Lock box locator

A low power system for locating a vehicle among a plurality of vehicles within a predetermined area comprising:

• a base station for transmitting a polling signal;
• a lock box unit attached to a vehicle to be located, said lock box unit comprising a locator unit for receiving said polling signal and transmitting a spread spectrum response signal if said polling signal includes a unique address of said locator unit;
• at least three receiving antennas for receiving said response signal from said locator unit;
• and
• a computer for determining the location of said locator unit based on time of arrival data generated by the receiving antennas.

A lock box unit for storing a vehicle key for access by a multitude of users, the lock box being used in a vehicle location system having a base station for emitting polling signals and receiving antennas for receiving spread spectrum signals, comprising:

• a key box;
• a locator unit attached to the key box, said locator unit comprising:
• a paging receiver for receiving a polling signal, the signal including address information;
• a spread spectrum transmitter for transmitting a signal in response to the polling signal if the address information matches the address of the lock box;
• an antenna for receiving and transmitting the polling and response signals respectively;
• and
• a self contained power supply for providing power to various components of the locator unit, the components including the receiver and the transmitter;
• and
• an identification device for receiving and recording an identification code corresponding to a user accessing the lock box.