Has anyone been able to successfully AirTag their car?

[xraydoc]

Be constructive and actually say something in your response please thanks.

Please let me know how is GPS location going to work in an indoor or underground parking lot. Not everyone here lives in the US and outdoor mega parking lots are not that common.

Not sure an AirTag is going to work better in a concrete and metal underground parking structure buried somewhere inside your car, either.

I get what you’re doing but I think you’re going to be disappointed with the outcome in this use case… then tell us how much this $29 device sucks in tracking your $40,000 car.

 

[michaelb5000]

To find your car in a lot it needs an accurate last known location and so far i am not seeing that key part.

 

[MrTSolar]

Just tried this on my 20-mile drive. I got four updates, usually while at intersections where passing phones have a chance to ping my AirTag. Where I am now, there is another phone running 14.4, as well as my iPad running the same version with Bluetooth on, and the location is not updating, so AirTag support for Find My does appear to need 14.5.

However, with the AirTag hanging from my rear view mirror, phones in nearby cars are able to ping the AirTag if they are traveling in the same direction. Passing cars headed the other way are going by too quickly to pick up the AirTag.

To make this test work, I disabled Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Location services on my phone so the AirTag and phone had no way of knowing if they are near each other. I would say, for tracking a car, the more dense the area, the better it will work. A cellular/GPS tracker would work better in most cases, but the AirTag is usable for this use case.

 

[bob24]

If your car gets stolen, the thieves will be notified that there is an airtag in the car if they have an iPhone. Because the airtag doesn't know it's in the car and it doesn't know it's your car. So the airtag will think, you've put an airtag in their car and you are tracking them. So I fail to see the point

The AirTag will start beeping after 3 days so this gives some time.

If the thief has an iPhone and keeps driving the car without interruption for a long period they will also get an anti-stalking alert after a while.

But presumably it will take some time to trigger as well. Apple hasn’t said how long, but it can’t be too quick otherwise there are many real life situation whereby it would get triggered as a false alarm. So I’d say unless the thief keeps driving the car for several hours without any break they will never get the alarm.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Be constructive and actually say something in your response please thanks.

Please let me know how is GPS location going to work in an indoor or underground parking lot. Not everyone here lives in the US and outdoor mega parking lots are not that common.

The phone of the passer by (or thief?) will know the rough location.
Assuming someone passes by close enough.
Assuming they have an iPhone.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Just tried this on my 20-mile drive. I got four updates, usually while at intersections where passing phones have a chance to ping my AirTag. Where I am now, there is another phone running 14.4, as well as my iPad running the same version with Bluetooth on, and the location is not updating, so AirTag support for Find My does appear to need 14.5.

However, with the AirTag hanging from my rear view mirror, phones in nearby cars are able to ping the AirTag if they are traveling in the same direction. Passing cars headed the other way are going by too quickly to pick up the AirTag.

To make this test work, I disabled Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Location services on my phone so the AirTag and phone had no way of knowing if they are near each other. I would say, for tracking a car, the more dense the area, the better it will work. A cellular/GPS tracker would work better in most cases, but the AirTag is usable for this use case.

Interesting.
So if you want to use it then you have to use a location inside the car where its not visible, but also higher up away from metal, eg not under a seat or similar? In my car there is the sunglasses holder as an easy place to put one, though that is near the metal roof. I might try that though.

 

[fischersd]

Ok, real simple - the concrete parking garage scenario. Everyone also knows how aGPS works, right? Cell town triangulation is used to assist GPS for greater accuracy? Between that and the number of iPhones that come within distance of that AirTag sitting stationary within the parking garage and reporting the location to Apple when in data coverage, I'm pretty sure Apple will have a pretty accurate triangulated location of the AirTag (they also would have gotten the last known location if the thief had an iPhone, as they drove into the parking garage).

 

[KeithJenner]

How do you lose a car? It’s not exactly small….
having said that, both Android and iOS show where you parked your car anyway.
and if the car is stolen, better to have police involved.

I don’t quite understand the use case…

Some people don't use bluetooth to connect their phone to their car, so the parked car location in maps doesn't work for all.

Some people share a car with their partners, so where they parked it may not be where it is now.

