Question: AirTags and finding a car

Hardware
1

I may be acquiring a four-pack of AirTags, and I’ll have an extra one or two. I was considering throwing one in my car, so I could “find my” car in parking lots if I forget where I parked.

Now to be clear…I don’t want it for tracking my car on the move. I don’t want it for finding my car if its stolen. I just want to be able to find my car, that I drove, which I parked, if I forget where I put it.

Does there need to be another iPhone near my AirTag for my phone to know where it is? Or is my iPhone smart enough to remember where it last saw the AirTag, and direct me there?

2

It does need to be near other iPhones to report its location but it would report the last location near your phone when you leave the car.

I swear Maps has this feature? Maybe it’s only if you have CarPlay or some other combination of things to happen.

3

Aha! Get directions to your parked car in Maps on iPhone - Apple Support

2 Likes
4

If I’m not mistaken, your iPhone is smart enough to remember where you parked without an AirTag, but it might need to have had a Bluetooth connection to your car. Use Maps on your iPhone to find your parked car’s location

5

Yeah, that’s my problem - no CarPlay. Hence the thought about just tossing an AirTag in there.

6

Gotcha. I think it would work! Just be warned you’ll get a notification every time you leave your car that it’s no longer with you.

3 Likes
7

I’ve got one in my car and I think it has alerted me one time in the six months since I added it. I occasionally check it in Find My to confirm it is still working.

Now that I think about it, I never get an alert for the tag on my spare keys either.

8

The car does not need to have CarPlay as long as your iPhone can connect to it via Bluetooth. If the car does not have Bluetooth either, then the iPhone of course does not know about your car. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
9

My kingdom for Apple Maps or (preferably) Google maps to allow me to quickly and easily be able to mark my spot for parking spot.

1 Like
10

I can confirm this! (20 chars)

11

No Bluetooth either. It’s a 2010 Hyundai. Although even if it had Bluetooth, I think it’s silly that I’d have to connect to the car for the phone to mark my parking spot.

Yeah. This is the sort of thing AI could even automate. “Hey, you were moving at like 50 MPH, now you look to be walking. This is approximately where I figure you probably left your car.”

Or a button on the Maps app, after you navigated somewhere, that says “Mark parking spot.”

It’s low-hanging fruit.

12

EXACTLY! Put a parking icon on there when your speed goes to 0 for more than a 2 seconds.

I cannot believe google or apple haven’t done this.
PS: I tried, I really tried to switch to Apple Maps but the interface sucks compared to Google Maps. It was 1 month of agony using apple maps before switching backl

13

I’ve always taken a picture of a landmark or sign near my car in large airport parking lots. And/or dropped a pin on Google Maps.

1 Like
14

The eternal question for me is “where did I park my car?” Weirdly the smaller the car park the more likely it is that I do not remember the location and often resort to using the remote locking function watching for the flash of lights.

16

Sounds like it’s time to replace the batteries in the AirTags.

1 Like
17

That’s the mystery. The tag in the car is 6 month old but the one on my spare keys is only about 6 weeks. Both appear in Find My and will play a sound. Oh well.

18

To be clear, another iPhone does not need to be persistently present for you to track an AirTag. Just having other people walk by with their iPhones is enough to update its location. AirTags emit a Bluetooth signal that is picked up by any nearby Apple devices within the “Find My” network, which then anonymously relays the AirTag’s location to your iPhone through the cloud, even if you are not physically close to it.

3 Likes