Slashdot Mirror
Real Time Vehicle Tracking Made Easy
Makarand writes "The Washington Post has an
article
about a vehicle tracking system built by a
start-up 10-20.com.
The system uses low orbit satellites for exchanging location information making it
available anywhere in the US. The tracking device,
the size of a paperback, can be installed in any vehicle and powered by a battery.
A small antenna installed on top sends signals to satellites marking its
position on a web-based map. The equipment costs around $1000 and monthly
fees range from $20 to $65. The service plan will determine how often your position will be updated by the system. The tracking system
FAQ on the company website is pretty detailed."
this could be good for tracking down stolen cars if the theifs don't know how to shut the ystem off or remove it...FP
Fortunately, it costs far less than $1000 to cover your entire car in tinfoil, just in case. Though depending upon your climate and average driving speed, you may still have to spring for the monthly upkeep of $20-65...
Something I remember from a while ago is that car rental companies might use something like this. At that price car rental companies can fine you a couple of times for driving too fast, which they can now find out about, and it's already payed for, earning them money while they watch your every move. As if the internet wasn't good enough to track you everywhere.
//TODO: signature
If the antenna is installed on top, can't a thief break it off (to disrupt communications with the satellites) before stealing a car?
OLPC Australia
The logical conclusion I have arrived at after reading Slashdot for 1 week straight without sleep is thus: your organs will be tagged and stolen by radioactive agents of the CIA who use their penises to transmit secret recipies for Swedish meatballs. Just look at the latest article on embeddable tagging and tracking devices. They are out to violate your privacy! Before long, all your Constitutionally-protected privacy information will be in linked up in a big government database so that deranged mechanicals can encase you in concrete and have their way with you before torturing you to death!
I can't stress enough the importance of stopping this technology now. You will not be able to sleep until this insidious global conspiracy is stopped.
--sdem
From the company's FAQ:
Can I pay via a credit card?
Not at this time. We accept PayPal, corporate checks, and certified funds for payment at this time. We are currently working on accepting credit cards.
I don't know how safe I would feel doing business with a professional company that requires PayPal to accept credit cards.
This is what I've been waiting for... Something to easily help me track my Time Vehicle. No, it's not a fake, it's the real thing. Don't worry, you'll be seeing it in the future... or maybe the past ;-) I'd show it to you now, but I keep losing track of it... *shrug*
...do commercials featuring ALF and Emmitt Smith?
Never mind... that's 10-10-220.
How long before Congress decides that all new cars manufactured in or imported into the US come with one of these puppies installed, and that removing or damaging the unit is a felony?
http://www.u-track.co.uk/ Satellite tracking and all...
"Families can stay in silent contact with loved ones during long or uncertain trips - a beacon that works anywhere. Our unique "peek-proof" system allows parents to obtain emergency location information while giving young drivers the comfort of knowing they are not being constantly watched."
Sure, they're loved ones until they get this and the spouse figures out where they're really going on those "business trips."
har har.
Gotta love a business high tech enough to rely on two-way satellite communications for realtime position tracking, but asks you to pay via Paypal because they don't take credit cards.
Kevin Fox
Not only can we travel through time, but we can track these vehicles that do it too? Mankind is awesome.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"We just went to the movie theater and then the coffee shop. Honest."
It's as if millions of hormonal boys suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
ok, what's that supposed to be? the goats.cx guy? it's not very good, i had to back up like 5 feet and even then the resemblence was only barely there
so if i wrap this in double-side tape and shape it like a bat, i can go and throw it around on cars and track their location in the name of fighting crime?
(speaking of which, since this stuff was in superhero books for the longest time - was there anything remotely similar before this?)
My life in the land of the rising sun.
now I'll be able to find my car (burp)
I could see it beneficial, however, for company vehicles or the 16-year-old kid busting at the seams with testosterone.
ok, but what does that have to do with the car tracker dealie thingie?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It's called APRS (or here), and it's free... Get a Ham license!
This stuff has been around for a while. A guy I know works for a company that does this at sea.
Most car dealerships or car security dealers already have a system which can be used to track down theif if they steal your car. It called LoJack, which was unpopular because by the time they found the police found the car the only thing left was the frame of the car and the lojack box.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"Do something man. Right now."
look
What are those for and are we allowed to play with them?
This device since it is based on satellite technology rather than cellular technologies will have draw backs related with satellite technologies. On of the worst draw backs is that no signal if your not in open space.(meaning something isn't obstructing your signal such as going through a tunnel even tall buildings or a cloudy day can block the signal) Maybe a Combination of cellular, radio, and satellite could be the ultimate solution.
Why the hell aren't cellular service providers jumping all over this? They should package a small gps device with a cell phone that I can put in my car to track should it ever get stolen. It should be part of my service plan, and should only carry a small charge (if any) to call the device. I would pay a couple hundred of dollars for this, i wouldn't pay $1,000 dollars for something that also has a monthly fee. Oh, and small cylindrical devices should also be made to go inside my bicycle frame....
I find it slightly amusing that ThinkGeek links to www.slashdot.org when this site's proper uri is slashdot.org.
No, I guess I don't find it amusing at all, but I'm compelled to point it out nonetheless.
Go figure.
It sucks really bad that I'm only allowed to post once a day.
--
SweetAndSourJesus
This is like Delphi's TruckSecure (Detroit News), a product that expands on LoJack and OnStar technologies.