Those are a couple of use cases that come to mind quickly. I'm sure there are many others.

 

[dojoman]

This feature is not going to work very well if it’s an indoor or underground car park.

Yeah especially with multiple levels like Seinfeld episode

 

[fischersd]

Yeah especially with multiple levels like Seinfeld episode

Heh...if Apple starts actually mapping parking garages, it would. (there's a barometer for elevation in the Apple Watch....not sure if the latest iPhones have one or not)

 

[haruhiko]

Heh...if Apple starts actually mapping parking garages, it would. (there's a barometer for elevation in the Apple Watch....not sure if the latest iPhones have one or not)

iPhones have had barometers for many years.

 

[iLoveDeveloping]

If you are lucky the thief would have an iPhone on him.. Then, you’re set! 😄

 

[vesixe7696]

Not sure an AirTag is going to work better in a concrete and metal underground parking structure buried somewhere inside your car, either.

I get what you’re doing but I think you’re going to be disappointed with the outcome in this use case… then tell us how much this $29 device sucks in tracking your $40,000 car.

Perhaps just dropped in a parking structure or an enclosed shopping centre, not even necessarily inside a car. The tracking was ineffectual in my testing.

Perhaps my expectations were unrealistic

 

[scmill]

I was at the local hospital late yesterday afternoon parked in the parking garage across the street. The room I was visiting was on the other side of the hospital. I had no problems "seeing" the AirTag in the car.

 

[Nimoy]

I’m going to test this today. If I understand the wording right, the AirTag actually has to be in Lost mode to utilize other iOS devices, but I’ll find out today if that’s the case or not.

My guess is that AirTag will utilize the Find My network as soon as your phone is no longer in range, even if you haven't activated Lost Mode. I mean, how would AirTag "know" you've put it in Lost Mode when your phone is not in range?

 

[Zadigre]

I put one in the little door on the roof (where you usually put sunglasses)… I went out for some shopping for 2 hours and i would days location was updating every 10 minutes at the minimum (I was out of range of my AirTags… so it was clearly updating from nearby iPhones passing by).

right now, my car is in my driveway… 20 feet away from my house… and my iPhone is still picking up the signal even though it’s not strong enough to show me direction where to find it.

will test for a few days to see how well it performs

 

[ACE01]

I think my phone does it automatically when it disconnects from the car’s Bluetooth.

Still useful for those who have a pre-bluetooth car

 

[KeithJenner]

I’m going to test this today. If I understand the wording right, the AirTag actually has to be in Lost mode to utilize other iOS devices, but I’ll find out today if that’s the case or not.

No, that isn't the case.

The airtag uses other peoples devices as a standard. Putting it into lost mode means that people who find your tag can read it with their device to go to a website that will contain your details (if you have added them).

 

[contacos]

I bought 5 of these but totally missed how they actually worked 🤦🏽 I was under the assumption that they also have GPS (my fault for not doing research) and thus my pack of 4 is going back. I wanted it put one on my dog and another one in my car but neither will work really. I’ll keep one for my keys

 

[jambon]

Another potentially unintended consequence - if you share a car in your household, is the other person going to get the anti-stalker alerts when they use the car without the Airtag owner? Family sharing is hopefully something Apple will introduce so household bags, cameras, etc don’t trigger this sort of alert. Maybe the time delay overcomes much of this.

 

[KeithJenner]

Another potentially unintended consequence - if you share a car in your household, is the other person going to get the anti-stalker alerts when they use the car without the Airtag owner? Family sharing is hopefully something Apple will introduce so household bags, cameras, etc don’t trigger this sort of alert. Maybe the time delay overcomes much of this.

If the other person is in your family sharing group then they can permanently turn off these alerts for a specific tag. Anyone can turn them off for one day.

 

[chriskrone]

Works fine for me. The AirTag is connected like every 25 minutes. It’s a parking space next to a street. If people with an iPhone walk by or maybe drive by it will update the location

 

[doboy]

Stick it on the wheel well for better reception will passerby.

 

[rulymammoth]

Get a Tesla and you can just track your car’s location with the Tesla app.

 

[VSMacOne]

Anybody concerned about how heat might affect the AirTag and its battery?