatens you, just give him the keys. Your life is worth much more than your car.

One other potentially helpful suggestion: get Lojack. It won't do a thing to keep your car from getting stolen, but it can be a big help in getting it back if it is stolen. Allegedly Lojack is enough of a threat to the kind of professional thief who targets common model cars that they've started leaving the cars to sit for a couple of days before stripping them for parts so that their whole operation won't be caught when the police use it to trace the car.

Another possible application is security... you could have your car auto-upload its position (gathered via a cheap GPS unit) along with a snapshot of the driver (via a hidden X10 camera) to a website every half hour or something, from a hidden cheap P133 in the trunk. This would be invaluble if your car ever got stolen.

Already exists - it's called LoJack, and the police have the tools to track down your car with it. Plus, they cover your insurance deductible if the car is stolen, and it's almost impossible to find on the car - unlike your P133 in the trunk. Combining a Sprint Vision PCS plan, a webcam, and a PC would probably be the wrong tool here.

All Mercedes models with the Tele Aid system (Similar to On*Star) installed have GPS hardware. You have to subscribe to have it activated, though. Once subscribed, you can call Mercedes and ask them to locate your car for you at any time for any reason (where's my wife?). As long as the car is on and visible to GPS, they can give you an approximate location. Location requests remain active for up to 14 days if they don't locate the car immediately. Location isn't really what Tele Aid is for, though.

Instead, Mercedes also promotes the LoJack Locator system. LoJack apparently has a better signal strength and doesn't rely on GPS, but rather on cellular triangulation. Many police departments have cars equipped with LoJack tracking systems as well. There's no subscription fee, just the purchase of the unit itself (around $600) which is covered for the life of the car. The only drawback is that you have to be in a covered area for it to work, so if the thief is smart and can get to the desert before you call the cops, you might be out of luck.

According to LoJack's website, approximately 25% of their recoveries result in an arrest. You also typically get a pretty good break on insurance, so the costs are somewhat offset.

The Mercedes Tele Aid system is designed primarily for driver convenience (Where am I? Where's my car? Can you tell me how to get to the nearest dealer/restaurant/gas station) while LoJack's sole purpose is post-theft vehicle recovery.

I suspect that the DC bait car is using something similar to LoJack - I believe there's an FCC band dedicated to law enforcement recovery type things.

Wow... I sounded like a commercial there, didn't I? I will say that LoJack does provide peace of mind and I was much more willing to spend $600 on it than $240/year for Tele Aid. It takes a darn good product for me to provide a recommendation - but if you've got a high-end or high-theft-risk car, LoJack is definitely worth the money.

All Mercedes models with the Tele Aid system (Similar to On*Star) installed have GPS hardware. You have to subscribe to have it activated, though. Once subscribed, you can call Mercedes and ask them to locate your car for you at any time for any reason (where's my wife?). As long as the car is on and visible to GPS, they can give you an approximate location. Location requests remain active for up to 14 days if they don't locate the car immediately. Location isn't really what Tele Aid is for, though.

Instead, Mercedes also promotes the LoJack Locator system. LoJack apparently has a better signal strength and doesn't rely on GPS, but rather on cellular triangulation. Many police departments have cars equipped with LoJack tracking systems as well. There's no subscription fee, just the purchase of the unit itself (around $600) which is covered for the life of the car. The only drawback is that you have to be in a covered area for it to work, so if the thief is smart and can get to the desert before you call the cops, you might be out of luck.

According to LoJack's website, approximately 25% of their recoveries result in an arrest. You also typically get a pretty good break on insurance, so the costs are somewhat offset.

The Mercedes Tele Aid system is designed primarily for driver convenience (Where am I? Where's my car? Can you tell me how to get to the nearest dealer/restaurant/gas station) while LoJack's sole purpose is post-theft vehicle recovery.

I suspect that the DC bait car is using something similar to LoJack - I believe there's an FCC band dedicated to law enforcement recovery type things.

Wow... I sounded like a commercial there, didn't I? I will say that LoJack does provide peace of mind and I was much more willing to spend $600 on it than $240/year for Tele Aid. It takes a darn good product for me to provide a recommendation - but if you've got a high-end or high-theft-risk car, LoJack is definitely worth the money.

I wonder if this technology would be extended to the private consumer level?

Um, isn't this called Lojack?

And long before that (since about 1990), there wasLoJack.

Even before that, some of my friends who had nicer hot rods than mine had Line-Locks, for which the control was just under the front of the driver's seat. They would set the lock when they left the car in an untrusted place, and if the car was stolen, the first time he hit the brake, it held the pressure.
It was a simple matter to reach down and push the plunger, but if somebody is smart enough to understand that, he'd have a job and buy his own car.

It's not a GPS-based system. It doesn't even use the cell phone network, relying on its own infrastructure. It's based on car units and direction-finding receivers in police cars. Each car unit has a transmitter and receiver, but doesn't normally transmit. The unit constantly listens for a message on an FM broadcast station subcarrier. On receipt of the proper message, the unit starts transmitting the "I'm stolen" signal, which is received by receivers in police cars. The signal doesn't contain any positional information; somebody has to do the direction-finding job the hard way.

Lojack covers major metropolitan areas in about a dozen states. It requires cooperation from the local cops, so it takes a major marketing and negotiation effort to get it into a city.

LoJack
This tracking technology has been available in the states for some time. It actually uses the police radio networks directly, unlike the on*Star systems.

I've seen a lot of people say "why would you do this if you can get really cheap satellite bandwidth". Well, because this method uses FREE bandwidth.

It's a niche application certainly, but there is a place for this technology. Rural areas, mountainous areas that can't get LOS to the geosynchronous ring, etc.

In fact, here's an article that talks about an ambulance company that is using the technology right now. (The article mentions a further niche use for their technology as a sort of Lojack system.)

http://www.lojack.com

The idea behind lojack is this: You have this device in your car. It just sits there listening on a certain frequency. If you report your car stolen, the police signal it on that frequency, and it starts broadcasting its location. They can then find your car pretty easily.

The reason that it works is that they got the cops in most major American cities (they claim 65% coverage) to go for it (and do all the work).

By the way, I was wrong about the pricing. They no longer charge a yearly fee; it's just a $500-$1000 flat one-time expense.

And yes, I think it's nice that I was able to get a real post in reasonably close to the top. Gosh, wouldn't it be terrible if you could actually read slashdot and find useful information?