It can be used to track hazardous materials shipments, plus provide access and security controls to the vehicles.
Pretty cool actually.
----
I, for one, was getting quite sick of tracking all those "fake" time vehicles...=)
dude, where's my car?
How parents could interpret the prices for the service-
$20- puts a dot on a map showing where Johnny is at the moment
$65- shows who Johnny is making out with on the lookout point outside of town
"Some fight for law. Some fight for justice. What will you fight for? One day, you will see."
is this just a pumped up version of GPS? It uses the same satellites as GPS. [according to the FAQ]
If you get an error, type "OVERRIDE" or "SECURITY OVERRIDE" and then try the optimize command again.
My primary experience has been with APRS, the Automatic Position Reporting System. It's in many ways similar to this system. It's used quite extensively by ham radio operators to coordinate public service activities, track storms out in tornado ally, etc.
The neat thing about APRS is that it isn't just a position tracking system, but it's a distributed network of repeating stations linked via radio and landlines. Here are some neat links you might find interesting:
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
There was this story 1 1/2 month ago about the bank robbers who killed five people and got tracked down by the satellite navigation system installed in the car they stole.
I don't see how this could be used in situations where thiefs that know what they are doing (most seem to when stealing carn) could just remove the antenna. They could just snap it off and the system would be useless.
I have been doing APRS since 1996 or 1997.
But I guess it's nice to know that there is a commercial version avaliable.
--fatboy
Automatic Position Reporting System
HAM radio operators have been doing this for a while, but cheaper (with slightly more effort):
License: ~$10 testing fee
Basic GPS: ~$100
APRS packet-capable radio: ~$300 (US)
A couple of cables: ~$20
The GPS sends location data to the radio, which broadcasts digital packets to a "digipeater," which is wired to the internet...
A trip to findu.com and you're tracking. No monthly fees, plus you can use all the equipment for other stuff.
...and easy to disable without breaking the antenna. Might take a couple of tries, but I doubt it would take long for you to find a suitable cover for the antenna that blocked/disrupted the signal.
I know it's not the same thing, but simply covering the antenna of a GPS unit with your hand almost always renders it useless. (I'm not suggesting you ride down the road with your hand on top of the car. My point is it should be relative simple to "break".)
"Geeze. I dunno, boss. I didn't notice it was malfunctioning when I was out on the road."
Of course bossman would probably get suspicious if it was ALWAYS not working when a particular employee was using said vehicle.
(Please be kind with your modding. I tried to submit this an hour ago but submissions were broken.)
Any chance of them using this to fine you for speeding (like that rental car case a year or two back) or is that still illegal?
evil adrian
My partner and I built a similar system using off the shelf parts (consumer GPS device, cell phone, embedded Java processor all mounted on a Radio Shack R/C truck) and open source software. We're currently working on adding Bluetooth to the platform for both cable replacement and remote configuration over short distances.
.NET server (the MS Terraserver for the aerial satellite photos we used for moving map display of position).
;-)
Our solution used XML and Web Services from end to end, doing XML/SOAP parsing on the embedded processor to a back end J2EE system and also to a
Our J2EE server was a Linux box, running Tomcat, JBoss and lots of other open source stuff, including my own open source, Java, GPS Library code.
All this in our spare time, with very little expense. We blew away a lot of people when we demo'ed it at JavaOne this past Spring (the big boys like Sun/IBM/BEA et were just talking about the interoperability promise of Web Services...while were were demoing it live...to an embedded processor no less).
There's a white paper available that describes (in detail) what we did and the software/hardware that we used, for those that are interested.
And being mounted on an R/C truck gave it serious geek coolosity factor too!
So what's the big deal?
Chaeron Corporation
I don't have a car, so on top of saving heaps of money and getting exercise from riding my bike, I'll also be untrackable!
Ooh yeah. I have a stealth bike, uh huh.
---
Open Source Shirts
"i had to back up like 5 feet and even then the resemblence was only barely there"
Please please please don't mention the goatse.cx guy and "backing up" in the same post!
We've been doing this with amateur radio without satellites for quite some time. Its Called APRS, or Amateur Postition Reporting System. Its Easy, Open, and displays postitions on realtime maps.
I was tracking my car...on the PC...and it was like....
.....beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbleeeeep
...(long wait, stay with me...)
...a bummer.
:)
And then...like...half my car was...gone.
And I was like....(wait...).... ghnuhhhuh?
It devoured....my car...
And it was a really good car.
And then I had to track it again, and I had to do it fast, so it wasn't as good...
It's kind of
Credit to E.F.. student
In South Africa where vehicle theft and vehicle hijackings are at record breaking levels, there have been vehicle tracking systems for private vehicle owners and also fleet operators for a number of years.
Look at www.netstar.co.za and www.tracker.co.za.
Both of these companies have a good track record. No excuse for the pun.
Another invasion of the rights of car thiefs. What's this world coming to?
$1000 and $50 a month is NOT cheap. I couldn't afford that to keep track of my car.
The thing is, most people don't need to keep track of their cars. Even fleet managers don't NEED to keep track of their cars. You can get remote immobilisers that use pagers so you can call them up and the car is immobilised.
