Ring's New Car Tracker

Another day, another potential source of crash data.

We’re performing some exciting research this weekend, and while prepping a Ring doorbell cam (which is equipped with radar) I noticed they also released a Car Tracker and Alarm… another device that might store useful data.

Announced at CES this year, it’s still new enough that I couldn't find any in-depth reviews of its interface, event history, or retained data. However, Ring says it plugs into the vehicle’s OBD-II port and provides GPS tracking, impact alerts, and event history. So, it’s worth evaluating for information stored on the unit and in the associated account.

Amazon acquired Ring for ~$1B in 2018, and this unit transmits data through their Sidewalk network. If you haven’t heard of Sidewalk, it’s wild: essentially, participating Amazon devices (Alexa/Echo and Ring) act as bridges, passing tiny messages from devices to the internet… and it covers 95% of the US.

I’ll buy a tracker and do some testing and a teardown shortly, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, check the OBD-II port for these doohickeys. Similarly, BOLO for Tracki devices, which can be mounted almost anywhere! They’ve sold 2,123,458 of them to date, so they’re around.

Thanks for reading, keep searching!

Lou Peck