[afadeev]

Originally Posted by Robotechnology

BMW Assist is not the be all, end for theft. Does not work whenever the vehicle is not in direct line of sight of the Satellite (Parking Garage/chop shop Etc).

BMW Asssit and LoJack work in a very similar ways:
- LoJack uses RF transmitter in VHS (173MHz analog TV) spectrum that has unobstructed propagation strength of 3-5 miles. The bad news is that you need to have a LoJack equipped car to listen to this signal, else its alerts are wasted. Even then, the police car needs to triangulate the position of the signal, which takes time and effort. The even worse news is that LoJack is only licensed for that spectrum in 29 out of 50 states.
- BMW Assist (and all similar Telematics services) use national wireless carriers' spectrum (700MHz and above - better in-building signal penetration!), and communicate to local cell towers all the time. Virtually all Telematics Control Units (TCU) also have a GPS chip, so positioning is exact in open air, and at worst, as bad as LoJack's (tracking the signal, not the GPS coordinates).

But even in the worst case, TCU signal always talk to the cell tower and you know roughly where the vehicle is.
With LoJack, if there are no receivers (police cars) nearby, or you are in one of 21 states where LoJack has not licensed the frequency, the service is useless.

Telematics services are killing LoJack's business (LOJN).
Revenue is dropping, they are loosing money, and burning through cash.

Originally Posted by Robotechnology

LoJack is active as soon as the vin is entered in a police database as stolen (assist takes much longer for police to be able to cooperate with assist). Lastly, professional thieves know that it is standard in almost every new BMW, which means it is deactivated immediately.

Not so simple.
Assist works off the TCUs integrated into the car's CAN bus. That means that BMW assist (and similar services, like OnStar, MBrace, etc) can also slow the car down, stop it, shut down the ignition, lock the doors and turn on the alarm with the thieves locked in the car ;-)

If you tear the dashboard apart, you can get to the TCU (if you know where to look and what to look for), but accomplishing that is neither easy nor quick. It's easier to find and remove the LoJack device than the TCU.

As far as taking advantage of the Telematics tracking services - it's done all the time. That's how they tracked down and took down the Boston bombers. Their final and biggest mistake was hi-jacking an MB SUV with TCU tracking service...

Originally Posted by Robotechnology

Think about it, how many cars/trucks with factory equipped tracking devices are found in shipping containers headed overseas every month!?!

Your probability of getting Wireless connection out of a container to a wireless cell tower is ALWAYS greater than that of a LoJack's ping (that needs an active listening device in the vicinity to be of any use).

Other than that, do what you want with your money.

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