I need to do some research. Cars in my neighborhood are being stolen and I don’t want mine to become a statistic. The question for me is do I want something sophisticated that does a lot more than I need, or will a basic solution suffice?
Bay View Hotel in beautiful Kaiaua which hopefully is still in good condition after the terrible storm that flooded the area a few days ago
Ideally if my vehicle was stolen, I’d want to be able to locate it and while its illegal and dangerous to stop or govern a car while it is moving, it would be good to not allow it to get started again when it is stationary and at a good point where I could quickly guide Police to it, given it is not appropriate to take the law into my own hands.
Being a sports car, it would be good to know that noone is taking it for joy rides while it is being serviced, but most of the time it goes to Wall Motors who brought it in for me and I know and trust them.
On the other hand, I really would want it back in one piece and the person who stole it, having a new place to stay on my taxpayer dollar, if you get what I mean. So my question is, would a really low cost disruptive technology be good enough instead of the more sophisticated system requiring installation?
The simple answer is that I don’t know yet, but I will find out. I’m keen to compare conventional car GPS trackers with something quite different.
I made a little investment into Magpie “the smartest, truly global GPS Tracker around” back in June last year on Kickstarter. They are due to ship next month so I’m getting really excited to find out if this product will live up to my expectations, which I’m sure they will given the pedigree of the founders Derek and Calum Handley, Raul Oaida, and Keiji Takeuchi.
So I’m really looking forward to testing this technology on its own and against traditional car tracking systems. Then I’ll be in a position to make a recommendation to you, dear reader.
If you have tried either of these systems, I’d love some comments as to what you believe is the best solution when all you are looking for is keeping track of your valuable car, not so much how fast it is going and whether it is being driven safely without harsh braking, lead feet (not me) or whether the young person who borrowed it is truly where they said they were.
Do you own a vehicle or other tracking device besides your mobile?
SoLoMo Consulting 
The Iranians figured out how to spoof GPS satellite transmissions so they could capture an American military drone. Other public radar technologies were modified to escape arrest. It’s an arms race. Do transmissions enter or escape shipping containers? Try inertial navigation instead.
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