Automobile tracking and anti-theft system

A system for deterring and preventing theft of a vehicle from a system subscriber who affixes a location unit to the vehicle whose theft is to be deterred wherein said location unit calculates the location of the vehicle at ay given time, wherein said location unit includes a processor and transmitter to transmit a low power digital location data packet having location data, and a memory for storing a plurality of previous position readings, said processor operative for automatically retrieving position readings stored in memory upon receipt of a tracking request, said system comprising:

• a web host connected to a wide area web network, said web host having a computer readable medium;
• said web host being accessible by the subscriber from a remote computer terminal;
• a computer program residing on said web host for receiving a tracking request from a dealer and transmitting a tracking call to the location unit carried by the vehicle;
• and
• said computer program including instructions embodied in computer readable code for automatically transmitting said tracking call, receiving the low power digital location data packet having location data, including retrieved position readings stored in memory, from the location unit in response to said tracking call, and transmitting location data regarding the current position of the vehicle to the subscriber's terminal where the current location of the vehicle is displayed and a prior path or track of the location unit.

A method of deterring theft of vehicles from automobile dealers wherein said dealers have computer terminals with displays, said method comprising:

• providing a web host connectable to a plurality of the dealer terminals concurrently;
• providing a plurality of location units for affixation to the vehicles located at the dealer lots;
• receiving a tracking request at said web host initiated at said dealer's terminal seeking the present location of a vehicle;
• transmitting a tracking call to the location unit whose location is desired in response to receiving said tracking request;
• receiving a low power digital location data packet having location, wherein the data packet includes only protocol data, a personal code number as an identifier, and GPS data, including latitude and longitude, data at said web host from the location unit representing the current location of the vehicle in response to said tracking call;
• and
• transmitting said location data to the computer terminal of the dealer for display of the current location of the vehicle on the dealer's terminal display.

A method of deterring theft of vehicles from automobile dealers wherein said dealers have computer terminals with displays, said method comprising;

• subscribing to a web host accessible from the dealer terminal;
• assigning a location unit to the vehicle whose theft is to be deterred by physically placing the location unit on the vehicle, wherein said location unit includes a processor and transmitter operable for transmitting a low power digital location data packet having location data, and a memory for storing a plurality of previous position readings, said processor operative for automatically retrieving position readings stored in memory upon receipt of a tracking request;
• initiating a tracking request at said dealer terminal which is transmitted to said web host whereby a tracking call is transmitted from said web host to the location unit assigned to the vehicle and low power digital packet having location data representing the location of the vehicle is transmitted to said web host from the location unit;
• and
• receiving said location data, including retrieved position readings stored in memory at said dealer terminal and displaying the location of the vehicle on the dealer's terminal display and a prior path or track of the location unit claims.