It's getting more frequent now as I age, where it's about once every ten
times I can't for the life of me remember where I parked my car.

Is there an app which I can tap when I park my car, and then when I exit a
store, I can use that app to point to the bearing & distance to the car?

On 2023-01-17 20:53, John wrote:
> It's getting more frequent now as I age, where it's about once every ten
> times I can't for the life of me remember where I parked my car.
>
> Is there an app which I can tap when I park my car, and then when I exit a
> store, I can use that app to point to the bearing & distance to the car?

Sure!

It's called an iPhone!

On 1/17/2023 8:53 PM, John wrote:
> It's getting more frequent now as I age, where it's about once every ten
> times I can't for the life of me remember where I parked my car.
>
> Is there an app which I can tap when I park my car, and then when I exit a
> store, I can use that app to point to the bearing & distance to the car?

<https://www.insider.com/use-this-google-maps-trick-to-find-your-exact-parking-location-2017-8>

On 18.01.23 09:38, sms wrote:
>> It's getting more frequent now as I age, where it's about once every ten
>> times I can't for the life of me remember where I parked my car.
>>
>> Is there an app which I can tap when I park my car, and then when I exit a
>> store, I can use that app to point to the bearing & distance to the car?
>
> <https://www.insider.com/use-this-google-maps-trick-to-find-your-exact-parking-location-2017-8>

Very few people have location turned on all the time and even fewer would
want Google to know where they parked their car and for how long they did.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/10/business/location-data-privacy-apps.html

Better to get an app which doesn't use the Internet so it can't report back
to the app developer and which serves your purposes alone totally offline.

Almost every offline navigation app will save your current position and
route back to that position, with the type of route set to pedestrian.

Some apps will give you the bearing and distance that you asked for, all
without the Internet so that they can't report back where you parked.

In OSMAnd for example, you press the blue compass to show your location and
then you long press on that resulting blue location dot to create a yellow
circle which defaults to the name "My Position" and which adds a bottom
panel with "Add", "Marker", "Share" & "Actions" any one of which can be
used to save the current location for use with future routing back to it.
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.osmand>
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.osmand.plus>

In "Actions", for example, is "Mark as parking location" with options of
"time unlimited" & "time limited parking" where if you choose the latter, a
timer clock comes up to allow you to set the timer to warn you when needed
and at the bottom is a checkbox for adding a notification to your calendar.

Your parked location shows up in a large blue dot with P inside of it.
When you exit the store, you can see where you are, and for distance, that
same menu has a "measure distance" option but you don't even need that
because the first thing you'll hear when you begin routing to your parked
car is "the trip is one tenth of a mile and the time is less than a minute"
as the voice routing guides you toward your parked vehicle along pathways.

I'll send some other options but that's what I'd first suggest you try.

On 18.01.23 10:42, Freethinker wrote:
> I'll send some other options but that's what I'd first suggest you try.

Another option is GPS Waypoint Finder which will give you a distance and
direction to your car even if you don't hold the phone level, as it uses
the accelerometer to convert the magnetic field back to the flat plane.
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keuwl.gpswaypoints>

You press the waypoint icon and select "New Waypoint" and then "From GPS"
and choose the automobile icon if you like and press the "Done" button.

Wherever you go, if your GPS is turned on, no matter how you hold the
phone, a color coded arrow will point to the vehicle with the distance in
meters where the color changes as you get closer to your parked vehicle.

The app shows your current heading correcting for magnetic declination.

The calculated distance will also be shown as will be your current position
where the units of the distance may change as you get closer to the car.

In testing I noticed the distance units stayed in meters even when I
changed them to feet/miles so maybe you can test that out on your phone.

I'll look to see if I can dig up a parking specific parking spot finder.

On 18.01.23 11:07, Freethinker wrote:
> I'll look to see if I can dig up a parking specific parking spot finder.

Unlike my previous suggestions, this is a purpose built parked car locator
tool which is designed from the ground up to be turned on automatically
when you disconnect from your paired bluetooth device inside your vehicle.
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.unagit.parkedcar>

You can also press "Park Car" to set the parked car location manually.

