Someone To Watch Over Me

Michael Fitzgerald

How's this for the latest in luxury? Big Brother-like tracking devices are popping up around the Bay Area on high-end cars from makers like Mercedes. Depending on how they're used, they could be the best thing to happen in preventing theft, or the worst in snooping on loved ones' movements.

Dubbed telemetry systems, the devices are based on Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, birds first floated in the 1980s for military purposes. But telemetry systems, now standard on some expensive cars and around $650 and up to add as an option, send data about your vehicle's location. Some systems allow owners to log on with a password to the website of a security company and track the car's movements. Additionally, the company can access the info for clients—which, in the case of rental car companies, can determine if a renter is crossing state lines or driving too fast.
 
The upside of this new technology is that the best systems can find your vehicle and shut off the engine remotely, ending joyrides, and the systems can sometimes reduce insurance premiums. Also, if you're knocked unconscious in a crash, the systems can automatically summon an ambulance.

But then there's the potential ick factor. It's one thing to make sure Junior's where he said he'd be when he borrowed the keys, another to log on to the Internet to check up on your spouse's supposed late-night run to the office. "It could quickly turn into a too-much-information kind of thing," jokes one gal who has the system bundled into her new Mercedes E320.