If someone steals you car, call the immobiliser and stop them in their tracks rather than chase them across the state on your map.
mogorific carpentry experiments
What is the time delay between a point being logged by the tracking device and that point appearing on the web page?
Usually it is less than 12 minutes.
Lets assume that in town the average speed is 30 mph. That means a car can go about 6 miles in any direction, or like 100 mile^2 area to be searched for the car. The antennae can easily be broken off.
or this
Does the tracking system work indoors or underground?
I wonder if chop shops are out in the open with line of sight to satellites or in enclosed warehouses.
I want my child to have this in their vehicle for emergency situations, but they object to my tracking their every move. What is the solution?
I understand how this sort of thing is useful in the consequences/rewards sequences of parenting, but parents making decisions because their offspring object, and not because thier offspring has earned the right to certain freedoms is just scary. It's like giving a child an Expedition not becuase the child knows how to drive it without killing other people but because thier peers(or the parents peers) will not respect them if they have anything less.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
At least to us professional truck drivers.
We use OmniTracs and virtually almost every fleet owner does the same.
It does much more then positioning tracking, allowing us 2way communications and email anywhere in the world, but it does the same thing.
It's a love-hate relationship. On one hand you hate it because they know where you are at all times, at other times I love it, as the computer guesstimates when I'm going to get somewhere and dispatches me a new load before I even deliver this one.
It's not very accurate (sometimes it tracks me 250 miles away from where I am) and a tree, bridge, or other obstruction will render it inoperable for a good minute or 2 whilst it attempts to find the satellite, but overall it's not to bad.
Looking for hardware (Currently need: Large Etch-a-Sketch) Have one? See my journal!
Done. The FCC has some information about the E911 system that carriers like Verizon and Sprint are already rolling out. Basically, it gives the 911 operator your GPS location. This could easily be expanded to other things as well, but many of the higher end and newer cell phones come with it built in. E911 is currently being tested in select areas, but eventually it should become nationwide.
There are several very worthwhile and well-funded competitors in this area, and the use of satellite technology is not new. In addition I expect much more major players to jump into this area in next while with cheaper communications mediums and really shake the market up. But then again, I have suspected that for 5 years now. :)
:) Alas we sold the company in 2000.
When my team and I built our first company we developed a web location based application service provider (ASP). We provided solutions to a wide array of customers and their vehicles (delivery trucks, long haul trucking, cars, yachts, ferries, tug boats, & emergency services). In addition we built the system to allow for numerous mechanisms of data collection (digital cellular, analog cellular, Orbcomm satellite, GlobalWave satellite, and trials with Iridium).
For our server and client technologies we adopted Java, Linux and open source database solutions (MySQL) to cut costs. Often we were burned by these technologies as we started with good ol' JDK 1.1, first incarnations of servlets, poor, poor JDBC drivers, and waded through the issues of on and off support of Java in Internet Explorer. (Most of our clients used IE on Windows.)
We offered services including automated collection of road taxes, automated driver's logs, enhanced driver safety, and monthly and weekly reports and logs. (Among a ton of other custom services.)
Basically all of these systems have some means of positioning determination. This is commonly via GPS (Global Positioning System satellites) since good receivers are now relatively cheap and readily available. However, other positioning methodologies exist using things like radio triangulation, time and direction of arrival (TDOA), angle of arrival, and simple cell sector for ground based wireless communication networks. Contrary to what some seem to think, GPS satellites only provide *you* with *your* location, and you must use a secondary communication medium to transmit that information to somewhere useful.
We found when we competed in this market the choice of hardware technology really limited your target market. If what you want located (Found) was mostly in urban areas you could take advantage of much higher data rates and lower communication expenses. This allows you to send regular positioning updates with things like two-way text messaging to consoles in the vehicle, and other onboard vehicle sensors. In other instances (marine and aviation) you may be forced to use satellite technology. In general satellite communication is an order of magnitude lower bandwidth, higher delay, and more expensive. When it is the only means of data connectivity it is amazing, but to cut costs and deliver the larger value added services higher data rates and lower costs of cellular systems usually make more sense.
Of course there are hybrid solutions like simply storing the logged data and forward it on when you picked up the next cellular network along the vehicles travels. Or better is a true hybrid of sending small positioning and important packets infrequently in satellite coverage, and providing the richer detail on reconnection with the cellular network.
While interesting, as others have stated this idea is not new. We had this ASP up and running in 1998. And we had previous incarnations years before.
Real Time Vehicle Tracking Made Easy
Whew! That's something that's been missing for a while. Up until this point, tracking Time Vehicles has only been a dream, but now it's a reality; and easy, too!
But seriously, folks...I'm here all night!
So much for new technologies allowing any semblance of privacy. I'll bet that with a little work, a punk teen could build a device to to abuse this technology (given the motive, of course -- I've not met many punk teens interested in that sort of thing, but you get the idea).
Quoted from the website: "We take major credit cards and PayPal" We take major credit cards. This is not unprofessional. They are providing an extra 'hip' service, by taking PayPal.
include (obligatory anit-big-brother/slippery slope comments comments);
Something I've been hoping for for years is that bus systems would utilize something like this to deliver real-time position information for their buses.
I would love to be able to load up a page and see where my bus currently is so that I can better gauge when I have to leave to catch it.
Even better, something that delivers to portable devices as well (cell phones/pdas) so that when I do arrive at the bus stop, I can check to see if I just missed it and I should hop on an alternate or if it's a couple blocks away.
