Car Tracking (parking mostly)

Configuration
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Hi all,

since I sold my Skoda I cannot longer user skoda customer component to track car position. I checked the Peugeot app and it seems unreliable (position is only updated if mobile is connected to car BT but without USB cable).

So I’m looking for an alternative. I found this old post iBeacons: How to track things that can’t track themselves (part II) - Home Assistant using owntracks but since the companion app has evolved so I was wondering if there’s a way to use my iphone to trigger an automation for car position.

Any hint?

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it should both be possible to track your cars position with owntracks or the companion app when you have a beacon in your car. i did that for a while, but it is kind of unreliable, too many things can go wrong.

much better solution is to get a cheap GPS tracker to plug into your car, let it send it’s data to a local traccar instance and get the car’s position via the HA traccar integration.
all you have to do is ge a data sim, set the gps tracker to your i.e. duckdns address, open a port on your router and install traccar.
this is the tracker i got and it works flawlessly: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004262666678.html
the tracker uses protocol H02 (port 5013)

1 Like
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Not sure what country you are in but I use Bouncie (I believe they were founded in the wake of the Automatic demise a few years ago and many of those customers went to them). Plugs into OBD2 port, has good API and even supports webhooks for trip start, trip end, etc. No native HA integration that I know of but I just feed the webhooks into Nodered and trigger various automations. You can also have an automation make a REST call to get current position as variable in an automation. $8/mo per car and uses cellular to transmit data (not dependent on your phone). https://www.bouncie.com/

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unfortunately Bouncie is not availabe in my country (Italy :pizza: )

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Thanks! Can you please share how much data it needs to do the magic? I’m asking because in Aliexpress I found also some ODB2 dongle that can add also other useful info (fuel for example) but I have to understand if it’s worth it.

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tried to following first path (I already have a phone and I really need only position).

I setup a ibeacon that I can see in Home Assistant.

Now It’s time to update position based on distance from ibeacon. I tried the following but it does not works.

Any hint?

alias: Herbie Update
description: ""
trigger:

  - platform: zone
    entity_id:
      - device_tracker.iphone_di_marco_2
    zone: zone.herbie
    event: enter
  - platform: zone
    entity_id:
      - device_tracker.iphone_di_marco_2
    zone: zone.herbie
    event: leave

  - service: notify.mobile_app_iphone_di_marco
    data:
      message: request_location_update
  - delay: "00:00:10"
    enabled: true
  - service: device_tracker.see
    data_template:
      dev_id: Herbie
      location_name: "{{ states('device_tracker.iphone_di_marco_2') }}"
      gps:
        - "{{ state_attr('device_tracker.iphone_di_marco_2', 'latitude') }}"
        - "{{ state_attr('device_tracker.iphone_di_marco_2', 'longitude') }}"
  - service: variable.update_sensor
    data:
      variable: herbie_location_saved
      attributes:
        latitude: "{{ states.device_tracker.herbie.attributes.latitude }}"
        longitude: "{{ states.device_tracker.herbie.attributes.longitude }}"
      value: "{{ states.device_tracker.herbie.state }}"
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