Why do new cars not have built in trackers ?

chaparral

chaparral

chaparral

Caporegime
Joined
27 Nov 2005
Posts
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Location
Guernsey
Now most cars come with built in GPS as standard why do they not have some kind of built in tracker as well ? :confused:
So if the car is stolen it can be tracked..

For years you been able to install just a simple app on your mobile phone that can show you where your phone is.Why is this not been done with cars with all the tech they have in them these days..
 
Nasher said:
They need to get more inventive, like adding remote kill switches :)
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The problem with that is if you killed the power to the engine while a thief is driving it down a busy motorway it could cause a bad accident where other people could get injured.
 
chaparral said:
The problem with that is if you killed the power to the engine while a thief is driving it down a busy motorway it could cause a bad accident where other people could get injured.
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No you stick a remote camera in it as well and kill it at the most inconvenient time possible, like just after they do a robbery and are making their getaway :D
 
chaparral said:
The problem with that is if you killed the power to the engine while a thief is driving it down a busy motorway it could cause a bad accident where other people could get injured.
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Nonsense, a kill switch doesn't activate whilst driving. It disables the ignition to start the engine. Even if a kill switch was made to kill power whilst driving, the vehicle would coast and wouldn't be any more dangerous than a break down situation.
 
Nasher said:
On a modern car it probably would be dangerous lol. Very few have direct controls.
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What do you mean direct controls? Steering and brake operation is intact with no assistance regardless of electric PAS or Hydraulic. The only danger would be in stop start traffic and the car being stuck in a fast moving lane. This happens all the time with break downs all over the country so again, I wouldn't class it as dangerous.
 
Problem with a permanent tracker is the potential for abuse. If they become commonplace, how long before the home office start demanding access to all our tracking data. Or hackers break into the system and get exact location for any car they fancy nicking.
 
I work building motorhomes and all our motorhomes are fitted standard with a tracker and some with remote kill capabilities, Im shocked high end modern cars are not the same. Easy enough to install and hide away all they have is a small sim card which reads the gps location and reports it via 3g network to the system who requested it.
 
You should check out OnStar, standard on all new Vauxhalls. Includes many features including a tracker, and with the help of the police the car can be disabled if the ignition is switched off.
 
Joe T said:
You should check out OnStar, standard on all new Vauxhalls. Includes many features including a tracker, and with the help of the police the car can be disabled if the ignition is switched off.
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...with the help of the police. Yea right. By the time they do anything the car will be in pieces and the parts sold on ebay.

I mean a kill switch which the owner can just press whenever they want. Otherwise it's pointless.
 
Nasher said:
...with the help of the police. Yea right. By the time they do anything the car will be in pieces and the parts sold on ebay.

I mean a kill switch which the owner can just press whenever they want. Otherwise it's pointless.
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The Police only have to authorise OnStar to do it. And it's been done many times already. It works. :)

A killswitch that disabled the car while it is running is not only stupid and dangerous but also illegal.
 
Thing is a lot of trackers are simply a box with 2 wires going to them, One for power and one for data (canbus systems or similar) if you can find it.. it can be defeated in 2 seconds. All ours are hidden but it doesn't take more than looking around to find it as its blatantly obvious were we hide them. As will be on bmw/audi etc. This box will all be in the same sorta area
 
Unicorn said:
Thing is a lot of trackers are simply a box with 2 wires going to them, One for power and one for data (canbus systems or similar) if you can find it.. it can be defeated in 2 seconds. All ours are hidden but it doesn't take more than looking around to find it as its blatantly obvious were we hide them. As will be on bmw/audi etc. This box will all be in the same sorta area
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Is that why so many motorhomes get nicked? Every thief must know where the tracker is, so it's a rather pointless thing.
 
Takes minutes to find a tracker using the right equipment. Doesn't matter how well you hide it, it still has to send out a signal.
 
Uther said:
Is that why so many motorhomes get nicked? Every thief must know where the tracker is, so it's a rather pointless thing.
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I can't really say were we put ours but yeah, theyre in very stupid places (usually next to the bloody door as it connects to our control panel) Remove it and the motor still fires up and all electronic systems function fine. If they was smarter they would make it essential but not me who designs it
 
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