Bluetooth technology, or shall I say, radio technology can be very intriguing, well there are many uses of Bluetooth, sending files such as songs, pictures etc.
Bluetooth has many uses now day, from connecting to wireless earpiece to smart fridges that can sync with other devices.
The question that we need to answer, can we track a car with Bluetooth? Without further ado, let’s get into it.
To get straight to the point, yes! You usually can track a car with Bluetooth, but there are reasons why this usually is not practical as you think.
The technicalities of things usually would work as you will be able to track a motor vehicle using this technology, but.
Possible but impractical
Bluetooth only works short range.
As tracking someone, you would need miles and miles of connectivity in order for the tracked car to be able to send back its location data using Bluetooth, this is where Bluetooth lacks
Most Bluetooth devices will only work for a short range only as it is low power, short ranged and will work for 10 meters only.
There are many Bluetooth versions which we will get into, but the common version of Bluetooth will much for that much distance only.
I don’t know, who would want to track something for up to 10 meters only.
As Bluetooth comes in classes, here are some classes of Bluetooth.
Bluetooth classes
Class 1: 100 mW (20 dBm) Distance:100 meters
Class 2: 2.5 mW (4 dBm) Distance: 10 meters
Class 3: 1 mW (0 dBm) Distance: 1 meter.
Can we use class 1 Bluetooth for tracking?
Sure! We can use class 1 Bluetooth to track vehicles, but it is still impractical, we would need repeaters on every street, in-order for us to pull this off.
Plus, the device would also need a GPS receiver for this to work.
Improvised Bluetooth
Future Bluetooth (now available) devices will have a range of 300 to 800 feet, that’s quite an improvement from the 100 meters that’s available.
How to track someone using Bluetooth
Tracking technology alternative
Wifi and cellular technology work best for this application, as cellular service is available freely throughout the US and the work, this is the technology that you would want to use.
The basic set up for this, is for the tracking device to geolocate its location on the face of the earth and for the cellular service to use GSM technology to broadcast this data to the intended receiver.