When you leave the store, you can press the "Show in maps" or "Directions"
button, the former will show your car's location and your current location
on a Google map while the latter will pre-fill out the Google Maps
navigations directions fields for you.

I am looking up how to send your current location as a map to someone as
that's another thing you might need when meeting someone at the mall.

Freethinker wrote:

> I am looking up how to send your current location as a map to someone as
> that's another thing you might need when meeting someone at the mall.

While my first two suggestions (OSMAnd & GPS Waypoint Finder) work offline
without the Internet, the Parked Car app requires the Internet to give you
a Google map and Google directions to your car so what I am looking for is
a find-my-car app which downloads its own offline database for directions.

Meanwhile, if you have a cellular connection, the GPS to SMS app can send
your current location by SMS to someone that need to meet up with you.
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.perm.trubnikov.gps2sms>

This GPS to SMS app has so many options it would take too long to explain.
Suffice to say you can add your messaging app as a Favourite app for easy
one-button access and you can set up "Quick Send Buttons" to send your
current coordinates to anyone via SMS text.

That quick-sent SMS text can be set to provide just the coodinates or the
coordinates preformatted into Google or OpenStreetMap or Yandex formats.

There's nothing preventing you from using that app to save or send a text
to yourself with the coordinates of your parked car, but it's mostly useful
to send someone else the coordinates of where you are for them to meet you.

I'm still looking for a find-my-car app which uses an offline map db,
which is why my first two suggestions (OSMAnd & GPS Waypoint Finder)
fit that need without themselves being purpose-built parked car finders.

On 2023-01-18 05:53, John wrote:
> It's getting more frequent now as I age, where it's about once every ten
> times I can't for the life of me remember where I parked my car.
>
> Is there an app which I can tap when I park my car, and then when I exit a
> store, I can use that app to point to the bearing & distance to the car?

I bought for my car a little gadget that connects to the OBD port:

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-board_diagnostics>

It has a GPS, a mobile internet connection, and a wifi access point.
And, needs a contract which in my case costs 3€/month.

In case of accident, it should trigger a call to emergencies. It
provides WiFi and internet for passengers, and, it automatically records
the car position that can be read in a phone application. When the car
stops, that last location is recorded as the parking spot. It also has
some other small features.

(I got it because I needed that Internet connection)

--
Cheers, Carlos.

Carlos E.R. wrote:

> I bought for my car a little gadget that connects to the OBD port:
>
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-board_diagnostics>
>
> It has a GPS, a mobile internet connection, and a wifi access point.
> And, needs a contract which in my case costs 3€/month.
>
> In case of accident, it should trigger a call to emergencies. It
> provides WiFi and internet for passengers, and, it automatically records
> the car position that can be read in a phone application. When the car
> stops, that last location is recorded as the parking spot. It also has
> some other small features.
>
> (I got it because I needed that Internet connection)

cars newer that about 5 years will have all that (the EU eCall system
makes it compulsary) unfortunately with my car, the manufacturer
regarded the functionality as "free" for three years, then chargeable at
a stupid price/month ...

On 2023-01-18 11:15, Andy Burns wrote:
> Carlos E.R. wrote:
>
>> I bought for my car a little gadget that connects to the OBD port:
>>
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-board_diagnostics>
>>
>> It has a GPS, a mobile internet connection, and a wifi access point.
>> And, needs a contract which in my case costs 3€/month.
>>
>> In case of accident, it should trigger a call to emergencies. It
>> provides WiFi and internet for passengers, and, it automatically
>> records the car position that can be read in a phone application. When
>> the car stops, that last location is recorded as the parking spot. It
>> also has some other small features.
>>
>> (I got it because I needed that Internet connection)
>
> cars newer that about 5 years will have all that (the EU eCall system
> makes it compulsary) unfortunately with my car, the manufacturer
> regarded the functionality as "free" for three years, then chargeable at
> a stupid price/month ...

