Team-BHP - Apple AirTag as a car tracker

Apple has launched AirTag a button-sized object with location awareness for tracking. It has a year's battery life and communicates to any iPhone 11 & 12 which is in its Bluetooth range. With its capabilities along with the ecosystem of billions of iPhones, there are endless possibilities for its usage.
One such use which came to my mind is car tracking. Since the device size itself is so small it can easily be hidden in a car. So in case of car theft, there are good chances of tracking the same. All it needs is to come across a user with an iPhone 11 or 12 in its Bluetooth range, and voila! you have your vehicle location.
There are definitely major privacy concerns about this as it can be easily used to spy on you. Apple has promised to take care of this and I believe they will have the necessary checks for it.

Well the use case makes a lot of sense. Was expecting Apple to showcase the same during yesterday’s event. But they didn’t. For them AirTag usefulness is limited to finding keys, bags only. This makes me suspect the viability of this as a car locator. Or probably connected car features now standard across models in many countries, Apple didn’t want to dilute the wow factor associated with AirTag’s usability.

I'm still not clear on the tech or how this device even works. Bluetooth has a limited range so if you leave it in your car and its driven off, how is this transmitter going to communicate back to your device? Is it going to frequency hop or pair automatically with other iphones in the vicinity, that further transmits the device location which finally reaches your phone via the cellular network.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan (Post 5047976)

When the AirTag comes in contact with any iPhone 11, 12 in the vicinity it just sends its device id to that phone. Then the phone relays this information along with the current location to Apple cloud. Then the cloud then pushes the location information of the AirTag to the owner via the find my phone app. Overall the technology is simple and hence can be very successful.
It could still be patchy in countries like India where there arent enough iPhones sold. But in countries like the USA where every alternate person owns an Iphone, tracking could be very quick and accurate.

I just leave an old Android phone hidden in the car and use Google's "Find my Device" feature to make sure the car is where I left it.

https://www.google.com/android/find

Since I leave the car in a public, unsecured parking in my hometown for days this is the best jugaad solution I have. The phone itself needs a bit of customisation (ringer/notifications off, display off etc. all the time) and this time, I left it hooked to a powerbank too (needed it up for 3 days).

Quote:

Originally Posted by sunilg33 (Post 5047993)

So the location of my car is going to be picked up by anybody with an iPhone? and then send up to the cloud. I hope all those folks are on unlimited data plans! Admittedly it is a likely to be a very small amount of data, but whoever’s iPhone is picking up your tracker signal is going to be charged for it! Cheeky!!

Jeroen

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeroen (Post 5048025)

Technically yes. But the data might hardly be a few bytes and minuscule compared to the amount of data being transmitted every second these days.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sunilg33 (Post 5048054)

Technically yes. But the data might hardly be a few bytes and minuscule compared to the amount of data being transmitted every second these days.

Oh, it is only a little bit of stealing, that’s alright than? And my mobile phone is receiving and transmitting data about somebody else’s car, without me knowing it or having approved that?

Jeroen

Quote:

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan (Post 5047976)

Not sure if this is GPS based, but I have seen such devices in electronic stores abroad. They can be used to keep a watch on your kids, pets, elderly etc. This is not the first time such a product has hit our market, but apple being apple, lot of folks will get this for sure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEFOPnxXPBo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmJu3IafQNo

Quote:

Originally Posted by sunilg33 (Post 5047993)

When the AirTag comes in contact with any iPhone 11, 12 in the vicinity it just sends its device id to that phone.
It could still be patchy in countries like India where there arent enough iPhones sold.

Seems it is compatible on android too. Got the below from the device support page.

Quote:

If you find an AirTag after hearing it make a sound, you can use any device that has NFC, such as an iPhone or Android phone, to see if its owner marked it as lost and help return it.

Source:https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212227

Pricing as is with Apple products definitely comes at a premium. :)

Quote:

Apple says the AirTag will be available in one and four packs for ₹3190 and ₹10900, respectively, from apple.com and through Apple Authorised Resellers at the end of the month, while AirTag accessories like the Leather Key Ring in Saddle Brown, (PRODUCT)RED, and Baltic Blue for ₹3590 the Leather Loop in Saddle Brown and (PRODUCT)RED will retail for ₹3990.

Source:https://tech.hindustantimes.com/tech...987257364.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrackDay (Post 5048219)

Tile pretty much does the same thing, but the Apple ecosystem and its sheer size in terms of iPhones around is what makes AirTag more easily trackable. Compared to some recent device pricing from Apple, the AirTag is still relatively affordable $99 for 4 tags.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sunilg33 (Post 5048203)

It might not be without your approval. It might come as separate permission which users can disable if they want to. But if you are an AirTag user you might not be able to disable it.
How have they exactly addressed the privacy concerns will be known in a week or two.

It relies on not just your own, but everybody to have this enabled. It won’t work otherwise. You need a lot of people, i.e. all your subscribers/customers to have this enabled or you won’t have a dense enough coverage.

the technology is nothing new. In fact when I was in India I remember some innovation event I attended, or maybe even hosted.

There was a small Indian start up company that had developed this exact same product. Same circular thing for on a key ring. They had developed their own app for it.

For the live of me I can’t remember what they were called. But I did come across their product occasionally. Usually electronic shops at airports.

Maybe it is the same and Apple acquired the company?

Does anybody recall that Indian start up I’m referring too?

Jeroen

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeroen (Post 5048025)

So the location of my car is going to be picked up by anybody with an iPhone? and then send up to the cloud.

I suppose this is also going to work on BT LE, similar to how those contact tracing apps work. The "anyone with iphone" is not going to pick up your specific cars location I'm sure; just a blob of encrypted data that it would simply pass onwards to Apple's cloud where it'd be decrypted and the rightful owner notified.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeroen (Post 5048025)

Admittedly it is a likely to be a very small amount of data, but whoever’s iPhone is picking up your tracker signal is going to be charged for it!

Apple/Google already uses a lot of data as per reports. The quite legitimate "backup" use-case alone probably would far exceed the usage attributable to this device.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sunilg33 (Post 5047907)

One such use which came to my mind is car tracking. Since the device size itself is so small it can easily be hidden in a car.

It is exactly what came to my mind as well. However, I don't think an AirTag would fit this purpose (and hence not showcased by Apple).

Reason : It is not discrete. AirTag would announce it's presence to the thief :D Thief would know that he is being tracked with an AirTag.

Quoting Apple : "iOS devices can also detect an AirTag that isn’t with its owner, and notify the user if an unknown AirTag is seen to be traveling with them from place to place over time. And even if users don’t have an iOS device, an AirTag separated from its owner for an extended period of time will play a sound when moved to draw attention to it. If a user detects an unknown AirTag, they can tap it with their iPhone or NFC-capable device and instructions will guide them to disable the unknown AirTag"

https://www.apple.com/in/newsroom/20...oduces-airtag/