across america -- Budgeting Tips

[kellipoop]

yea, gas/car will be most of our money. it sucks because all of the people who are going are underage, and we cant find a company that will rent us a car besides this one car company atwest. has anyone heard/rented from this company? do they have trackers on their cars? thanks for the insight! love to hear more!

[Mark Sedenquist]

has anyone heard/rented from this company? do they have trackers on their cars?

We are not familiar with this company, but I can just about guarantee that there will be embedded GPS chip somewhere in the car. 99.99% of all new cars purchased in America are equipped with these chips. It only takes a couple of clicks on a computer to activate them.

Mark

[W. Larrison]

We are not familiar with this company, but I can just about guarantee that there will be embedded GPS chip somewhere in the car. 99.99% of all new cars purchased in America are equipped with these chips. It only takes a couple of clicks on a computer to activate them.

Mark

Umm... not to be a bug about this. But I had the reason to look up the statistics on this at work in the last couple of days for a study we were doing. The odds of getting a new car with a GPS chip in it is above 50% if it is a General Motors car (Chevy, Cadillac, etc.) since they us a system called "OnStar", but rather low if it is Toyota (they have a Lexus version in some Lexus models), or if cars from Chrysler or Ford. The estimate is about 42% of call new cars sold in the US (and this includes to the rental companies) will have something like OnStar in it by mid 2007. By the end of next Year, GM is planning to have it as standard on all their models, and other companies (Ford, Honda, etc) are starting to roll out equivalent services -- but they aren't on the road in significant numbers yet.

My experience is that rental cars have a much higher percentage of GPS-equipped nav systems in the cars. This is a conscious decision by the auto rental companies and the car companies which provide them with highly discounted cars -- the auto rental companies figure you'll be much more likely to be in an unfamiliar area, and more likely to rent a car again with the nav system, and the car companies provide discounted cars with the nav system as free advertising for a profitable option on new cars. However, its typically the larger, more expensive cars that are equipped with this.

Whether or not the car is equipped with a GPS navigation system will depend upon the auto rental company, the make of the car you're renting, and the size of the car/ cost of the rental from the company. My experience with "mid to economy sized" cars from several national rental chains is that I typically get about 1 car in 10 that has the GPS nav system. I rent cars on business trips typically 4-6 times a year around the US.

[Mark Sedenquist]

Umm... not to be a bug about this

That is a good pun, but believe me, I am not "speaking" about Onstar or any GPS device used for consumer navigation. All OEM vehicles built and delivered for sale in American (except for military issue and some governmental units) have built-in GPS-equipped chips that enable a vehicle to be tracked by an outside source. Rental car companies have been using this technology for a while to locate "missing inventory". Towing companies that have the contracts to recover this "missing inventory" have a hand-held transceiver in their trucks for fast recovery. These chip-set are small -- about the size of a credit card and are mounted in out-of-the-way locations in the cars and light-trucks.

Now, perhaps "kellipoop" was asking about navigational systems and your information is spot-on.

Mark

[cool]

Mark,
You might be surprised, but I did not know about this! Thanks for the insight. I just hope they do not have a microphone to record what you talk,eh!

cool

[Mark Sedenquist]

Mark,
You might be surprised, but I did not know about this! Thanks for the insight. I just hope they do not have a microphone to record what you talk,eh!

You might be surprised by the technology -- I have tested some of the units (here is one report I wrote in 2004). With it, I could tell how long it took my wife to drive from the store and by what route she took. I could also tell how fast she drove and in what lane she was....

Mark

[cool]

You might be surprised by the technology -- I have tested some of the units (here is one report I wrote in 2004). With it, I could tell how long it took my wife to drive from the store and by what route she took. I could also tell how fast she drove and in what lane she was....

Mark

That is very very scary, indeed. You think all rental companies have these?
cool

[Mark Sedenquist]

You think all rental companies have these?

Absolutely! Not a big deal -- unless you are doing something illegal with the rental car. In fact, if your personal vehicle is newer than five years old, I can guarantee it has one too....

Mark

[W. Larrison]

That is very very scary, indeed. You think all rental companies have these?
cool

All cars from a Rental company, pretty much -- and definitely from all the major companies They're protecting an asset that's worth maybe $20-50K apiece, so they put the GPS locator in them.

But I still don't think a run-of-the-mill OEM car you buy off a lot has it in, unless you either get the OnStar type system or a E-911 enabled phone in it, or one of the vehicle theft recovery system (such as LoJack). If its in the car, and the owner isn't aware of it, its a big privacy issue and the car companies would be seeing some major lawsuits I expect. The police need to get a court order to put a GPS-enabled tracker on a vehicle they want to follow -- they can't use use a handheld device to follow someone.

At work we've been looking at some aspects of the future Intelligent Vehicle Highway System and a number of technologies and options for traffic routing, optimization and even auto-drive capability. This includes some specific issues with GPS and other precision navigation systems. As background to this I've been looking at GPS and other navigation systems and what it would take to roll out some variations on precision navigation systems for different classes of vehicles.. If you look at the total number of vehicles sold, and the total number of GPS chips made, you can track how many go into each type of system -- phones, standalone systems, auto/truck systems, etc.

[Mark Sedenquist]

All cars from a Rental company, pretty much -- and definitely from all the major companies They're protecting an asset that's worth maybe $20-50K apiece, so they put the GPS locator in them.

Yep, I think it is a reasonable business practice.

But I still don't think a run-of-the-mill OEM car you buy off a lot has it in, unless you either get the OnStar type system or a E-911 enabled phone in it, or one of the vehicle theft recovery system (such as LoJack).

I used to cover the telematics industry as trade media (1999-2004) and I can relate the gist of an off-the-record conversation with a senior systems engineer for a major auto company who indicated that virtually every chipset for every model of vehicle produced in North American markets would have "room" for such a chip commencing with model year 2005. All of those legal issues remain unresolved, but the technology that can enable such telematics applications, to a large extent, already is in place and merely requires an activation code. I am not sure, but I have seen some nondescript chips/expansion card module-like-thingys in new vehicles that could be examples of this technology.

If you look at the total number of vehicles sold, and the total number of GPS chips made, you can track how many go into each type of system -- phones, standalone systems, auto/truck systems, etc.

I agree that this is an reasonable approach.

Mark