If you have old cars like I do, or perhaps newer cars without any inbuilt tracking features, you may be looking at an Apple AirTag, a Samsung Galaxy SmartTag+ or a GPS unit with LTE to keep track of your car in case it's stolen.
But, how well do each of these work? Paul Maric tests out all three technologies to see which is best.
Tests include:
- Four waypoints to see which device is most accurate at each waypoint
- What happens when there is no cell coverage? Which device finds the car to its nearest location?
- What happens when you go looking for the car out on the street?
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Ultra Wideband (UWB) explained: 00:41
Apple AirTag explained: 01:16
Samsung SmartTag+ explained: 02:07
GPS LTE explained: 02:39
Testing methodology explained: 03:15
Test 1 (driving to location with no cell coverage): 04:52
Test 2 (walking to car location in random place): 11:12
Verdict: 12:42
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
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#airtag #smarttag+ #review #comparison #technology
But, how well do each of these work? Paul Maric tests out all three technologies to see which is best.
Tests include:
- Four waypoints to see which device is most accurate at each waypoint
- What happens when there is no cell coverage? Which device finds the car to its nearest location?
- What happens when you go looking for the car out on the street?
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Ultra Wideband (UWB) explained: 00:41
Apple AirTag explained: 01:16
Samsung SmartTag+ explained: 02:07
GPS LTE explained: 02:39
Testing methodology explained: 03:15
Test 1 (driving to location with no cell coverage): 04:52
Test 2 (walking to car location in random place): 11:12
Verdict: 12:42
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#airtag #smarttag+ #review #comparison #technology
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul.
00:01 So, if you own old cars like I do, or even have new cars that don't have GPS tracking,
00:06 maybe you've considered buying one of these to stick inside the car so you can track it.
00:10 It's the Apple AirTag and the Samsung Galaxy SmartTag+.
00:14 How well do they actually work though at tracking your car if it's stolen?
00:18 That's what we're going to find out today.
00:19 We're comparing both of these against a device that's specifically built for tracking your car.
00:24 This has GPS inside it and an LTE connection.
00:27 Also has an emergency mode so it can give you fairly real-time updates on where your car's located.
00:32 Now, if you haven't done so already, make sure you subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon
00:35 so you can find out every single time we do one of these car tech/explainer videos.
00:40 But let's get started.
00:41 Now, before we go for a drive and test all of this stuff out,
00:45 I just wanted to explain how this technology works.
00:47 Regardless of whether you go for the Apple or the Samsung device,
00:49 both of them use what's called ultra-wideband technology.
00:52 Now, this isn't new.
00:53 It's been around since the early 2000s and it transmits data across a wide radio bandwidth.
00:59 It sends pulses every other nanosecond and it can use a bandwidth between 500MHz
01:04 and several GHz depending on the device and that helps it avoid interference.
01:07 It's also inherently secure.
01:09 Ultra-wideband has the ability to encrypt data.
01:11 It also has the ability to do random number generation and cryptography as well.
01:15 Let's start off with the Apple AirTag.
01:17 I'll explain how this works.
01:18 So inside this is an Apple U1 chip plus a small battery.
01:22 The idea behind this is as you're walking around or driving around,
01:26 this is able to use other Apple devices to transmit your location.
01:30 So this doesn't have GPS or anything inside it.
01:32 All it does is when an Apple device goes past, it detects one of these
01:36 and it transmits the exact GPS location back to Apple's servers securely.
01:41 And then the person that owns this device and only the person that owns this device
01:45 can see where its last location was.
01:47 That means you're opening yourself up to a network of around one and a half billion
01:51 Apple devices globally that can transmit the location of one of these devices.
01:55 So you can see here that this is incredibly scalable
01:58 and the concept behind this is really smart because this doesn't use a great deal of power
02:02 and then any Apple device that's near it can actually help locate this,
02:06 which in turn will locate your car.
02:07 Now what about the Samsung device?
02:08 Well this operates pretty much in the same way as the Apple device,
02:12 except where the Apple device can only be found by Apple devices,
02:15 this one here can actually be found by Samsung devices and only Samsung devices.
02:20 So that means that you will use a network of Android devices,
02:24 Samsung Galaxies, to find the location of this item and then it transmits the data to
02:28 Google servers and it comes back down to you so you can find the precise location of your device.