Seems like all the technology is in place - anyone seen a bus system doing something like this?
-h3
Wouldn't one of those kid locator things that have a gps in them work just the same? Just attach it to the car somewhere where it gets a signal.
They are only $400 too.
Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
What is the time delay between a point being logged by the tracking device and that point appearing on the web page?
Usually it is less than 12 minutes.
How is this real time? There is no mention of real time at all on the web site, so where did the article submitter get this from?
Have a look at this place, excuse the clipart website but it's a MUCH better and though through product (less greedy too, no subscription fees). Uses common GPS and will call you up *on voice* (or SMS) to tell you your car is on the move (or the alarm has been set off or anything). You can even phone it up and forcibly talk to the driver, perhaps as they say to tell them that the police are following them :) Other features via phone control include remote immobilisation and all the usual GPS location/speed/heading info.
It seemed to me just such a smart product and far superior to the greedy other systems some companies have. And of course as it uses GPS it won't be useless if the manufacturer goes out of business.
I hate to sound like a bit of an add but it really irked me to see attention given to another product that just seemed to be a source of revenue through silly monthly subscription fees.
Hate to do this to y'all, but OnStar has been carrying vehicle tracking capabilities on only one of a long list of available functionalities through their product line. They use it exactly for stolen vehicle recovery and routing assisstance (think MapQuest for your car).
The other features that they provide can be impressive.
As for the Big Brother problem of people being tracked by this type of unit. It doesn't happen. Sure their might be requests to give out the location on people, but they just don't do it. It's easier to tap a phone line or read someone's email than it is to track a vehicle.
Where's my car?
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
I can't blame them - opening a merchant account is not only very expensive, but opens you up to serious hacking attempts.
Not only that, but if a stolen card is used, YOU (the merchant) are liable. All that stuff about you (the card owner) getting your money back may be true, but eventually it is the seller who pays, NOT the card company.
At $1000 per unit, it wouldn't take too many fraudulent uses to almost kill a small company.
There are "stealth" antennas made for automobiles that are almost invisible. The top of the antenna is flush with the outer surface of the body of the automobile.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
While the current units are expensive, these units have just been approved for land use (marine search and rescue is their prime purpose). When triggered, then send out an ID on the 406MHz emergency frequency, and various satellites will let search and rescue know your position. The ones with GPS can give a precise location. From a privacy perspective, they can only be used for emergencies, limiting abuse.
For hobby use, APRS, mentioned above works well, and even the Space Station is equipped. APRS is beginning to show up in consumer walkie-talkies as well.
OnStar and various private services use GPS and the cellphone and/or pager networks, and GPS in cellphones will soon become obiquious. I expect these folks won't sell many at that pricepoint for a single-purpose system.
Recursion: To curse repeatedly.
TOP SECRET FACT:Most modern cars have tracking transponder!
g C: www.sokymat.com/sp/applications/tireid.html
l
: www.sokymat.com/sp/applications/tireid.html
M C: www.aiag.org/publications/b11.html
Forget this GPS bulky method, the US Gov has a method using your BUILT IN transponders in your modern car tires!
A secret initiative exists to track all funnel-points on interstates and US borders for car tire ID transponders (RFid chips embedded in the tire).
Yup. My brother works on them.
Your tires have a passive coil with 64 to 128 bit serial number emitter in them! (AIAG B-11 ADC v3.0) . A particular frequency energizes it enough so that a receiver can read its little ROM. A ROM which in essence is your GUID for your TIRE. Multiple tires do not confuse the readers. Its almost identical to all "FastPass" "SpeedPass" technologies you see on gasoline keychain dongles and commuter windshield sticker-chips. The US gov has secretly started using these chips to track people.
Its kind of like FBI "Taggants" in fertilizer and "Taggants" in Gasoline and Bullets, and Blackpowder. But these car tire transponder Ids are meant to actively track and trace movement of your car, rather than batches of bullets.
I am not making this up. Melt down a high end Firestone, or Bridgestone tire and go through the bits near the rim (sometimes at base of tread) and you will locate the transmitter (similar to 'grain of rice' pet ids and Mobile SpeedPass, but not as high tech as the tollbooth based units). Sokymat LOGI 160, and Sokymat LOGI 120 transponder buttons are just SOME of the transponders found in modern high end car tires. The AIAG B-11 Tire tracking standard is now implemented for all 3rd party transponder manufactures [covered below].
It is for QA and to prevent fraud and "car theft", but the US Customs service uses it in Canada to detect people who swap license plates on cars when doing a transport of contraband on a mule vehicle that normally has not logged enough hours across the border. The customs service and FBI do not yet talk about this, and are starting using it soon.
Photos of chips before molded into tires:
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:TAQIKjBI01
(slashdot ruins links, so you will have to remove the ASCII space it insertess usually into the url above to get to the shocking info and photos on the enbedded LOGI 160 chips that the us gov scans when you cross mexican and canadian borders.)
You never heard of it either because nobody moderates on slashdot anymore and this is probably +0 still. It has also never appeared in print before and is very secret.
