Does Your Car Contain a GPS Tracker Without Your Knowledge? (2024)

That headline sounds like some conspiracy theory/Big Brother stuff, right? Well, it happened to our friend Jake Thiewes over at Out Motorsports.

What the what? Let us explain–or, rather, let’s let Jakeexplain.

First, you might ask, who is Jake? Jake runs the Out Motorsport community. He’s also a longtime NASA official and participant. He campaigns an E36-chassisM3.

This past August, Jake reports, he purchased a 2016 Ram 1500 Sport from a Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealer. The truck was configured exactly as he wished. It was even the rightcolor.

The fine print revealed that all of the cars sold by that dealership contained something called Kahu Connected Car Technology, a $399 add-on. Some quick digging revealed that to be some kind of GPS trackingsystem.

“In our email exchange, I indicated that Kahu was a total showstopper and would need to be removed from the truck, if already installed, for us to proceed,” Jake reports. “I have no need or desire for a third-party GPS tracker to be installed in mytruck.”

Jake was told that the dealer wasn’t “going to let $399 stand between us and adeal.”

Sold!

Soon after taking delivery of the truck, Jake heard from Kahu: Welcome to our service. A company representative then confirmed the location of Jake’s newtruck.

Jake eventually located–and removed–the GPS tracking unit. “The wiring job was sloppy, with no solder or heat shrink used,” he posts. “Simply twisting the wires together and leaving them bare is the laziest way to install electronics. Even at 16, I knew to wrap my connections with electrical tape at a bareminimum.”

So, some questions for the rest of the class: Have you ever found such a device in one of your cars? How do you ensure one isn’t present? And what would you do if you foundone?

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Comments

David S. Wallens Editorial Director
12/11/19 8:11 a.m.

The dealership follow-up was hilarious, they tried telling me they had "uninstalled the device via software." They threw all sorts of free oil changes and details at me, I told 'em to remove my name and contact info from every CRM tool they had and to not pull this E36 M3 on someone else. I don't need handouts, I just value honesty and getting what I pay for (or don't).

GIRTHQUAKE HalfDork
12/11/19 8:37 a.m.

In reply to Brake_L8 :

What the hell were they hoping to get out of you? Why the spying?

californiamilleghia Dork
12/11/19 8:56 a.m.

These must cost the dealer nothing if they just left it in you car , or a dealer screwup and whoever was going to remove it was not told to......

I doubt it was to remind you about service on a paid for used car....

I have a box of those trackers around here somewhere , from a dealership that put them on bad credit cars.....

Appleseed MegaDork
12/11/19 9:16 a.m.

Imagine the havocif I installed it on the Cessna I used to fly.

Brake_L8 Reader
12/11/19 9:17 a.m.

GIRTHQUAKE said:
In reply to Brake_L8 :
What the hell were they hoping to get out of you? Why the spying?

They install the devices for fleet management. Great way to see where all your vehicles are on the lot and track if one gets stolen, I suppose. In truth, the dealer doesn't care a lick about my location but they also don't care to remove the device because it costs them labor to do so. The easier way is to charge me $399 and provide "free tracking in case your wife drives the car!" or something. I don't know who needs to spy on their spouse but the whole thing is BS, and if I did need to spy on my spouse, UConnectoffers a similar function built in to the Ram that doesn't involve poorly hacking up some wiring.

Brake_L8 Reader
12/11/19 9:19 a.m.

californiamilleghia said:
These must cost the dealer nothing if they just left it in you car , or a dealer screwup and whoever was going to remove it was not told to......
I doubt it was to remind you about service on a paid for used car....
I have a box of those trackers around here somewhere , from a dealership that put them on bad credit cars.....

Kahuclaims the devices will also remind you of service via the app/email. Dealerships want you to keep coming back to them for your service work. It is absolutely a selling point of the Kahu service when they try and convince you to keep the device. The issue is that the device doesn't tie in to the vehicle for mileage, which means it's logging the miles I drive based on GPS (and thus, the routes). How else will it know that I've added 5k miles to the truck and should get the oil changed?

It's the solution to a problem that didn't need additional solutioning, but it's important to remember that the consumer is not Kahu's customer. The dealership is Kahu's customer. The consumer who buys the vehicle with the tracker installed is a secondary source of bonus revenue for Kahu.

Javelin GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
12/11/19 9:21 a.m.

Appleseed said:
Imagine the havocif I installed it on the Cessna I used to fly.

You have to have it in 20 days... ADS-B

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