02:33 This one's slightly different though,
02:34 a double tap of this allows you to locate your phone as well so it works kind of in reverse.
02:38 Now finally this one here, the GPS device.
02:41 Inside this there's a GPS unit plus LTE, so this can use 2G, 3G, 4G or 5G
02:48 to relay the exact GPS location to a server, it then comes down to an interface.
02:53 Now this is extra handy because if it doesn't have a GPS signal,
02:56 so if you're in a tunnel or some other location where the GPS signal is stopped,
03:00 it can actually use cell triangulation and that means that you do get a more approximate location,
03:04 it's not quite as exact as GPS, but when it is in emergency mode it sends extra pulses
03:10 so that the location is more precise and it's transmitted more regularly.
03:14 So I've explained how the devices work, how is our test going to work?
03:17 I think I've come up with something that covers all bases and I've enlisted my colleague Scott.
03:22 Hello.
03:23 Yes, he's quite tall.
03:24 Scott is going to be driving about 40 kilometres away from the Melbourne CBD,
03:29 which is where our office is and where we're located now.
03:32 Along the way he's going to pass a number of checkpoints.
03:34 We've synced the vision in the car with the office upstairs.
03:38 Scott's then going to check in with me as he passes those checkpoints
03:41 and as he passes those checkpoints we're going to see how accurate each device is
03:46 at tracking the location.
03:48 So that should mean that we'll be able to get a better idea of which device works well
03:52 and whether they work at all.
03:54 His final destination is going to be a spot where there is no phone reception.
03:57 So that's ultimately going to see exactly how our GPS device works
04:01 and how accurate the rest of the devices are when they run out of phone reception
04:05 and a, I guess, network to relay through them.
04:08 We've mounted all the devices on the dashboard of the car here just for the purpose of simplicity.
04:13 I think if you were going to hide these in your car, if it ever got stolen,
04:17 you'd want to put them into a clever location.
04:18 But just for simplicity, they're up along the dashboard there.
04:21 And a caveat as well, Scott is an Apple user and we don't want to influence the accuracy
04:26 of the AirTag by using Scott's phone to relay its location constantly.
04:31 So we've disabled Scott's ability to relay AirTag locations.
04:34 So that'll mean we're relying simply on the public for the Apple device
04:37 and also the Samsung device.
04:39 And then finally the GPS device has its own LTE SIM card.
04:43 So that should be able to work on its own.
04:45 So let's get started.
04:46 Scott, you can head off.
04:48 I'm going to run back upstairs and we will check in with you shortly.
04:51 Let's do it.
04:51 So we're back at the office.
05:02 We've got our first checkpoint, which is inside the tunnel,
05:05 because I want to get a better idea of whether these devices are going to work
05:08 when they're inside the tunnel.
05:10 So Scott is on the phone to me now.
05:11 Scott, are you about to pass our checkpoint?
05:13 - I am just about to pass your checkpoint, yes.
05:15 - Okay, cool.
05:16 I'm going to refresh all of our devices here
05:19 and let's have a look at what they're all saying.
05:22 Okay, okay, perfect.
05:27 So at the moment we have the Samsung that's detected his exact location,
05:32 which is just on the edge of the tunnel as he drives out of it.
05:35 We've got our GPS unit that's detected his location
05:38 on the outside of the tunnel plus his speed.
05:40 But the Apple device here hasn't located anything.
05:42 It's still showing that he's inside the tunnel.
05:45 I'm going to try and just refresh that just to see if we can get a better idea of that.
05:51 So it looks like the Samsung device is up to date,
05:54 but the Apple device is out.
05:56 It's 10 minutes ago was the last update and that was at the entrance of the tunnel.
06:00 So it is interesting to see that this doesn't seem to have as much accuracy.
06:03 Scott, we'll chat to you again when we get to our next checkpoint.
06:07 Okay, so it was a little bit surprising that the Apple device
06:10 didn't update for something like 15 minutes.
06:12 It's finally got an update now and the Samsung has been updating the entire way along.
06:17 Potentially Scott has, I don't know,
06:18 someone with a Samsung driving next to him or something like that.
