Tracking riders with cell phones

[RandyBailey]

After reading about the search for the lost rider I wanted my wife to be able to follow my progress on my Iron Butt 1000 miler through some really remote areas of the southwest.

 

I did a little research and found Google Latitude would allow her to see my location from her cell phone or PC.

 

Before I would call her to say I was in Lordsburg or Las Cruces, she already knew. It worked as advertised. It determined within a few hundred yards my location based on my cell phone's proximity to the cell towers.

 

Best of all it's free and you can switch it off any time you don't want to send your position.

[upflying]

Good idea. So this will work on any CF including people who may not want their whereabouts known? Or does it take some acknowledgment and authorization on the CF user to activate?

[Firefight911]

Good stuff but, when you are outside of cell service, which is most of where we ride and almost all areas for those of us with AT&T, it is nice to have something such as the SPOT which is satelite based.

[Mrs. Caddis]

Good stuff but, when you are outside of cell service, which is most of where we ride and almost all areas for those of us with AT&T, it is nice to have something such as the SPOT which is satelite based.

 

+1

[David13]

I wonder. I don't think it will work on any cell phone, and only work when the phone is turned on, in standby mode. If you turn the phone off, which I always do, I don't think it will work.

Then it seems it could only say that you are near a certain cell tower.

Let me see what I can find out.

dc

[Dick_at_Lake_Tahoe_NV]

From the Google site.

Google Maps for mobile and Google Latitude are free to download and use from Google, however regular data service costs do apply. Before you download and use either, we recommend that you contact your mobile service provider to find out more about your data plan and rates.

 

[boatzo]

Bob,

 

As one of the others has said, the phone must be turned on to start with. My phone has the capability of turning off the locator except for 911 calls. However, I believe that function is different from the feature the OP said about what cell tower your phone is regestering to. This is an interesting subject and I too would like to hear more.

[gregneedham]

For the iPhone, check out instamapper.com and the iPhone app that goes with it, GPS Tracker. Uploads location info and tracking much like the SPOT tracker. You have to be in cell phone service area, but we just used it on the TransAmerica Trail with great results.

 

See tat09 here.

[Sailorlite]

Recently I bought a SPOT device and signed up for their regular service and extra "tracking" service (totalling $150/yr). To test this arrangement, we carried the SPOT with us on a 500 mi. automobile trip up to Cambria, CA and back. We were hoping my sister-in-law would be able to track our trip on her home computer.

 

Well, it worked pretty well although not all of my "We're OK" messages got through to her - don't know why yet, but the location tracking seemed excellent and potentially useful in an emergency. So, we're now sold on the SPOT system.

 

But, even though Cambria is a reasonably sized town (pop. 6,700), we had zero cell phone coverage there and along some other parts or our highway route. To me, this confirms the benefit of a satellite based system versus cell based. (And next week I'm riding to the So. Utah area where I know there are large areas of no cell coverage - my wife is very pleased with the prospect of tracking and emergency assistance for me if needed).

 

 

[russell_bynum]

I wonder. I don't think it will work on any cell phone, and only work when the phone is turned on, in standby mode. If you turn the phone off, which I always do, I don't think it will work.

Then it seems it could only say that you are near a certain cell tower.

Let me see what I can find out.

dc

 

Latitude needs a "compatible device" to function. I've run it without problems on about 4 different semi-recent Blackberry models and never had an issue. I'm sure it probably also works on recent Windows Mobile and iPhones, but I'm not sure.

 

Latitude will use your cell tower to approximate your position, and will use GPS when available to get more accurate.

 

The phone would have to be on since it uploads its location to the latitude system every (I think) 10 minutes.

 

It works very well if you've got cell coverage. Otherwise, the SPOT locator is the way to go. SPOT isn't foolproof, though. I ran it for a day in the tankbag of the Tuono and only got one tracking update. I guess my upper body was blocking its view of the sky. I moved it to the tail bag and it seems to work fine there. Obviously, whatever you go with, you'll want to test it in non-critical situations before you depend on it for real.

[gordiet]

Verizon Cell system has a tracking system as well. It's called Chaperone, and works really good. You can track a person with your computer or with your cell phone.

 

GT

[LeftCoastMan]

Unless the phone has a GPS chip, I don't see how the cell phone system will help out much, but to narrow your location down to a few hundred square miles. The iPhone has all kinds of apps for tracking, but the limitation of the iPhone is that it doesn't multi-task. So, if you're listening to music, or updating your Facebook page, the tracking shuts off. You could be dozens of miles from your real location, and if there's no cell phone tower, it can't upload anyways.

 

Everyone is looking for a device that does it all....phone, camera, video, gps, and mix the perfect drink. The problem is that every multipurpose device has limits to what it does. My Nikon D300 takes thousand times better photos than a cell phone. My garmin 550 is just more useful for navigation than my iPhone. And SPOT has one purpose in life, to track where you are (and send short messages).

 

If you really worry about being lost, then get the SPOT, and use your cell phone to make calls.

[LeftCoastMan]

Verizon Cell system has a tracking system as well. It's called Chaperone, and works really good. You can track a person with your computer or with your cell phone.

 

GT

 

The limitation is the lack of cell towers precisely in the places where you need it. If you fall of your bike in the middle of an interstate in Los Angeles, you're not going to need this service. But if you run off the road in the Sierras, Verizon isn't going to be able to help.

 

And the other problem is that the program doesn't run in the background (or it would eat up batteries so fast that it would be useless).

 

Again, if you're worried, you should get a single purpose device like SPOT.