My son and his girlfriend intend to shortly spend several months travelling around Western Europe in his car living and working on farms wherever possible.
Although he’s 25, he only passed his driving test in the last year. We’ve warned him about the challenges of driving a UK right hand drive on the right in Europe, but he intends to do it anyway.
We’ve explained to him we’ll be worried about their safety on the roads, but he’s not the sort of person who’s prepared to check in with us on a regular basis explaining where they’re heading, or when they’ll arrive on their travels. We understand and accept that, so we’ve floated an idea with him that he’s happy to accept.
We’ll put either an Apple Airtag, Tile Pro or Samsung Galaxy SmartTag in his car and just keep an eye on their travels without having to ask too often about their evolving itinerary.
Reading various reviews and articles online, it seems the AirTag is the most accurate option. BUT Apple have implemented an anti-stalking option whereby (from what I’ve gleaned online) if the AirTag spends 72 hours away from the iPhone (or in our case iPad) it’s registered to, it will start bleeping. That would make it impractical in my son’s car.
My son and his girlfriend have Android phones and don’t use iPads, so we can’t register the AirTag to an Apple device they own, whereby they could share the AirTag’s location with us. So it looks like we’ll need to go down the Tile or Samsung route. Unless anyone knows, via AirTag ownership, whether I’ve misunderstood the 72 hour separation/bleeping anti-stalking feature on AirTags?
There are aftermarket apps that can do this, if you register the android phone on a Google account you can track that through googles track device app. Just relies on the phone having signal and being on. The apple tag does require that too and needs an apple phone nearby.
Thanks. We talked with him about getting his phone to do it (my wife and I both use Google maps location sharing), but he’s very cautious about allowing that and prefers the option of a separate no maintenance tracker that’s registered to us.
I’ve recently air tagged 2 of our cars and I when I bring my MX-5 back on the road this year I plan on hiding the 2 I have left in it (it has a LOT of expensive aftermarket parts fitted). From my research it looked as though you can remove the speaker from an air tag without too much difficulty.
There is an app called life360 on which you can set up and join a family group where you can see where one another are as long as the phone has signal and is charged with location turned on. We started using it when my son started secondary as his school is around 15 miles away and he is taxi driven there and back.
It’s pretty good, reports things like location, battery life of the group members phones, can be used to send messages or sos etc and can even be set up to report speeding, crash detection, rapid acceleration and hard braking etc or whether someone is using their phone whilst driving as it detects when you are driving or being driven.
The issue you are likely to run into with an AirTag, is not having an Apple device nearby to update the location.
I see in another comment you mention wanting a separate device. The main issue I see with that, is that it will very likely require the phone to ping back its location anyway.
Google Maps offers a “Share location” feature built right in that would do the trick. If he doesn’t want it on his device, you could pick up a cheap second hand phone and just leave it charging in the car with a SIM.
With an iPhone, you can share your location in Find My, and It’s pretty accurate. If you go with Android, I’d recommend a third party app like Find My Friends, or life360 as the Google share can be a bit finicky if the phone isn’t being checked every once in a while.
It sounds like you just want to track the vehicle rather than your son - would a dedicated vehicle GPS be an option?
Soem can be wired directly into the car’s battery then there’s no concern about battery life. No experience of any of these, but there’s a decent list here: Best GPS car trackers 2023 | What Car?
I’ve been looking at AirTags for my MX and bikes etc. Obviously your phone has to be new enough (iPhone 11 onwards) and the correct iOS to track them.
This video shows how to remove the speaker…
He’s 25 for God’s sake- let him act his age and do what he wants without parental surveillance . And if he’s happy about it …he really shouldn’t be . Cut the apron strings .
I’ve got one, took the speaker out which is reasonably easy if you are careful. However they are not really designed for long distance tracking.
It relies on picking up a signal from a passing iPhone and so you can get spurious indications that the AirTag is somewhere it actually isn’t! It really only works when an iPhone passes your actual AirTag that said it’s cheap and does give some peace of mind but it’s not perfect.
If i was doing a European tour and my girl friend’s dad said BTW buddy im going to be putting this chip in your bag or car, I would be asking serious Qs about both people lol Especially seeing that he is 25. Maybe a camper van so they can follow a car behind is more suitable
I think people are reading into this a bit deep. There’s a big difference between being able to find out where someone is if you need to than ‘tracking’ them. If the person doesn’t want to be found they can turn location off at any time.
When my missus set up the life360 to be able to check up on our 11 year old she asked if I wanted to be added. Not being a drug dealer, criminal or cheater with anything to hide I just said ‘can do if you want, not bothered’.
When he’s 25 I wouldn’t expect him to be interested in anything like that, but if he were to say go backpacking abroad I think I’d ask if he minded and doubt very much that he would.
Agree with Dean here. I share my location with a couple of friends and vice versa. It’s just a convenient way to see if someone’s home, or if they are visiting, how far away they are, etc.
Based on the OP, it doesn’t sound like a trust issue, more of a ‘making sure you’re not dead/in a ditch’. I am actually planning on putting something similar in my new MX5 that will work with the head unit, so a few people who I choose can see what I’m up to if they want.
Another plus of Life360 for son and girlfriend. If they are planning to work on farms then a phone left in a barn or dropped in a field is going to be a damn sight easier to find using the other phone.
Folks all I’m after in this post is your technical advice and recommendations on these tracking devices, not an assessment or critique of our parenting.
I felt no need to put this in my original post, but my son has already had one car accident (fortunately minor). He has a health condition that can impact him significantly and we haven’t yet met his new girlfriend (who can’t drive) to know how well she can support him. Finally I travelled with someone around part of Asia who was later murdered in the Australian outback and her body wasn’t discovered for some time. Now maybe that makes me more paranoid, but that’s my baggage.
Whilst we realise AirTags et al, have limitations and won’t prevent certain scenarios, it’s a balanced compromise we’ve agreed with our son. So please can we avoid (in this thread) whether it’s appropriate in our situation. Thank you.
