Wanted CASH REWARD stolen Bentley supersports in Sherman oaks

Sorry to hear that, no GPS tracker?

 

Bummer. At this point, you may not want it back.

 

He might if for some reason the car is not insured, or if the car had some thing secreted in it of extreme importance and/or value.

 

True.

 

It’s honestly shocking to me that a modern car of this echelon can be stolen. You’d think it’s impossible to hot wire a car like this. I suppose it could’ve been flatbedded away but even that seems crazy.

 

"In 2022, the Continental GT was the third most stolen luxury sports car in the United States, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB)."

https://vgmotorsdirect.com/lojack-for-bentley-continental-gt/?srsltid=AfmBOooXifJfxERhidlphsNrHcQjm4248iL1ejpX7-eyXmuztcxbOQ4E

 

Modern cars with a proximity key are the easiest cars in the world to steal.

 

Particularly those with systems/subsystems sourced from parts bin of other makes.

 

It is but with the wireless tech, you can now open these cars in less than 30 sec with the proper equipment, by hacking the key fobs signal and amplifying the signal until the car opens.
Then you ship it to Africa or Eastern Europe.

 

An apple air tag for $15.00
should be mandatory...by law
It would even work in Nigeria....where it probably is now

 

I would ummmm, not take "WhistlinDiesel" as anything other than fictional entertainment.

 

Sure thing.

 

Conversely

 

Currently...I have about 7 air tags..
They make silicone key fobs, I have them on 4 key chains and 3 cars...
when my son takes the car out, between my life 360 and the apple tag...I can prove he was at a spot in car.
Gadgets Gadgets Gadgets!

 

So my understanding that the issue with apple air tags specifically is that a user with an iPhone can prompt the response of a nearby airtag. It won't tell them that here is one near but it will ask it to connect to the phone or whatever indicating a presence.

The ask and answer will tell the thiefs that's they need to keep digging to find the airtag.

I guess other devices like that are similar do not do this.

I am not an apple guy so I can't confirm but certainly someone more tech savvy can clarify.

 

https://www.asurion.com/connect/tech-tips/how-to-stop-an-airtag-from-tracking-you/

https://wingatestudents.my.site.com/bulldogcentral/s/article/AirTag-Tracking

 

Air tags are good for stuff like "where is my luggage" or if you're worried your cat or dog might get out and end up lost. You can also use them as sort of a proximity alarm and have them alert you when anyone is nearby with an iPhone where maybe they shouldn't be lurking around (for example in a storage shed on your property or at your workshop after hours, etc.). If your grandmother has a bad habit of wandering off, then an air tag would be a great solution to put in her shoes or something.

I personally wouldn't suggest them as the first line of defense against car theft, particularly not if we are talking about multi hundreds of thousands of dollar type exotic or luxury cars.

On my vehicles, I originally contemplated using the Air Tag idea; in the end I felt like it was too easily detected and bypassed to be worthwhile.

The system I settled on some years ago is just a home-brew DIY solution. What I did was this: bought an older iPhone 6s that had a slightly chipped screen off eBay and installed a fresh battery in it. Activated it on a low cost "pay for what you use" cellular provider and then buried it so deep in the car that nobody would ever find it without taking half the car apart. It's hard wired into a little 12V USB charger for backup power / charging. The battery in the phone itself provides around a week of standby and GPS tracking. If the phone dies, then as soon as the car is turned to ON or stated again, the USB charger brings everything back on line within just a couple of minutes - the phone itself doesn't even have to be officially turned on; so long as it has some power, the GPS location services come back on-line.

If I want to see where my car is and/or track it in real time, I just text the # and click on "info" and it brings up a real time map showing the location of the vehicle. If the car is driving down the road, the map shows the location tracking down the highway, etc. in real time. The system is extremely low cost and works worldwide. Cost is typically around $6-8 a month for the cellular service. The entire setup cost was around $100 bucks, including the phone, fresh battery, mount and hard wire USB charger.

Once it's all setup, just share your location and you have 24/7 GPS tracking at your finger tips. Below is my Toyota, parked in the garage.

Ray

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This is the USB thing I used to hard wire into the car itself, in case anyone in the future is curious.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M7R8C2O

Ray

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Thanks for the tip, may use my latest retired android phone for this.

 

I would happily buy an easy to use, cost effective, secure, hard to find, reliable solution but the issue is none to date meet all those needs

 

I've had companies fail on me. Not fun, but you learn a great deal in the process.

Did you guys build your board from the ground up? Doing your own GPS signal stuff and then using a cellular network to communicate back to your servers and all that?

That's pretty jazzy stuff. Someone over there and/or on your team must be pretty technically adept. This is the kind of stuff the company I used to work for did for places like the military and CIA, etc. Clients would show up, need something wild and crazy and we built it from the ground up - hardware, boards, coding, everything. No small feat.

Ray

 

I used that Nordic family on a series of bus/coach tracking, along with cell connections. That plus a MEMS, GPS, and WiFi. Now we're doing a lot of deep bus dives on modern vehicles for aftermarket entertainment - CAN/MOST/AE/A2B and others. Typically, we try to stay off OBD because of other unknown devices on those ports.

 

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