(Replying to PARENT post)
When direction finding was used Doppler DF based on multiple antennas was rare due to the high cost of the electronics package, which also consumed a lot of trunk space. Most police departments did it the old fashioned way with a handheld log periodic they waved around. Another part of the decline of the original Lojack system was the high price of providing good DF receivers to police departments, so not many had them. LoJack never got big into having their own DF "hunters" on staff like other companies using transponders did.
(Replying to PARENT post)
Cars that were outfitted with low jack would have the devices removed or disabled before the tracking could be enabled and as they didn’t report their position the police would have nothing to go by.
Whilst I agree that the information sharing is pretty despicable since you are already paying for that service the new model is more useful at least in a situation where the police actually has resources for recovery instead of doing the bare minimum because most vehicles are insured.
There probably is a market for a solution that would be more reliable than an airtag but one that you can control.
One can probably build one fairly easily with a low power SBC with cellular capability and one of those IOT global sim plans.
(Replying to PARENT post)
(Replying to PARENT post)
With the pay-once AirTags you can just find the car thief yourself and shoot them.
https://nypost.com/2023/04/02/texas-man-used-apple-airtag-to...
(Replying to PARENT post)
"In March 2016, the company was acquired for $134 million by CalAmp, an Irvine, California-based provider of Internet of things (IoT) software applications, cloud services, data intelligence and telematics products and services.[4]
In March 2021, the vehicle intelligence company Spireon announced it had acquired the LoJack U.S. Stolen Vehicle Recovery business from CalAmp, joining LoJack users with "nearly 4 million active subscribers from over 20,000 current Spireon customers".[5]
Under Spireon, LoJack technology moved from RF-based location to GPS and cellular-based technology, growing availability of the solution throughout the U.S. and Hawaii and expanding the solution from only stolen vehicle recovery into connected car technology for both dealers and consumers."
(Replying to PARENT post)
By which time it is already chopped up for parts or, in the case of places like Phoenix, is already in Mexico.
I used to have a roommate who grew up in NYC, had a somewhat dubious past and was talking about LoJack one day. He claimed it doesn’t work well enough in dense urban areas to get a precise location fix to actually impede theft. IIRC they would have enough time to disable it as long as they stayed around tall buildings. Something like they would park the car in an alley between buildings and find the LoJack before doing whatever with the car.
I’ve known a few youthful car thieves over the years with some interesting stories.
(Replying to PARENT post)
(Replying to PARENT post)
my first 'nice' car had lojack installed in it. i remember it was about $200, and that's all, but this was 10+ years ago. i wonder if it's still out there...
(Replying to PARENT post)
Outstanding name! Their marketing team has a wicked sense of humor.
(Replying to PARENT post)
Capitalism, you scary.
(Replying to PARENT post)
Classic LoJack had good privacy. It's a box hidden somewhere in the car, with a connection to vehicle power. It has a transmitter, but normally doesn't transmit. If your car is stolen, you report this to the police, which report it to LoJack. That broadcasts an ID over a subcarrier of some local FM broadcast station. The receiver in the Lojack unit listens for those IDs, and if its own ID comes up, it turns on. It starts loudly transmitting to units in police cars, giving approximate direction and range. If you see a police car with four short whip antennas on the roof in a square pattern, that's a Lojack-equipped vehicle. It's uses radio direction finding. The vehicle box has no idea where it is. It's a totally independent system - no cellular, no GPS.
So this only tracks vehicles which have flagged as stolen. It's not constantly phoning home.
Classic Lojack is a one-time charge, with no annual fees.
The current product, LoJack AnalProbe™, which they call "Connected Car", constantly phones home, reporting your location, battery level, etc. to the mothership. There's an app to review where you've been. And, inevitably, the EULA says that Lojack may "share information with LoJack’s affiliated companies, Service Providers and/or third parties in conjunction with the Software and Services and for the purpose of providing You with any promotional offers and marketing materials as may be permitted by applicable law."
You get to pay a subscription fee for this.