Californias Fastpass is being upgraded to scan ALL responding car tires in future years upcoming. I-75 may get them next in rural funnel points in Ohio.
http://www.tadiran-telematics.com/products6.htm
but the fact is... YOU PROBABLY ALREADY HAVE A RADIO TRANSPONDER not counting your digital cell phone which is routinely silently pulsed in CA bay area each rush hour morning unless turned off (consult Wired Magazine Expose article). Those data point pulses are used by NSA on occasions.
The us FBI with NRO/NSA blessings, has requested us gov make this tire scanning information as secret as the information regarding all us inkjet printers sold in usa in the last 3 years using "yellow" GUID barcode under dark ink regions to serialize printouts to thwart counterfeiting of 20 dollar bills. (30 to 40 percent of ALL California counterfeiting is done using cheap Epson inkjet printers, most purchased with credit cards foolishly). Luckily court dockets divulge the existence of the Epson serial numbers on your printouts... but nobody except a handful of people know about this Tire scanning upgrade to big brother's arsenal.
YOU MUST BUY NEUTRALIZED OR FOREIGN TIRES!!!!! Soon such tires will become illegal to import or manufacture, just as Gasoline must have "Taggants" added or gasoline is illegal, as are non-self-aging 9 mm bullets.
It is currently VERY illegal to buy or disable the "911 help" GPS emitter in digital cell phones in the US or ship a modified phone across state borders, but it is still legal to turn off your cell phone in your car while travelling. As you should. And you should be wary of your tires now too. : http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:TAQIKjBI01gC
Alternatively you could illegally build jamming devices at : 13.56 MHz, + 1,356.0 MHz +- many freqs (TI-RFid) and a few others. If microwave is ever employed (doubtful) you might not be able to effectively jam but your brain would possibly cook over time, as it now known as of this year that the three harmonic resonances of water are not the only chemical actions harming human tissue at gigaherz frequencies. Jammers would be illegal and violators easy to locate. Tire removal is the only option. YOu cannot pick out these embedded chips. They are embedded deep so that you cannot remove them as per US gov decision.
RFIDs have been covertly used and sold by TI for over ten years are in many many products... and now your tires are being read by the us gov as you drive at speeds of up to 100 Mph on primary US interstate corridors. (Actually 160 km/h).
Those same US interstate corridors have radiation detectors too, but a small layer of stacks of interlocked graphite blocks those from detecting stealthy deliveries. Graphite blocks are IDEAL for shipping "dirty bomb" components, I believe. A Funnier joke to play on us interstate radiation detectors is to place a british 2 dollar "tritium gas" keychain dongle on the roof of your car with little in the way to stop the weak beta rays to set off their detectors with false alarms better. (An old radium watch works better). Tritum Gas products are only available to us citizens if the us citizen buys Exit Signs that emply them for 230 dollars. The gas is cheap as hell on the open market, but deadly to breath. I am being tangential. Its just that I LOVE the 20 different phosphoresscent 10 year-glowing tritium gas keychain dongles sold in britian and wish americans had access to them. (though radiocactive products cause GREAT troubles at airport luggage areas in international flights).
Anyway, regarding tire radio transmitters: the sokymat LOGI 160, and sokymat LOGI 120) are just SOME of the transponders found in modern tires. The earliest tire radio spy chips had only 64 bit serial numbers but they have rapidly evolved post Sept 11 bombings: LOGI 160 LOGI 120 has 224 bit R/W memory (sokymat.ch) to be marked using external hand help injectors with "salt" info when the fbi tags your parked car.
Back to tire facts...
Basically the FBI "marks your car" without touching it physically, thus eliminating a "warrant" to put a locater on your vehicle. Just as the FBI can listen to you while you are at home by LEGALLY bouncing an infrared beam off your vibrating window pane and modulating the signal, the US Gov can LEGALLY inject (program) a saltable read-write sokymat LOGI eeprom tire chip (and other brands of tire transponders)
Using these chips to track people while they drive is actually the idea of the us gov, and current chips CANNOT BE DISABLED or removed. They hope ALL tires will have these chips in 5 years and hope people have a very hard time finding non-chipped tires. Removing the chips is near impossible without destroying the tire as the chips were designed with that DARPA design goal.
They are hardened against removal or heat damage or easy eye detection and can be almost ANYWHERE in the new "big brother" tires. In fact in current models they are integrated early and deep into the substrate of the tire as per US FBI request.
Our freedom of travel are going away in 2003, because now there is an international STANDARD for all tire transponder RFID chips and in 2004 nearly ALL USA cars will have them. Refer to AIAG B-11 ADC, (B-11 is coincidentally Post Sept 11 fastrack initiative by US Gov to speed up tire chip standardization to one read-back standard for highway usage).
The AIAG is "The Automotive Industry Action Group"
The non proprietary (non-sokymat controlled) standard is the AIAG B-11 standard is the "Tire Label and Radio Frequency Identification" standard
"ADC" stands for "Automatic Data Collection"
The "AIDCW" is the US gov manipulated "Automatic Identification Data Collection Work Group"
The standard was started and finished rapidly in less than a year as a direct consequence of the Sep 11 attacks by Saudi nationals.
I believe detection of the AIAG B-11 radio chips (RFIS serial number transponders) in the upgraded car tracking http://www.tadiran-telematics.com/products6.html is currently secret knowledge. Another reason to leave "finger print on Driver license" California, but Ohio gets it next, as will every other state eventually.
