Raspberry Pi Car Security: How to Add a Remote Theft Detection System to Your Car

Your car is a valuable and expensive asset. Even with full insurance a car theft can be a cumbersome and expensive affair. But how can you help prevent theft of your car and possibly avoid an increased insurance premium?

Did you know? In 2018 the #1 most stolen vehicle in the USA was a Honda Civic with a total of 52,244 thefts. Source: NICB

The best way to secure your vehicle is by adding a Car Security System. But these systems are often very expensive and comes with a monthly subscription plan.

With the AutoPi IoT platform you can easily build your own security system, with remote notifications, in-vehicle notifications and real-time tracking. We will now go over how your can do that.

What is AutoPi?

AutoPi is a small device that plugs into the OBD-II port of your car.

Once connected, the AutoPi device will automatically start working. It has 3G/4G connectivity, so it is always connected to the Internet. It also comes with a lot of other features, one is continuous GPS tracking.

It comes with an online dashboard, that you can login to from any device. From here you can setup your system and do real-time tracking of your vehicle telematics.

AutoPi IoT platform

How can AutoPi be used for theft detection?

Since the AutoPi is always online, it is possible to use it for instant theft detection.

The AutoPi can monitor irregular movement and start of your car. You can setup the AutoPi to give you notifications every time your car is started and even monitor its position online in real-time, thus being able to guide authorities to the exact location of your vehicle if stolen. You can setup your AutoPi to sound audible alarms inside your car, to warn off intruders.

All of this is done directly from your online dashboard, with triggers.

Controlling triggers from dashboard

How can AutoPi be used for theft detection?

A trigger is a built in functionality of the AutoPi IoT platform. Think of it as a “if-this-then-that” system, where you can trigger and react on everything. So what you do is simply go into the trigger setup and configure all your security precautions. This could be:

On ignition on, send a text message to this number “+45 my number”

Or do it conditional to add a check for known presence:

On ignition on and bluetooth device “my phone” not connected, send a text to this number “+45 my number”

And if you want to add in-vehicle warnings through the built in speaker:

On ignition on and bluetooth device “my phone” not connected, read this text “Unauthorized vehicle access. The authorities has been alerted”

And you can do all sorts of variations of these triggers to set them up just as you like.

In the event of a theft, you can do real-time tracking from your dashboard. A detailed overview of the technical setup is seen here below. The AutoPi dongle has connection to the vehicle OBD port and to any peripherals connected. From the built in Speaker, it is possible to speak notifications within the vehicle and warn off intruders. All vehicle rules are setup on in the AutoPi cloud dashboard and downloaded to the dongle using the 4G connection. The cloud dashboard is also able to send notifications to your phone.

Theft detection system setup

With this it’s possible to locate your car and guide authorities to your vehicle and apprehend suspects. We hope you got an idea of how you can use the AutoPi to prevent theft detection in your car.