this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2024
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[–] VintageTech 13 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

I don't think enough people have mentioned that Auto manufacturers have been able to locate vehicles since the 90's.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

How did they do it tech wise?

[–] VintageTech 5 points 6 hours ago

Originally the D.A.I.R. project (Driver Aid, Information and Routing) was conceptualized in the 60's. It wasn't until Hughes assisted EDS in the 90's that they were able to create a beacon that could communicate via Satellite and Cellular.

I myself didn't realize this was a thing until about a decade ago when I was trying to create an automation for my lights to turn on when I pulled into my driveway. I kept getting a ping about 5min after my phone connected to my WiFi. The MAC matched nothing I had in the house, I just blew it off.

When an associate stopped by to work on a HoneyPot project we started seeing a bunch of random MACs attempt to connect to the open wifi, we wrote that noise off as people walking by my house and their cell phones were just trying to connect. It wasn't until the garbage man showed up and stopped to talk to me that I was able to find his truck listed with an address connected to the open wifi, sent a few packets, then left. We made the correlation that the MAC's could be from cars so we started researching the manufacturer of those device MAC's

That pretty much opened a weird rabbit hole leading us to find out that almost every car has been tracked since the mid-90's.

Joking aside, I would move to Amish country if it weren't for the whiskey and bitches. But in all honesty; my family lives a much more comfortable life than I ever imagined I would with working in the IT field.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Same as today, but slower.

GM’s OnStar was notorious for this. I think the first version had a 2G cell modem

[–] VintageTech 2 points 6 hours ago

GM's OnStar, I believe, was just EDS's tech at the time of their rollout in '96ish

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago

I sure hope so. Pretty hard to sell cars if you don’t even know where they are