They're actually not just receivers, but transponders, and information
on the car's location, direction of travel, and speed is transmitted
continuously to a central monitoring facility. Where it is hidden in
the car is irrelevant, as there's no point in trying to disable or
defeat the system. Tampering with the transponder will cause it to
broadcast an alarm signal. If the tranmission from a vehicle's
transponder suddenly ceases altogether, the monitoring station
immediately contacts the local police with the last known location of
the vehicle. In broad terms, attempting to disable the tracking system
is generally regarded as reasonable evidence of intent to steal the
vehicle.
Hmmm . . . surcharge or prison . . . surcharge or prison . . . tough
decision, huh?
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and have the antenna integrated with the
Mark wrote:
> For the past few years, rental car companies have
> been using GPS receivers in the car to note where
> you've been. They read the information when you
> return the car. So if your contract stipulates a
> big surcharge for taking the car out of the state
> and the GPS unit shows that you did so, they'd
> apply the surcharge.
>
> If I knew where on the car the GPS antenna is
> located, I could probably prevent tracking by
> placing a metallic obstruction to the antenna's
> view of the sky.
>
> I'd guess that a GPS antenna would be most likely
> to be hidden just beneath the skin of the front
> or rear dash, which would make blocking easy. Or
> maybe car manufacturers have indulged rental-car
> companies by preinstalling GPS antennas in the bumper
> or in the roof (under a non-metallic patch, invisible
> once the car is painted).
>
> My questions:
>
> 1. Where on a rental car is the GPS antenna likely to be?
>
> 2. I understand that the GPS network includes both
> satellites and terrestrial transmitters. (See
> http://www.trimble.com/gps/how1.html ) So would
> it be enough to block the car's GPS antenna's view
> of the sky, if terrestrial signals are entering the
> vehicle horizontally?
>
>
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