NEW YORK-PageStar Inc. is ramping up for full-scale production this Spring of a new generation of wireless vehicle location devices designed to put car owners in the driver’s seat when it comes to controlling and locating their stolen automobiles.
PageStar’s new “StarTrak” system is designed to permit car owners to disable their stolen vehicle by remote control. As soon as a vehicle is stolen, its owner is alerted by pager or phone that the PageStar Control Center has been notified of the theft.
Using a wireless or wireline telephone, the vehicle owner then can activate the StarTrak system by calling a toll-free number and entering his or her security code. The activated system simulates a car running out of fuel and causes the car to come to a stop during a five-minute period.
Inside the stolen car, the thief hears a warning that the car is running out of gas, that the police have been notified and that he or she should pull over immediately. At the same time, a signal from a global positioning system receiver locates the stolen vehicle and transmits its location to the control center, which then contacts the police.
“Current automobile security systems do not allow the customer to control his vehicle or to locate and safely recover a stolen vehicle affordably,” said Steve Lipman, president of PageStar, headquartered in Santa Ana, Calif.
The StarTrak system will use the Datalink II Plus Messaging Receiver, a one-way paging technology produced by the Derivative Technologies Division of Motorola Inc., as well as the GT Oncore Receiver produced by Motorola’s Position and Navigation Systems Business, and a three-watt original equipment manufacturer transceiver, also produced by Motorola.
PageStar said it will complete final development of interface software this month, conduct final prototype testing next month and launch full-scale production of the system by the end of March. By early January, the company said it had initial purchase orders for more than 80,000 StarTrak systems.
The basic StarTrak system, with all the features described above, will retail for about $500, with more elaborate versions costing $600 and $1,000, Lipman said. Although StarTrak will work in all automotive vehicles, PageStar is targeting first dealers who sell the kinds most stolen: Acuras, Hondas and four-wheel drive vehicles. “We have $50 million in confirmed purchase orders so far” in the United States, Lipman said. PageStar also is negotiating to sell StarTrak in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.