Opel had that feature before it was mandatory. Then the company was sold
to PSA, but apparently not including this remote help system. Thus my
Opel Corsa (bought 2019) didn't have it.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

On 1/17/2023 11:38 PM, sms wrote:

> <https://www.insider.com/use-this-google-maps-trick-to-find-your-exact-parking-location-2017-8>

I'm surprised how far my key fob will transmit. So I hit the lock button
twice and listen for the honk. Course it gets less useful as my hearing
declines...

On Wed, 18 Jan 2023 05:53:41 +0100, John wrote:

> Is there an app which I can tap when I park my car, and then when I exit a
> store, I can use that app to point to the bearing & distance to the car?

IIRC Google Maps has this built in. Some cars (Toyota) offer an app
where this is built in, but I guess Google Maps is the easiest.

--
s|b

s|b wrote:

>> Is there an app which I can tap when I park my car, and then when I exit a
>> store, I can use that app to point to the bearing & distance to the car?
>
> IIRC Google Maps has this built in. Some cars (Toyota) offer an app
> where this is built in, but I guess Google Maps is the easiest.

Having owned just about every Garmin device ever sold before smartphones, I
will never say Google Maps isn't just about the best there is for
accuracy...

However...

The main problem with Google Maps is the Internet is required for it to
work as designed, or, if you download maps, then you need to log in.

I don't know if the Google Maps parking feature works on offline maps.
Does it?

Even so, you have to put an account on the phone for offline maps nowadays
(last I checked - and I used offline maps for years until they did that).

The sad result is...

Nobody who cares about privacy wants to need either of those two things.

I installed all the suggested apps so far, and I'll test them out myself
as I am wont to do. I ran a search using the FOSS Google Play Store client
which showed that almost all the parked car location apps had ads.

I think all of the ones I saw, required GSF spyware, which is probably the
nature of the beast since they all seem to make use of the Google Maps too.

But the nice thing about the parked car location apps is they have features
you might like such as automatic settings for bluetooth, timers for parking
meters, separate profiles for each car, keeping track of the best parking
spots you've used in the past, and even share your favorite parking spots
with friends (according to their advertisements), etc., all of which I got
from the blurb in the following free ad free app below.

This one wasn't mentioned yet in this thread but it seems to be capable.
*Car Location* by DigitalBox Studios
Free, ad free, requires GSF, no rating, no reviews, only 500+ downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.carparking.location>

Note most people would never _find_ these low-volume ad free apps because
they don't use a FOSS Google Play Store client, which easily finds them.

Andy Burnelli wrote:

> This one wasn't mentioned yet in this thread but it seems to be capable.
> *Car Location* by DigitalBox Studios
> Free, ad free, requires GSF, no rating, no reviews, only 500+ downloads
> <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.carparking.location>

Drat.
Even as I had Google Location Services "Google Location Accuracy" turned
off, this app turned it on even though the GPS radio was already turned on.

This app also turned on "Wi-Fi Scanning", which was also (_always_) turned
off, and then when I doublechecked the other apps, they all did the same.

Even OSMAnd+ turned these things on, so they're all likely calling a
Google-specific Activity (usually it's a "gms" activity, aka "Google Mobile
Services) which is _different_ (sleazier) from 'normal' turn-on-location
Activities.

If anyone can make the app work _without_ precise location set, that would
be a good thing for everyone's privacy, since you just don't need that in a
parking lot (and it won't be available in the larger parking lots anyway).

Every day it takes more and more intelligence to overcome these privacy
defeating Google Activities that are linked into the GSF spyware (which all
the parked-car finder apps seemed to have linked into their base code).

I tried to sneak around the requirement for precise location by turning off
the Wi-Fi radio, and then turning off wifi_scan_always_available (aka Wi-Fi
Scanning) in the Android 12 settings - but the app turned them back on.

All the mentioned parking lot apps _refused_ to work if you didn't have
_both_ Google Location Services > Google Location Accuracy turned on and
background Wi-Fi Scanning turned on (whether or not your Wi-Fi radio or GPS
radio was on).

It didn't use to be this hard to maintain your privacy.

It used to be that if you turned on the GPS radio on your own, you were
fine because the app would use the GPS - but not apps require Wi-Fi BSSIDs.

