Paranoia on the run: track your car with your cellphone

Guidepoint Systems has upgraded their OnStar-like service for usage with any WAP capable device. You'll need to sign up for a service plan ($99-$149 a year) and have their system installed, but then you just log onto their website with your phone or other wireless device and you can track your car's location, start the engine, honk the horn, or unlock the doors to your heart's content. It uses the Cingular network for coverage and should be available today.

[Via Strange New Products]

[Walter @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

And once again a step closer to Big Brother....

[rdkay @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

what happens when there is no gps signal (tunnel) or no wireless coverage (mountains)? you cannot start the engine anymore? don't see really the benefit of this... tracking the car if its stolen ok, but otherwise....?

[IllPhil @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

not only one step closer to big brother, but imagine what happens if the whole network gets hacked and all horns from all registered cars start HHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNing in the middle of the night, or if engines are started, first gear is put in, all cars are driving around like mad without no driver and start taking over the world *punch, ouch damn*, aaight, once again my paranoid me exaggereted a bit

[crypt @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Said it before and I'll say it again,

LAND OF THE FREE MY ARSE!!!!


*ahem...

[tehdai @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Yeah. FREE CRYPT'S ARSE! Or something...

[Joe @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Walter and Crypt:

I hope I'm not pointing out the obvious, but... This is a service to which you have to subscribe. You are still free; don't subscribe to the service.

Wow, the skynet doesn't look so scary now, does it? When you're both old enough to own a car, you will have a *choice* as to whether you want this system or not. Madness, I know.

[Feroz @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

every hacker will be all over this looking for a way to hhhhhhhooooooonnnnnnkkkkkkk horns all over the place...seems like a good idea, but car stealing will be more for computer-hacking nerds instead of the good-ol' coat-hanger tricksters...

[fistpittingnork @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Posted Oct 28, 2005, 5:24 AM ET by rdkay
what happens when there is no gps signal (tunnel) or no wireless coverage (mountains)? you cannot start the engine anymore?

Then you're left with nothing but the primitive means of starting your car with a key like a sucker. But like you said, you see no benefit - I'm in agreeance.

And surely there's no benefit to honking your horn via your Nokia rather than for pure amusement, right?

[fistpittingnork @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Posted Oct 28, 2005, 9:08 AM ET by Feroz
car stealing will be more for computer-hacking nerds instead of the good-ol' coat-hanger tricksters...

Guys like "Greasy Pete" and "Chain" stealing cars who get caught by starting high-speed pursuits is yesterday's news, tomorrow it's "Walter" and "Milfred" who will get caught because they left their inhalors, complete with prescription sticker, in the cup holder.

[Brad @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Hey, stuff like this has been available forever. Check out http://www.thewitness.net -- full cellphone or internet control, and has a wicked text-to-speech system to boot! I think service starts at only $79/year too...

[ScottG @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

My wife has had this in her car for a couple of years. Was an interesting alternative to LoJack.

The GPS tracking stuff has been part of the package for a while....trackability from the web, etc. The news is the new features...the WAP accessibility of the tracking and adding the "onstar-ish" remote control features.

We got the system mainly for the theft alarm/recovery feature....the alarm's GPS based. Once you arm the alarm, if the car moves more than a certain amount before it's disarmed, it'll fire off an alert to the monitoring service.

Yeah, if you get it into a no-coverage area in time, the alert doesn't get out. Lo-Jack kind of has a similar problem...if you're in a shielded area, the box won't get the alarm activation, and/or the police tracking units won't get a signal to triangulate.

I doin't get all the complaint comments though. It isn't significantly different than OnStar at this point. There are a lot of other services that do the same thing...some better, some worse.

[GreenAmigo @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Why not just use 2 Garmin Rhinos - one wired into your car?

[tiuk @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

Call me crazy, but wouldn't it be smarter to give the option of killing the engine online, or locking the doors?

[segahekui @ Dec 19th 2005 2:31AM]

the horn can be used when you forgot where you parked.. which happens a lot if you park in huge garages.
the engine start is good when you don't feel like going outside to warm up your car in the winter; theyve had a remote start for the longest of times.. doesnt hurt to have it in this package
.. but really though, this stuff has been around for a while now. all they did was make it compatible with cellphones?