06:21 We have noticed though with our GPS unit, the one that we bought,
06:24 it's, I don't know, it's playing up.
06:26 It's not really being entirely accurate.
06:27 So we're still running that inside the car and it's running in the background here.
06:31 But what we've also got running is the car's inbuilt tracking,
06:34 which is Connect to Drive, uses the same principle as the GPS module that we have.
06:38 So it uses the car's GPS plus the car's LTE service to locate the car.
06:43 And you can see that the location of this is very accurate.
06:46 So let's see what it's like at the next check-in with Scott.
06:49 Okay, time for our next checkpoint.
06:58 I've got Scott on the phone here.
06:59 So we've discovered here that the GPS unit that we bought is updating every 10 minutes or so,
07:04 which isn't enough accuracy.
07:05 We've kept it running, but Connect to Drive is updating live.
07:08 So I'll refresh that.
07:09 Scott, can you let me know when you are about to pass our waypoint?
07:14 I'm just coming up to it now, about a kilometre away.
07:17 Reception's not great here as we're talking,
07:20 but also worth mentioning, I've spent a bit of time sat at the light surrounded by cars.
07:23 So hopefully there's some phones there to pick me up.
07:26 Perfect. Okay.
07:26 So our devices are all updating at the moment.
07:29 We can see here the Apple last got an update five minutes ago
07:32 and the Samsung four minutes ago.
07:34 We'll do a refresh there just to see if we have anything new and we'll refresh this.
07:38 There we go.
07:39 So the Samsung has just received an update, which is showing exactly where its location is.
07:45 The Apple is still out of date.
07:47 So six minutes ago, and you can see here,
07:49 the locations are the exact same with the car's live GPS and the Samsung.
07:53 So I don't know, the Apple just continues to disappoint here,
07:56 which is really surprising.
07:57 I would have thought we'd see a little bit more accuracy there.
07:59 It's doing one more update now.
08:00 We'll see if that changes.
08:01 Nah, still six minutes ago.
08:02 So Scott, we will let you keep driving until we hear from you at our next waypoint.
08:08 Perfect guys, speak to you soon.
08:09 Righto, time for our next checkpoint update.
08:17 Scott's a little more remote now, so there's less phones around and it also means less reception.
08:23 Scott, can you let me know when you're about to pass our checkpoint?
08:26 I have just come past our checkpoint.
08:28 I've also just been beat by a man in a red overgarment, so tick and tick.
08:31 Perfect.
08:32 Alright, I'm going to just refresh our screens here just to see where we are at.
08:37 Refresh the BMW one and also our slightly dodgy GPS one.
08:42 Okay, so BMW refreshing.
08:44 So according to the iPhone, our last update was about six minutes ago,
08:48 which is quite a distance from where you are now.
08:50 The BMW has found exactly where you're located and the Samsung is updating at the moment
08:58 with its last update seven minutes ago.
09:01 Let's see if it's found anything extra there.
09:04 Okay, so that's still working.
09:05 So what we're seeing so far is that yes, it works quite well when you're in and around.
09:08 Actually, hold on, there you go.
09:09 The Samsung just updated and that's actually exactly where you are.
09:13 So what we're seeing here is the GPS is quite reliable in terms of getting the information
09:18 that it needs as long as it has LTE.
09:20 The Apple stays sort of the least reliable method of tracking a car and the Samsung the
09:28 most reliable without having to go down the path of GPS.
09:30 Our next update is going to be when Scott gets to a location with no LTE.
09:34 So this will ultimately be the last known point that it's able to pick up so that we
09:38 can find out exactly where those cars are.
09:39 We will talk to you shortly, Scott.
09:41 Sounds good.
09:41 Thanks, guys.
09:42 Okay, so Scott has just called me, but he has run out of reception and that call is
09:55 going to drop out.
09:55 He can't, there it is, it's dead.
09:57 So he's currently reached a spot where there is no more phone reception.
10:00 I've just refreshed all of these screens so we can see the final locations for each
10:05 of these devices.
10:06 In the centre here we have the GPS.
10:07 The GPS has located him to within a few hundred metres of where the last known phone reception
10:12 is.
10:12 We know that this spot just here is where there's no phone reception and you can see
10:16 here that it's located at pretty much down to the final few metres.
