Car trackers essential in South Africa

While several carmakers selling their vehicles in South Africa offer connected car products that can assist with tracking vehicles, trackers such as those from Cartrack offer far more reliable protection.

Manufacturers like BMW and Toyota offer Internet-connected cars in the country, and a Toyota salesperson recently told a MyBroadband reader that these systems are often more successful than dedicated tracking services when recovering stolen vehicles.

However, cellular operators and prominent car manufacturers expect dedicated trackers to remain for some time.

Cartrack told MyBroadband that these Internet-connected systems are easily accessible to relevant maintenance staff by design, but also to wrongdoers.

“The criminal syndicates remove the entire telematics device. Therefore, it makes no difference what type of SIM is in the device,” it said.

“Hence, the OEM devices offer little assistance in recovering a stolen vehicle in an environment where vehicle theft is conducted by well-organised criminals.”

“Further, these OEM systems have no anti-jamming technology and are fully reliant on cellular networks,” Cartrack added.

The company explained that its customers benefit from staying ahead of evolving vehicle theft tactics for better protection.

Moreover, it said its fitment techniques make its devices hard to find, and its technology allows tracking even outside of South Africa’s borders.

“Our Cartrack is installed deep in the vehicle and customers can opt for our anti-jamming devices and devices that work on our proprietary RF network that spans from Cape Town to Kenya,” it said.

“Different vehicle types carry a different recovery risk profile and we recommend all high-risk vehicles to install an anti-jamming device with our wireless Cartrack-Tag RF device.”

Cartrack introduced its own proprietary radio frequency network and advanced anti-jamming technology in 2024.

The company says its private network, powered by the scale of its customer base, enhances Cartrack’s ability to detect and address signal interferences.

Cartrack also explained that unlike Internet-connected car systems, which are wired and connected to the vehicle, the wireless nature of its “Cartrack-Tag” enables different fitment techniques in deeper areas of the vehicle.

This makes it more difficult for organised criminals to find and remove the devices.

“These devices connect to our proprietary anti-jammable RF network,” Cartrack added.

It explained that Internet-connected car systems play an important role in engine diagnostics for vehicle maintenance purposes while tracking systems have a more dedicated role.

“Cartrack is fully focused on risk mitigation for consumer vehicles and to assist our commercial customers in improving their business operations by decreasing costs, improving productivity and safety of both the company vehicles and staff, mitigating risk and governance,” it said.

Trackers not going anywhere yet

MyBroadband recently asked mobile network operators about their views on Internet-connected vehicles and their potential to replace tracking companies.

A Vodacom spokesperson said these systems could replace traditional tracking solutions in certain circumstances.

“This will depend on the specific needs of an organisation or car owner,” they explained. “Ultimately, the decision will come down to the cost of the service.”

“In South Africa, vehicle tracking is closely linked to insurance premiums, going beyond simple location tracking on an app to include advanced services such as 24/7 nationwide recovery operations.”

MTN said Internet-connected car services were unlikely to replace dedicated vehicle trackers in the short term.

“Traditional tracking devices serve a specific purpose, which is locating stolen vehicles and managing fleets in real-time,” it told MyBroadband.

“Connected car solutions, however, provide a broader suite of services, including remote diagnostics, predictive maintenance, and over-the-air updates.”

“For now, these technologies are more complementary than competitive, but as manufacturer-integrated solutions improve, they could reduce reliance on aftermarket tracking devices.”