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LoJack To Release Tracking Devices For Consumers, Insurance, and Auto Makers
Lucas123 writes "Next year, LoJack plans to come out with a telematics system that will allow parents to track their children's cars, auto makers to record vehicle diagnostics and insurance companies to review driving habits as the basis of rate quotes. LoJack said the wireless tracking systems will likely come in several forms, including a OBD II plug-in dongle as well as a factory installable model. The company said it has no plans to sell any information collected through a cloud service connected to the devices, but to only share it with stakeholders — either vehicle owners or businesses that have been given the OK to collect and use the data. Additional features will include the ability for parents to set up geo fences to restrict where their children can drive before alerts can sent as well as the ability to restrict and texting while the vehicle is being operated."
The company said it has no plans to sell any information collected through a cloud service connected to the devices
And you'd be an idiot to think they won't silently change this in an EULA update.
Why is this news? Is it just the consumer commoditization of what businesses have been doing for years? Vehicles + GPS + Web Interface = Big Brother? Whoopee.
I've been supporting deployments of vehicle GPS, geofences, and automatic alerts for years. Maybe that why this article is so underwhelming.
Also, it reads like an advertisement.
khasim (12/9/06): In a blind taste test, more people preferred Coke over the Pepsi that I had previously pissed in.
you'll just "license" it from the insurance companies and gas stations...
If there is data about you that is getting collected, the spooks are also going to get a copy.
I co-founded a company that does this, and we have a number of competitors in the same space. Tons of people and companies do this.
Do we get free Slashdot advertising too? No? Stop posting this shit and start posting news.
>> LoJack To Release Tracking Devices For Consumers, Insurance, and Auto Makers
What's it called, a "cell phone"?
APRS is an amateur radio technology that uses AX.25 to report the position of objects, the weather, send and receive emails and messages, communicate with satellites, and so forth. Coverage is pretty good inside the USA and Canada, with other nations adding capability and more users every year. Devices range from tiny thumb-sized trackers to handheld transceivers and larger radios which implement messaging and location reporting.
Of course you have to be a ham to use this technology, but once you are, there is no monthly fee nor is there a commercial service to rely upon, as all the infrastructure is provided by other amateurs for free. So get out there, get your license, and join the party!
Please edit the last sentence. "Additional features will include the ability for parents to set up geo fences to restrict where their children can drive before alerts can sent as well as the ability to restrict and texting while the vehicle is being operated."
And the following year, manufacturers plan to come out with a device which takes the place of a child's eye, which will allow fretful parents to know about all the sodomizing and whoring that their teenage sons and daughters are up to. In lurid, decadent details.
I am John Hurt.
Now I'm not sure how this is different from "On Star" but it sure seems to be *exactly* the same kind of thing they've been doing for a decade. Tie some cell phone to a computer and a GPS receiver attached to the communications buss in the car and there is a load of things you can do. Problem with LoJack is that if they are forced to go though the ODB-2 connector, they will have limited access to your car to do what they've done in the past that brought them to almost a household name. You might be able to shut down an engine through the OBD-2 connector, but that's likely going to require manufacturer specific software and possibly custom hardware to make happen.
Where I get why a manufacturer might want to offer a system like this, I really don't see a huge market for it. OnStar never really took off as a money maker even on the GM cars it was offered with. The effort to push OnStar as an after market add in to your car option has been less than stellar. Keeping up with your teens as they drive around is NOT hard using their smart phone, and you need to add the "don't text when moving" app anyway so load a tracking app too.
Now I don't have a kid who is trying to hide things from me in the first place, so she's not out turning off her phone or unloading the tracking app. She's a really cautious driver (actually too cautious at times) so I don't worry that she's out racing my car, but if I did, there are inexpensive ODB-2 recorders out there which are readily available and cheap, plus the sector of taking the keys away, at least while they live under my roof and drive my cars. Your mileage may vary, but I think LoJack is gona loose their shirt on this one.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
I'm going to have to build an OBD ii dongle to site between the dongle and the car, projecting and image of a perfect driver. It'll sell like hotcakes.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
In any case for consumers there a bunch of cheaper alternatives. For not very much you can get a smart phone app and a dongle for the ODB that will keep detailed track of driving patterns. If a parent were concerned about this stuff it is a simple matter of an iphone, something like Bluedriver, and turning on find my iPhone. This leverages stuff that is already paid for. Of course i think most parents know the value of giving kids increasing responsibility and freedom, and most I know aren't this intrusive.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Bullshit! Bullshit! More Bullshit.