10:20 The Apple, last location was 10 minutes ago.
10:23 If I zoom that out, that's still ages from where Scott is.
10:26 Scott's sort of around here somewhere.
10:27 The Samsung, on the other hand, three minutes ago is just down the road from where Scott
10:32 is.
10:32 So Scott's right there.
10:34 So what we can see here is that the Samsung is going to be the best device to have in
10:38 the car if you don't want to invest in a GPS unit.
10:41 The Apple is surprisingly not very good.
10:43 I would have thought in Australia at the very least there wasn't like a proportionally
10:47 larger number of Samsung devices than Apple devices.
10:50 So that kind of makes me believe that the implementation of the hardware potentially
10:55 isn't as good in the Apple devices as it is in the Samsung devices.
10:59 But this reigns supreme.
11:01 If you do really want car tracking in your car, it seems like the GPS with LTE is the
11:05 best way to go simply because you have precise GPS module and you have LTE as a backup to
11:09 relay it all the time.
11:11 OK, there's Scott calling now.
11:12 I'll just pop him on speaker.
11:14 Scott, can you hear us?
11:14 I've got you guys.
11:16 I've found the reception.
11:17 OK, perfect.
11:18 So you dropped out.
11:20 We got the final location of the devices.
11:22 What I want you to do now is just come back to the city park somewhere near the office
11:26 and shoot me a text when you get here.
11:28 We're going to then try and find you.
11:29 Perfect.
11:31 All right.
11:31 I will see you guys in a secret location soon.
11:34 OK, bye.
11:35 Excellent.
11:35 He's on the way to the city.
11:36 So when he gets here, we will try and find him with our devices.
11:39 So we're in the Car Expert garage.
11:49 Scott has just texted.
11:50 He is somewhere near here.
11:52 I've got the two phones, got the Android and I have my Apple.
11:55 We're going to walk towards the location where it says that he is or where it last saw him.
12:00 We'll see if he's actually there.
12:10 May I have my car back, Mr. Thief?
12:32 I'm sorry, but this is my car now.
12:33 I'm undetected.
12:34 There we go.
12:35 So it has found our stolen car finally.
12:38 Can we get a lift back?
12:40 Yes, you can.
12:41 So to answer the question, can you use these things to track your stolen car
12:47 and just keep track of where it is?
12:48 Yes and no.
12:50 So we've seen that, yes, they do work as a tracker, but they entirely rely on you being
12:55 able to get a decent connection with another phone that passes by.
12:59 So whether it's an Apple or a Samsung phone, the second you don't have any of that stuff,
13:03 these things kind of become useless.
13:05 And we saw with the Apple as well, that even on the freeway where you would assume there
13:08 would be stacks of Apple devices, it really wasn't picking up any other signals to help
13:12 relay its location.
13:13 So it's a little bit disappointing that this can't really be used for its intended purpose,
13:17 where the Samsung version actually works quite good.
13:20 It's an inexpensive way to keep track of your car, and if you're happy to just set and forget,
13:24 put it inside a glove box and just pretend it never existed again until you need to use
13:28 it, then I think it's a good asset.
13:29 But ultimately, if you do want a system that is going to be entirely foolproof, you want
13:35 something like this, which is a GPS with LTE.
13:37 Obviously not this one, but the one that's built into the car works really well, and
13:41 you can get aftermarket systems that are more reliable than this that you can hide inside
13:45 the car and ensure that when it does get lost, you will be able to track it down easily.
13:49 Ultimately though, if you are a clever thief, you can use a GPS jammer, and then you'll
13:53 also be able to make sure these don't work either by blocking their signal as well.
13:58 So if somebody wants to steal your car, they are going to steal your car.
14:01 But at least by having these inside there, it'll give you a fighting chance to recover
14:05 it when you need to.
14:06 Now, let me know in the comments section below, did we miss anything?
14:08 Did we stuff anything up?
14:09 We're always really keen for your feedback.
14:11 Also, let us know if there's any other videos like this that you want shot, that you want
14:15 a bit more detail on, whether they're tech-oriented or entirely related to cars.
14:20 Really keen for your feedback.
14:21 And if you did enjoy this video, make sure you like it and share it with your mates.
14:24 And if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.
14:27 But until next time, take it easy.
14:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]