Volkswagen’s ‘Car-Net’ App Update Lets You Track Your Car and Set a Curfew
Keep an eye on your car, no matter who’s driving it, whether it’s your children or a valet.
Volkswagen of North America has announced an update to its 'Car-Net' smartphone app, with an emphasis on remote vehicle tracking and monitoring for security's sake. The company says the update will augment existing telemetry, tracking, navigational, and nanny features.
One of the new additions is integration with Parkopedia, an aggregator of off-street parking locations, which displays parking availability, pricing, and scheduling either nearby the vehicle or its destination.
More significant are improvements to the app's vehicle overwatch capabilities, which now allow an owner to monitor the way in which their vehicle is being driven when lent out. Vehicle speed and being driven beyond certain areas can already trigger an alert to the car's owner, but an added valet watch will now tell the owner if their vehicle has been taken for a joyride further than 0.2 miles from where it was last parked.
Teenagers, perhaps with late-night wanderlust but no parental approval, will find themselves similarly policed by Car-Net, which adds a vehicular curfew in its update. Once toggled on, an email or text will be sent to the owner's phone if the vehicle is moved. Midnight excursions will not be as easy to get away with when this feature is set up.
Volkswagen makes no mention in its press release of a security flaw pertaining to the app and used vehicles. In at least one case, a Volkswagen owner sold off their car, only to find their access to the vehicle through Car-Net unfettered. The old owner could still track the car's location, and know remotely if the doors were locked.
The Drive contacted Volkswagen for comment on this issue, and the company confirmed it would go unaddressed in this update. No mention of addressing the problem in future updates was made.