There's no reason to _require_ it.
It's likely part of the GSF spyware code, I suspect.

End result, if any find my parked car app links in GSF spyware, which,
apparently, all the ones suggested so far do, then you can't find your car
offline with any measure of privacy.

What's needed is a parked car finder app that uses _only_ GPS (offline).
Does it exist?

On 1/17/23 20:53, John wrote:
> It's getting more frequent now as I age, where it's about once every ten
> times I can't for the life of me remember where I parked my car.
>
> Is there an app which I can tap when I park my car, and then when I exit a
> store, I can use that app to point to the bearing & distance to the car?

Just as easy, or even much easier would be to recite to yourself instructions
for finding your car as though you were describing it to a friend that was
going to pick it up. "I'm in the second row to the left of the main entrance
between the pepper tree and the cart return".

You should now have no problem locating your car when you get done shopping.

I used to have the habit of texting myself my parking lot section when leaving
my car at the airport, "You're in 2B". I then would not need to check my texts
when I returned to the lot, as the act of texting the section ID burned it into
my memory sufficiently.

On 1/17/2023 8:53 PM, John wrote:

>
> Is there an app which I can tap when I park my car, and then when I exit a
> store, I can use that app to point to the bearing & distance to the car?
>

Several years ago, Google Maps used to do this automatically [and came
to my wife's rescue, who got lost in an unfamiliar area]. Now, you need
to long press on the blue dot to have it remember your parking location.

There are also dedicated apps for this purpose, such as "Car Find" by Aurum.

-David

David Oseas wrote:

> Several years ago, Google Maps used to do this automatically [and came
> to my wife's rescue, who got lost in an unfamiliar area]. Now, you need
> to long press on the blue dot to have it remember your parking location.
>
> There are also dedicated apps for this purpose, such as "Car Find" by Aurum.

Is this it?
*Find my parked car* by Aurum App, Contains ads & In-app purchases
Free, has ads, requires GSF, 4.6 star, 32.7K reviews, 1M+ Downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.carfind>

On 2023-01-18 10:48, David Oseas wrote:
> On 1/17/2023 8:53 PM, John wrote:
>
>>
>> Is there an app which I can tap when I park my car, and then when I
>> exit a
>> store, I can use that app to point to the bearing & distance to the car?
>>
>
> Several years ago, Google Maps used to do this automatically [and came
> to my wife's rescue, who got lost in an unfamiliar area].  Now, you need
> to long press on the blue dot to have it remember your parking location.
>
> There are also dedicated apps for this purpose, such as "Car Find" by
> Aurum.
>
> -David

Or you get an iPhone...

....and when you drive somewhere, it figures out you've been driving...

....and then marks where your car is automatically.

On 1/18/2023 2:01 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
> On 2023-01-18 05:53, John wrote:
>> It's getting more frequent now as I age, where it's about once every ten
>> times I can't for the life of me remember where I parked my car.
>>
>> Is there an app which I can tap when I park my car, and then when I
>> exit a
>> store, I can use that app to point to the bearing & distance to the car?
>
> I bought for my car a little gadget that connects to the OBD port:
>
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-board_diagnostics>
>
> It has a GPS, a mobile internet connection, and a wifi access point.
> And, needs a contract which in my case costs 3€/month.
>
> In case of accident, it should trigger a call to emergencies. It
> provides WiFi and internet for passengers, and, it automatically records
> the car position that can be read in a phone application. When the car
> stops, that last location is recorded as the parking spot. It also has
> some other small features.
>
> (I got it because I needed that Internet connection)

You can also use an old Android phone wired into vehicle power and use
an SMS Locator App. I detailed this in the document
<docs.google.com/document/d/1JznrWfGJDA8CYVfjSnPTwfVy8-gAC0kPyaApuJTcUNE>
#206a on page 101.