Stake holders are greedy SOB's just like the rest of us. The moment an insurance company offers them millions if not billions to purchase that treasure trove of data there goes your insurance premiums.
Just like Progressive who has that dongle you plug into your vehicle. If any dope out there has installed that in their car should lose your license.
LoJack to release tracking devices for consumers, insurance and auto makers.
Who, besides the NSA, would want to track consumers, insurance and automakers? OK, the feds need to keep an eye on GM, but really.
The company said it has no plans to sell any information collected through a cloud service connected to the devices
Well then, count me in.
The company said it has no plans to sell any information collected through a cloud service connected to the devices
Translation: "We have no plans but reserve the right to change our minds shortly after you instal our device."
You can cry into your Cheerios about this if you have too, but you've got to know that LoJack has name recondition in the anti theft market. I'm sorry if your business is a competitor to them now, but you've got to know the market and who the competition is. They think there is opportunity here, so don't get upset, they've just confirmed that there seems to be money to be made. Man up and get going.
Hopefully you can distinguish your self from the competition and make a go of it, but somehow you will need to come up with something they don't have. Be it some unique features, cheaper purchase, lower operating cost, easier to install, or something that makes your product more desirable. So what if LoJack is getting free advertising on ShalsDot, it doesn't matter. They are going to out flank you on advertising and leverage their already considerable market share anyway, shalsdot is really just a sideshow on a two bit carnival ride. It's not like computer nerds are big automobile buffs or are out buying the systems you sell in large numbers.
So get busy, get noticed and stop crying about competition and unfair advantages. Since we left grade school Life has not been fair. It takes hard work and risk of failure to get to success. Good luck.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Expect every rental car to come with this factory-installed. Not only can the company track it's cars, but they can combine the customer's driving pattern with their profile and sell it. Frequent travellers/renters would be an obvious target, but everyone could be included if it's done cheaply enough. And in real-time, too.
I haven't heard about LoJack since the 1990s. I didn't know that LoJack is still around. Yeha, i'm showing my age. lol
Typical American. Why do you have such problems with 'a' and 'an'?
It's "AN OBD II", for Christ's sake.
Why do Americans have such a problem with prepositions as well? To, from, in, out, etc.etc. Just choose a random one and use that. 'than', 'then' and 'that' are all interchangeable too, apparently. You American idiots.
I watched you stop for beer then take 12 trips around my subdivision. It's going to be free or I'm calling your boss.
It's called AT&T family tracking. I know right where all the phones are. and it costs a LOT less than the lojack junk.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The company said it has no plans to sell any information collected through a cloud service connected to the devices, but to only share it with stakeholders
They are not going to do this for the insurance companies out of the goodness of their hearts. So the stated business model is do precisely what they claim not to do, selling information gathered this way to "stakeholders."
Governments, police forces and the NSA are stakeholders too (whether or not LoJack want them to be). How long before the location data is married to traffic light changes resulting in infringements issued on the basis that your car passed a red light: no camera deployments required and no defence. Or speed information and speeding infringements... Or proximity to an unrelated crime... Or the location of political opponents... Or journalists... Or whistleblowers... Ubiquitous tracking will be abused.
Patent litigation: A doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction... in which everyone seems willing to push the button
It sounds just like medical records... everyone except you can view them and determine your future income for the next 50 yrs based on the data they can see but you can't.
does the lojack come with an ODB port splitter?
"You can cry into your Cheerios"
"so don't get upset"
"Man up and get going."
