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Comment by Causality1 | Hacker News Reader

>its GPS trackers can’t be physically disabled

That's just a silly statement. Anything can be physically disabled; the question is how difficult and time-consuming disabling it is. Maybe it's encased in a steel block in the engine compartment in series with vital wiring connections but even then some work with an angle-grinder and a soldering iron could get around it given a couple of hours.

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Gps trackers cant penetrate a thick lead shield.

Simply shield the electronics from being able to emit. Then deal with it at a later point

You don't even need lead - just use metal (iron, steel, aluminum - anything highly conductive). Hell, I haven't tried, but I bet a small amount of aluminum foil (much less than you'd get on a single roll for a few dollars) would work. You just need a faraday cage, and GPS signals are already fairly weak.

> and GPS signals are already fairly weak

You could try stopping the GPS signal from getting in, but you could also stop the (likely) GSM signal from getting out.

It's easy to test. Wrap your cell phone in aluminum foil, then call it and see if it rings.

Sealing the edges of foil is hard. You need to get contact at least every ~1mm along a seam to stop microwave signals getting in or out reliably.

I just tried it. Just fold the edges over with your fingers and press them with your fingers. Not hard, works fine.

Illicit signal jammers that plug into the 12v car socket seem readily available if you know where to look, no modifications necessary.

[not condoning their use]

I hope the car rental companies augment their trackers to use cellular tower and WiFi access points for location. Then when they detect a jammer they can notify both the owners and the FCC.

The jammers are generally wideband and low power, so they can block GPS, cell, and WiFi all with one jammer with a range of 10 yards or so.

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