The AIAG is claiming the chips reduce car theft, assist in tracking defects, and assists error-proofing the tire assembly process. But the real secret is that these 5 cent devices are a us government backed initiative to track citizens travel without their consent or ability to disable the transponders in any way.
All tire manufacturers are forced to comply AIAG B-11 3.0 Radio Tire tracking standard by the 2004 model year.
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:-qJPsZjkMA
Viewing b11 synopsis is free, downloads from that are $10 and tracked by the FBI. Use the google cache to avoid leaving breadcrumbs.
And just as showerheads are now illegal to import into the USA from Canada or mexico, as are drums of industrial Freon, and standard size toilets are illegal to import for home use, soon car tires without radio transponders will be illegal to bring across state borders.
The US gov is getting away with this. You read it here first.
Learn and read.
For reference for anyone who really cares, the "name" 10-20 comes from trucker-speak. 10-20 (or just "twenty") is basically a synonym for "location", used like:
"Driver 4, what's your 20?"
It's in the same vein as 10-4 for "acknowledged, affirmitive" (etc), which I'm sure you all have heard of.
(Until last week, I was a dispatcher for a courier company).
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
I'm not sure I see what's so novel about this - with a small computer ($200), a GPS unit ($100), and a CDPD modem ($150), you've got a fully functional system that costs half of what 10-20's does, and where I am, an unlimited-data CDPD plan is about $30.00/month. Sure, you've gotta write the software to make it work, but anyone can do that. :-) Before I get the inevitable responses, yes, I know that CDPD service is not available nation/worldwide. The article mentions that the 2-way satellite link runs at 137-151 MHz - how do they manage that, given that the 144-148 MHz ham band falls right in the middle, with the CAP band right above it?
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
you just wait. It wont be long before this device (and others like it...onstar, etc) are MANDATORY in vehicles. This will be tied into the felon Poindexter's Information Awareness computer system so that he and the government can get even tighter spying and tracking of the movements and lives of all Americans.
As useful as something like this can be, it can also be abused (and already has been, ie, ticketing rental car users for speeding as a result of tracking their movements via GPS). These services/devices will be perverted into another spying/privacy violating tool for Poindexter, the Republicans, and any two-bit dictator wannabe that they put into official positions of power.
In Bushworld, they struggle to keep church and state separate in Iraq as they increasingly merge the two in America.
Wowee. This has been available for years, the only difference is this uses satellite and costs a hell of a lot more. :)
All you need is a GPS reciever installed in a car
with rs232 output, the output is tied to a small
computer/laptop or whatever, the laptop has a phone/modem. When you want to get a fix on the car you call the gps phone number, after you connect you will get latitude and longitude of the car.. and save big bucks these guys are charging way too much.
If you're going to spend a grand to install this in your SUV, and then pay the monthly fee, wouldn't it be easier to not park your truck in the 'hood!?!
I mean, come on, it's got to be easier to keep someone from stealing it in the first place, than to track it after it's been stolen. And how hard do you think it's going to be for the thieves to disconnet this once they've stolen it?
Ed Wedig
Graphic design services
docbrown.net
And by using PayPal, NO ONE is liable! :)
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
It just happens that in that one case, the company's contract didn't explicitly mention fines for GPS-based tracking.
While some might want to point out that the rental car company has no right to act as the police: It's called Terms of Service. Lots of ISPs use this to enforce rules of theirs that have nothing to do with the law.
All the rental car company has to do is say in legalese, "We reserve the right to charge you $n if our GPS tracking system indicates that you drive over x miles per hour."
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
See other posts in this article about APRS.
Been there, done that, none of this J2EE, Tomcat, JBoss (read simply: Java bloat) BS. Just some small applications that can fit in an 8-bit microcontroller such as a PIC or an AVR (Tracker side) and a single floppy on the server/gateway side.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
This is the most elaborate troll I've ever read...
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
This'll make it much easier for people to catch their cheating spouses in the act. Gotta be pretty upsetting to catch yer old lady humping her brains out in the back of your Durango high atop Makeout Point.
Spread the RC luvin'
Coincidentally, just this morning on my way to work, I saw a car pulling out of a dealership with a small blue box sitting on the hood of the car. I was just wondering if this was similar technology being used on their vehicles... just in case someone decides to mug the dealer whie test-driving a car or something. And then I get to work and see this article. :)
The box was about the size of a McDonald's Happy Meal box (well, i think Happy Meals come in bags now, but whatever... probably about 7" x 7" x 6" tall) and seemed to be secured to the hood of the car somehow. (uh... by a magnet, I'm sure.)
Eh, then again, it could have just been someone's lunchbox left on the hood or soemthing.
Karma: NaN
Lojack uses the paging system; you have to report your vehicle stolen; their ops center sends a signal to activate the lojack transmitter, then police have to locate it using radio direction finding techniques (doppler DF system using square array of 4 whip antennas on roof of car).
10-20's system obtains position using GPS and relays it via satellite hourly to once/day depending on the level of service you buy.
It is the SAME concept as Orbcomm's, as well as the proposed system using Eyesat-1 microsatellite Interferometrics launched in 1992. The ham radio ops have something similar using APRS including internet links and real-time mapping and an experimental satellite component PCSAT.
In urban areas, using 2-way pager, CPDP, or cell phone network is going to be cheaper and provide better coverage with less latancy. Most of the potential customers are there. In rural and remote areas, satellite coverage fills in the gaps in terrestrial networks, but the customer density is rather low. So the business model may be a challenge.
