Vehicle Tracking Site

A real-time vehicle tracking system can help recover a stolen car quickly!

Real-time vehicle tracking is all the rage nowadays, with the GM OnStar system being the most publicized version of it. Essentially, with this device installed on a vehicle, you can monitor its whereabouts remotely with less than a minute lag time between where the car is actually at, and where you see it on a map.

Pros of Real-Time Vehicle Tracking

From anti-theft device to managing mass transit and expansive fleets, real-time vehicle tracking devices have many, many applications, making it one of the most desirable of surveillance gadgets available today.

Cons of Real-Time Vehicle Tracking

Real-time vehicle GPS tracking systems are expensive. Not only do you have an up-front cost of $600 and up, you have a monthly service charge for the data connection that allows the device to transmit its location to a receiver and for you to read that data on the Internet.

Aftermarket Installation charges are fairly pricey too, and the antennae can break. Depending on the kind of antennae, this can also be quite costly to replace.

Some might say that real-time vehicle tracking systems can be frustrating when they are in areas that don’t have good cell phone coverage. However the devices store data as well, and as soon as it comes back into cell tower range, it updates the server with the stored data. Certainly, every month there are new cell towers going up, so this problem is becoming less and less frequent.

Examples of Usage

In 2009, the Chicago school district added real-time vehicle tracking devices to their fleet of school buses. A GPS receiver was installed on every bus, and the data on speed, latitude, longitude and heading is transmitted and compiled on a map on a website. Dispatchers log onto this site and watch the fleet of over 1,100 buses as they go about their routes. They can also focus in on one bus in particular if necessary.

The school district says that although this installation was initially expensive, the new ability to route the buses more efficiently has returned the investment in fuel savings.

Another application that is becoming increasingly popular is to install a real-time tracking device in the car of a teenage driver.  Knowing where their teens are at all times gives parents peace of mind, and enables them to get help to their teens quickly in the event of an emergency.

For families with baby boomer seniors who are becoming mentally impaired, but who still insist on driving, real-time vehicle tracking can be a sanity saver. If a mentally impaired adult becomes disoriented suddenly and doesn’t know where he or she is, the vehicle GPS tracking system can be used to rescue them, or give them directions back home from wherever they are.

Passive vehicle tracking systems can monitor fleet vehicles.

Passive vehicle tracking systems are simply ones where the data gathered by the unit is not available on a real-time basis. It is stored on the device until it comes back to home base for download. The data can be downloaded by removing it from the vehicle and plugging it into a computer via a USB port, or some devices have a transmitter that dumps the data using a wireless connection once the vehicle is within range.

Pros of Passive Vehicle Tracking Systems

Passive systems are usually much more affordable initially than real-time systems. You can generally find one for about $200. Long-term, there is no monthly service fee for the real-time data access, so you aren’t incurring any contracts with the purchase.

Another good thing about passive tracking systems is that they can record and store more data than real-time systems.  They usually record their latitude and longitude points every second, which gives you much more accurate speed measurements.

Cons of Passive Vehicle Tracking Systems

The major con of passive vehicle systems is that you don’t have real-time data. Therefore they don’t work as anti-theft devices, vehicle locators, and other uses that the majority of people have for their vehicle GPS tracking systems.

Examples of Usage

Car rental companies sometimes use passive vehicle tracking systems to ensure that customers are reasonably careful with their cars. Since a consumer must be notified that such a device is present, it acts as a deterrent, as well as providing evidence in the event that the rental company needs to take the consumer to court for damages.

Some car loan companies also use passive devices to ensure they can get their vehicles back in the event of a default. These types of devices have a wireless receiver on them so that the loan company can use them to lock out the owner if they are late on their payments. This type of passive tracking device does not necessarily record mileage and position data, but can be activated by a remote party when needed.

Businesses use passive vehicle tracking devices too, on their fleet vehicles, to ensure that employees are where they’re supposed to be, when they’re supposed to be there, and not running personal errands, taking extra long lunch breaks, etc. Supervisors can analyze the data at the end of the day, which helps to keep remote employees honest.

Courts continue to debate legalities concerning vehicle tracking.

Because GPS vehicle tracking systems are considered to be surveillance equipment, a giant controversy surrounding the legality of vehicle tracking and the possible contamination of evidence due to counter-surveillance devices like jammers and spoofers.

Magistrates have issues with vehicle GPS tracking systems and debate over their data’s trustworthiness when used in court. There is also the issue of whether the GPS vehicle tracking data was attained lawfully. Moreover, does the data lose its reliability if an effort was made to jam it or spoof it or otherwise block it? Would it be right to disallow all GPS evidence, only because it could have been interfered with?

We can consider this by looking at each kind of GPS obstructive device. A GPS detector only has the power to let the person driving know that somebody could be following them. The police find them to be nothing more than an irritant. Therefore detectors can only provide a deficiency of information, yet since a magistrate has GPS data to rule on would tend to make you think that the detector did not work. GPS Jammers causes lapses in real-time observation of the vehicle’s movements, but what is left of the trip data is trustworthy and correct. Therefore police find them to be a major irritation but since GPS tracking position updates are autonomous, the lack of any readings does not make the rest of the tracking data corrupt. GPS spoofers actually present false information to law enforcement. Unfortunately, spoofers screw up all the GPS tracking devices in a region, not just the intended or desired device.

When a spoofer is suspected, data can be collated with other GPS data in the region and a spoofer can be validated or dismissed as a possibility for strange data.

Should anti-vehicle-tracking devices be unlawful? If they cause unsafe conditions, then yes, they should certainly be moderated. But vehicle tracking systems should not be illegal because people have some very good and legal reasons to use them.