"stop crying about competition"
Sorry kiddo, I remain unprovoked. But I do want to point out a few misconceptions you seem to be operating under.
First of all, you seem to be under the mistaken impression that I am concerned about our competition. No, by pointing out that we have competitors, I'm saying that there were many such businesses before (and besides) LoJack. LoJack's technology and business model is nothing new, which begs the question of why LoJack (and only LoJack) is suddenly being mentioned. In any other world it would be called spam.
Second, you are peddling the same old tired fallacy about capitalism, that optimal competition yields optimal results. In other words, "better product beats worse product, so make a better product and you'll beat them!". That's horseshit, and you know it. Such systems don't work because competitors can't agree to follow the rules of the framework in which they operate. Perfect example: a company manages to get free advertising on a very popular tech website that ostensibly has certain guidelines against advertising in posts.
Third, we're well within our rights to complain about advertising in Slashdot submissions. We're following the guidelines, and others aren't.
And...ah yes. The "life isn't fair" excuse. The excuse that the intellectually lazy (or personally invested, as case may be) use to rationalize the nonsensical aspects of modern society. Have fun when someone bends or breaks rules/guidelines to get an advantage on you, and don't come here to complain about it.
" LoJack has name recondition "
So you question was answered.
"Sorry kiddo, I remain unprovoked."
You're response indicates otherwise.
IT's not our fault you work for a no name copy of a recognized company.
"that optimal competition yields optimal results. In other words, "better product beats worse product, so make a better product and you'll beat them!""
No, that's not what optimal competition yields optimal results means at all.
It's a story to an article about LoJack, not advertising.
People talk about what companies are doing all the time without it being advertising.
Are..are you simple?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Then complain to SlashDot directly if it's worth it. I don't see that it is for you old man.
Unfair thing happen all the time and LoJack entering into your market able to throw resources into marketing and catch enough attention of SlashDot posters to get a article accepted may or may not be one of them. So if you *really* believe that this article was a plant or SlashDot was somehow complicit in advertising your competition over you, get used to the idea of folks not following the rules. I can tell you that in my 25 years of working in various parts of the technology industry I've seen a lot of people who choose to not follow the rules and do horribly unethical and immoral things. Bad people and companies are everywhere, and although I'm committed to the ethical and moral high road myself, I recognize that not everybody out there does the same. If indeed this LoJack post was unethical, then you are just wasting your time on this posting.
So you won't find me on SlashDot crying in my cheerios. I suggest you do the same, unless you really just needed to vent, in which case, you are welcome to sit on the couch and pontificate towards the ceiling in my office though slashdot anytime you like.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Any kid of mine would be expected to disconnect, disable, spoof, cloak, or otherwise render useless any such device. I'd be disappointed in a child who did not at least make a good try at doing so, and even more disappointed if they actually followed the restrictions.
Didn't on-star promise this a few years ago, and promptly change the EULA and track people who were no longer subscribers?
It does read like an advertisement, but it is one that, as a parent, I want to read.
I fully want this in the cars my kids drive in a few years. I recall very well my driving habits when I was 16, and they were terrible.
If my kids don't want this, they can buy their own cars and pay their own insurance. If they want to drive my cars... well... :)
Welcome to Daddy, "a.k.a. Big Brother". :)
GM and Verizon Wireless are already on the second generation of their OBD II dongle that offers the services LoJack is promising.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/7/3845570/delphi-verizon-car-connect-remotely-unlocks-cars Realtime location map, geofencing alerts, alerts when the vehicle exceeds a certain speed and what's probably equally handy - the app on your smartphone can double as an extra key fob in case they lock their keys inside.
All insurance companies here in South Africa, make it compulsory to have a tracking device in your car, I get a driving report every month, It sucks as car jackers takes less than 5 minutes to remove the device, so no benefit there.
Fight! http://www.munic.io/
LoJack To Release Tracking Devices For Consumers
How do you stick it on 'em without them noticing?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Surely, there is no potential for abuse here. Say, by a crazed ex-girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/wife. Or the NSA... well, no, they probably already have things like this.
Let the stalking begin!