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By aggregator-ios 2025-06-1113:02 JFYI: These devices are also installed on cars before it arrives at the dealer or by the dealer itself, but not necessarily by the manufacturer. Rumors are that it is installed by larger dealer groups and is obscured or just failed to be disclosed to the end dealer. Either as part of their LoJak(?) sales upsell or tracking for insurance purposes.
It's usually plugged into your OBD port. If your car has API features, some EV owners have graphed their electricity usage and shown drain/spikes at intervals and led them to find these devices. The consumption from the 12v battery causes the larger EV battery to charge the 12v battery, showing these charging/discharge spikes. There's also sometimes a sticker next to your tire pressure label on the driver's side door mentioning the installation of such a device.
I guess get rid of it if you care to.
By eschneider 2025-06-110:343 reply If you're going to try and track this stuff for real, keep in mind most devices like this use motion sensors to go into low-power mode when stationary and only transmit on the move.
Also that some devices log data locally and require manual pickup + review to avoid detection. Also LEO have been known to temporarily disable such devices when people do scans to detect them for Undercovers.
By Ylpertnodi 2025-06-114:111 reply >Also LEO have been known to temporarily disable such devices when people do scans to detect them for Undercovers.
Any more info on this?
By v7n 2025-06-119:59 Since I'm not seeing any other references, here's a timestamp for a YouTube video where an ex-undercover op is interviewed and such thing is mentioned: How FBI Undercover Agents Actually Work | Authorized Account | Insider https://youtu.be/h6au3ppTm7g?t=1123
> most devices like this use motion sensors to go into low-power mode when stationary and only transmit on the move
I've been working with (non-covert!) tracker devices for a project, and use exactly this approach, when stationary the tracker goes into low-power mode and sends position once every 12 hours to preserve battery life. When motion is detected, we send regular updates.
By theoreticalmal 2025-06-1111:441 reply If low cost is the goal, consider a voltage measurement device. ICE engines have electrical systems that run ear 13V when the engine is on, and ~12.5-12.8V when the engine is off
That would require plugging into the wiring. At that point you no longer need a battery and can just use the car's power.
By TheSoftwareGuy 2025-06-1115:191 reply I'd be wary of draining the battery while the car is off. You don't want to prevent the car from starting
By dmd 2025-06-1116:06 The ~10 or 20mA or so one of these things draws would take months to do that.
By subscribed 2025-06-1210:06 Untrue. Imagine a cute convertible car or sportbike in the snow country.
By Scoundreller 2025-06-116:033 reply We talking MEMS/inertia detection, vibration detection or auto-geo-fencing?
The absolute cheapest thing is just to never update the position unless it significantly changed. Doesn't require anything except the GPS chip.
Bluetooth beacons would need to add an accelerometer, but that undermines their use in pinpointing an object at rest.
By rickdeckard 2025-06-1110:57 Using the GPS signal to detect motion is the most power-expensive path though.
The cheapest in terms of power consumption is a simple Accelerometer/Gyroscope component. The difference can be months or even years in longer battery runtime compared to GPS.
Probably the most effective technique for detection would be attained by spoofing the GPS signals, like the IRGC did to capture multiple US' drones?
https://www.gpsworld.com/gps-circle-spoofing-discovered-in-i...
I wonder how easily GPS can be spoofed, locally ...
https://rntfnd.org/2021/10/28/cheap-and-easy-gps-gnss-spoofi...
Seems someone already had the idea:
https://www.reddit.com/r/hardwarehacking/comments/10na5c8/sp...
I used to have a GPS repeater installed in our lab for RF testing. The FAA did not like it at all and threatened us with action.
Don't go spoofing or broadcasting your own GPS signals unless you have a decent legal team behind you.
By myself248 2025-06-1112:49 Put it in an RF chamber and keep another GPS receiver outside the chamber some distance away to make sure it doesn't lose lock on the real satellites. That's your leakage canary.
By wcunning 2025-06-1115:08 We had one of those in an underground parking garage for autonomous vehicle testing at a previous job, but it was a naturally really well shielded room, and it was just repeating surface signals so no one would complain.
By eschneider 2025-06-1119:54 Sleeping the CPU until you get an interrupt from an IMU or simple motion detector is a common way to do this. It's not about being stealthy so much as extending battery life.
By cryptonector 2025-06-1119:04 Whichever one is cheapest energy-wise. My guess is MEMS.
By theoreticalmal 2025-06-1111:46 Hey this is my industry! Teltonika is a major player in the IoT tracking space. They have features designed specifically to handle this situation. I’m told that GPS jamming and radio pinpointing techniques are used to steal vehicles with these kinds of telematics devices installed, especially in Africa