I'd like to know which LEO satellite system they're using. I suspect Orbcomm's.
But then again, Sapias has West Shell, the former CEO of Netcentives, to blow all that VC money.. ;)
http://www.sapias.com/
Wasn't this in an X-Files espisode? Talk about conspiracy theories...
Checking the Sokymat site reveals:
"SOKYMAT® has developed special epoxy transponders which, already at an early production stage, can automatically be integrated into the tire or subsequently be attached to the tire with a patch."
Hmmm....early production stage? That doesn't sound like technology that is already in your tires, now does it? At least not yet!
Big brother will be watching soon though.
Chaeron Corporation
Poor add copy by their marketdroid. There are satellite bands around 137 MHz and 151 MHz (also 400 MHz). Orbcomm and a few of the other "Little LEO" companies licensed them beginning in the early 1990s. They are NOT using the 144-148 MHz amateur allocation (144-146 MHz in Europe).
I wonder who's leo satellite constellation they're using. Orbcomm's?
You can get a cheap GPS module for around $100 now. Coupled to a cheap cell phone ($30), and a decent plan from something like Sprint, you're already there. No need to spend an extra $1000 dollars per vehicle, if your cheap GPS/phone can dial a number automagically every few minutes, transmit it's vehicle ID and position, and disconnect. I'm willing to bet that this can easily be done, at a profit, for under $50/unit.
* Intellectual property is encoded in this message. Reading it is a violation of the DMCA. I will exercise this right should anyone run with the idea and not send me a nice check.
The REAL jabber has the user id: 13196
What you do today will cost you a day of your life
In other news, startups 10-100.com and 10-73.com offer much more needed services.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Did anyone else notice the domain name? Why do they let non-RFC compliant registrations through??? It's not like it's that hard to write a regex to find this....
Jon
...for commercial vans and trucks larger than a standard three-quarter ton Ford/Chevy/Dodge van. Especially rental trucks such as
U-Haul/Ryder/etc. This is one of the first things that will be pushed thru by the new Dept of Homeland Security when they take over the Transportation Safety Administration away from the Dept of Transportation. Rumor has it they also intend to do away with all privately owned airplanes too. Next comes your family car.
SkyBitz.com has a tracking solution similar to GPS, based on the same satellites with ultra-low power requirement (their box runs years on regular AAA batteries). They use a satellite link to report the position to their datacenter, which garantees 100% coverage of Northern America. I heard the price was around $400 and the montly fee less than $20.
when people give you crap about "Hey, jackass, why's your car covered in tinfoil?" you can say "fuck you, man, I'm locking in the juices!" which should satisfy them for all of two seconds.
When they say, "Huh, what juices!?", you point behind them and say, "Oh, my god!!! A roquefort monster!!!!" As nobody knows what roquefort is ("let's see now, we got your yellow cheese, your white cheese, your swiss cheese, and your american cheese, that covers it") they will have to turn and look to see what this thing is. Take this opportunity to punch them in the back of the head and then run away in your tinfoil covered car. They won't be able to track you!
Except by following the shiny reflection.
Your mind is squeezed by a blast of pain!
- "It already exists": Yes, there are competitors to the 10-20.com system, but most of them use the cell phone network to move their data. One of our main selling points is that this works anywhere in North America, not just areas that have cell phone or 2-way pager coverage. Our market is the long-range traveler: small businesses with large geographic ranges, field service vehicles (oil, forestry, land management), RV's, off-road vehicles, etc. I will readily admit that cell phone transmission strategies make more sense in dense urban environments; that's not who we're after. Most of North America does not have cell phone coverage; we cover those spaces, and provide an easy-to-install solution for those huge areas.
- "How is this different than OnStar or LoJack?": OnStar uses cell phone data. As far as I know, OnStar does not allow you to access maps or history of your vehicle's position, and it is a "poll" based system, meaning that there is no information of where your vehicle is until there is an event (crash/panic/call outbound) or a poll by the central office. LoJack simply is a theft recovery system that is available to _some_ police departments in _some_ states, and is completely unaccessible by the customer - they don't even tell you where it's installed. With either of these two systems, you have no idea where your vehicle is, or was, unless there is an extraordinary circumstance.
- "You can do this with APRS": Yep, you can, and I applaud anyone getting their license and spending the time to put a system together. Most companies, though, don't want to go through this exercise. Plus, then you'll also need a back-end system to store the points, a mapping server to map them on street and topological maps, redundant servers to catch failures, etc. etc. To duplicate everything we have put together is a large effort, but if all you want is a subset, then perhaps there are less expensive ways to do it, but what's your time worth? (PS: APRS and/or wardriving users can contact me about possible very-small-fee use of our reverse geocode XML interface that takes USA-based lat/lon and spits out addresses over an HTTP query - a pretty neat service that we developed which isn't available for a reasonable price anywhere else, at least that we were able to find.)
- "This won't prevent criminals from stealing/stripping my car": No, the system really isn't designed as a theft prevention or theft recovery system, and we'll never probably advertise it as such. The antenna is fairly obvious, and easily decommissioned. This is a vehicle tracking system, which as a side benefit could possibly be used as a theft recovery system. If you have a driver who decommissions the antenna, that is detectable by the lack of updates to the system, which can then trigger an alert to one or many users.
