[ANON POST] Tracking of a car GPS

[kutsuwamushi]

My fic is set at the present time, in New York city to be exact

Comments

[dorianegray]

Cars do not (yet, at least!) come fitted with GPS devices. SatNav (GPS) devices can be freely swapped between cars.

Therefore, the answer to your question is no, if the detective only knows the car's registration number, he cannot track its GPS device, because any GPS device there may be is not in any way related to the registration number.

[landrews]

Check out On-Star. I don't subscribe, and yet they can tell law enforcement where I am at any given moment.

[ffutures]

Presumably you bought it and installed it at some point - maybe that was enough.

edit - Meant to add that On-Star appears to be a lot more than a basic satnav system - it's monitoring vehicle instruments etc, includes some sort of cellphone, etc.

But I got my first satnav over the counter in a car accessory shop, the second on eBay. There is no way ownership could be linked to either of the two motorbikes I used them on.

[dorianegray]

Okay, it appears that some cars do in fact come equipped with GPS devices. (Damn, the future overtook me when I wasn't looking!) But if the character in question is not driving a fairly new GM vehicle, it will not have OnStar and will not be trackable.

[dorianegray]

lol! I'm not sure if I read or hear it somewhere, but I just assumed some did. Thanks for the reply, though :)