- "This is an invasion of privacy.": So don't buy it. If your employer wants to buy it and put it on their vehicle, that's their right. We at 10-20.com are pretty fanatical privacy advocates, but we also recognize that if someone is paying you for your time, and is paying for their vehicle, it's their right to monitor the use of those resources. If this is a parent/child relationship, that is something that has to be worked out between the parent and child, and is a discussion between them and does not involve us. Note that we have an interesting system called "Peek-Proof" that notifies the child (if it's configured properly) via email every time a parent views their location on the system. This permission level removes the uncertainty of how often someone is accessing your position, putting the discussion back at the political level instead of the technological level.
- "Proprietary systems are bad": We're looking at how to deliver exported data for those of you who want to build your own tools. We like our offered tools, but it's nice to be able to support queries from outside. We also allow for incorporation of your maps (if you toggle that option) into your own web pages, at different map sizes and zoom levels.
Thanks for all your comments. There have been a few ideas in the above items which have made me consider different options for our next revision of the software.
- John Todd, founder 10-20.com (jtodd@10-20.com)
Try this free, experimental tracking system!
4 11 2
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/map-near.cgi?zip=8
And, vary the ZIP code or read about the other features at
http://www.findu.com/cgi.html#find
Thats very old website text buddy the AIAG mandates all tires to have the chips. its ALREADY in most new tires, moron.
The Iridium system is already there. Granted, switching entirely to it will make it prohibitively expensive, but it's still likely to be cheaper than putting up your own birds.
Though, the number of places where cell service is unavailable is decreasing rapidly in the US. In Europe, there are truly few places where there isn't coverage. The places where there isn't coverage, are those places where there is much less truck service to be tracked.
Your point is a good one, but I think this problem is subject to the 80/20 rule. Of all the trackable truck service, 80% can easily be monitored using existing technology. This can then be used to fund the remaining 20% at a later time.
Few solutions spring into the world fully formed, after all.
The REAL jabber has the user id: 13196
What you do today will cost you a day of your life
12 pack of beer - $8.95(plus deposit)
folding paper map of countryside - $2.75
Paying attention to driving and where the hell you are - PRICELESS
The company I work for www.Aircept.com, does the same thing with GPS and cellular networks. Only our plans go from $2.95 a month. Device is less than $300 too... size of a pack of cigarrettes and can be hidden anywhere in the car.
Major League Baseball is the one tracking us. They have their satelites aimed at us right now! I could explain more, but Mark McGwire keeps hitting zingers at me.
The comment has already been made. Let's move it along people. Nothing to see here.
What sort of criminal would use a stolen credit card to buy a tracking device?
The car is worth $2000. Putting something for ~1000 doest sound smart to me.
We have that in Canada since 1995! http://www.boomerangtracking.com
Imagine a small Linux or QNX machine, with a display less GPS attached to serial port and a wireless card or radio modem (less than 54 Kbps). This machine can read its own position from the GPS and send this data to a server via radio signal. It will work only if there is radio infrastructure in the area, but I bet it can be very ship.
Respectfully
Ernesto Valderrama
I don't think that this is supposed to serve as a theft deterrent, think of the value of having frequent updates of exact position of each vehicle in a fleet, of say... taxi's, law enforcement or other emergency personnel, or trucks for companies that do a lot of over the road shipping. This has "dispatch manager's best friend" written all over it
LoJack does well enough for theft deterrence/recovery, I don't think they are trying to compete in that market...
"I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...
Oh, no, that'd be 10-10-220.com
Sorry
I completely agree.
Utilize these technologies for something good like:
"I wonder how fucking late the San Francisoc Muni will be, so I can plan my trip accordingly and make sure that I won't be sitting in the rain/fog/etc for 45 minutes."
I can't count the times on a Saturday night, I've sat waiting and wondering where in the hell the train is....all the while, missing my dinner reservation, missing the show, etc. etc.
It would be even better if PDAs or cell phones could grab this info in real time.
I you try to track my time vehicle, I'm gonna throw 2 hams in the Mr. Fusion and reverse the DeLorean back to Sri Lanka. I'll kill Arthur C, Marconi, or anyone else who would track the time vehicle or potentially lead to the tracking of the time vehicle.
Things could get ugly real fast. I'm not above paradoxes and am willing to live in a universe without donuts. So don't' try and track the time vehicle.
Wow hadn't heard someone use the phrase start-up to describe a company for a little while now.
A guy called Dr Michael Yerbury had a prototype of this sort of thing running 15 years ago in Australia. In 1996 it became a commercial product called the Quiktrak system. I have it installed in my car.
Does no one realize that most new high end cars already come with satelites in them? It is only a matter of time untill all cars have them. "Hello, this is OnStar"
If you don't stop reading this right now you owe me $1,000. Send check or money order too...
a buddy of mine bought this tracking device when he bought this from the dealer when he got his new car. He can unlock his doors from their webpage. And it can notify him when his car is ripped off... http://www.vehicletrack.com/vt1500.html
+#if defined(__alpha__) && defined(CONFIG_PCI) /*
+
+ * The meaning of life, the universe, and everything. Plus
+ * this makes the year come out right.
+ */
+ year -= 42;
+#endif
-- From the patch for 1.3.2: (kernel/time.c), submitted by Marcus Meissner
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