In the U.S. there's a free service (FreedomPop) that gives you 10 SMS
per month on AT&T's network (there used to be a free plan with 100 SMS
on T-Mobile's network but it was recently discontinued). The 10 SMS
would cover 5 location queries. For $3.50 per month you can get 50 SMS
on Verizon's network (US Mobile) and for $5 per month you can get
unlimited SMS on AT&T's network (H2O). For $2.50 per month you can get
1000 SMS on T-Mobile's network (Red Pocket) but T-Mobile's coverage is
severely lacking in many parts of the U.S. including the SF Bay Area.

This kind of tracking is actually better than a LoJack because you can
see where your vehicle is yourself, with LoJack you have to get the
police to locate it.

Of course you can pay more and get a data connection so you can have a
Wi-Fi hotspot but it's a lot more than 3€ for a usable amount of data.
$10/month for 2GB of data is about the best you can do.

On 1/18/2023 2:03 AM, Freethinker wrote:
> Freethinker wrote:
>
>> I am looking up how to send your current location as a map to someone as
>> that's another thing you might need when meeting someone at the mall.
>
> While my first two suggestions (OSMAnd & GPS Waypoint Finder) work offline
> without the Internet, the Parked Car app requires the Internet to give you
> a Google map and Google directions to your car so what I am looking for
> is a find-my-car app which downloads its own offline database for
> directions.
>
> Meanwhile, if you have a cellular connection, the GPS to SMS app can send
> your current location by SMS to someone that need to meet up with you.
> <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.perm.trubnikov.gps2sms>
>
> This GPS to SMS app has so many options it would take too long to explain.
> Suffice to say you can add your messaging app as a Favourite app for easy
> one-button access and you can set up "Quick Send Buttons" to send your
> current coordinates to anyone via SMS text.
>
> That quick-sent SMS text can be set to provide just the coodinates or the
> coordinates preformatted into Google or OpenStreetMap or Yandex formats.
>
> There's nothing preventing you from using that app to save or send a text
> to yourself with the coordinates of your parked car, but it's mostly useful
> to send someone else the coordinates of where you are for them to meet you.
>
> I'm still looking for a find-my-car app which uses an offline map db,
> which is why my first two suggestions (OSMAnd & GPS Waypoint Finder) fit
> that need without themselves being purpose-built parked car finders.

I'm sure that CoPilot would also work, but I don't think that there's a
free option.

On 2023-01-18 23:32, sms wrote:

....

> Of course you can pay more and get a data connection so you can have a
> Wi-Fi hotspot but it's a lot more than 3€ for a usable amount of data.
> $10/month for 2GB of data is about the best you can do.

I got 10 gigs of data for those 3 euros when I bought the device. May be
more now, dunno. Oh, yes, the app says I get 20 gigs. :-))

--
Cheers, Carlos.

Carlos E.R. wrote:

>> Of course you can pay more and get a data connection so you can have a
>> Wi-Fi hotspot but it's a lot more than 3� for a usable amount of data.
>> $10/month for 2GB of data is about the best you can do.
>
> I got 10 gigs of data for those 3 euros when I bought the device. May be
> more now, dunno. Oh, yes, the app says I get 20 gigs. :-))

I have 200MB for life on my iPads, which is maybe enough for this purpose.

On Wed, 18 Jan 2023 10:05:50 -0800, Tobiah wrote:
> On 1/17/23 20:53, John wrote:
>> It's getting more frequent now as I age, where it's about once every
>> ten times I can't for the life of me remember where I parked my car.
>
> I used to have the habit of texting myself my parking lot section when
> leaving my car at the airport, "You're in 2B". I then would not need
> to check my texts when I returned to the lot, as the act of texting
> the section ID burned it into my memory sufficiently.

I like this idea. And you would be 'comfortable' in its use to
make it damn useful when/if you ever rent or borrow a vehicle --
a vehicle which you may not easily recognize. :-)

Jonesy
--
Marvin L Jones | Marvin | W3DHJ.net | linux
38.238N 104.547W | @ jonz.net | Jonesy | FreeBSD
* Killfiling google & XXXXbanter.com: jonz.net/ng.htm

On 1/18/2023 12:20 PM, Andy Burnelli wrote:

>
> Is this it?
> *Find my parked car* by Aurum App, Contains ads & In-app purchases
> Free, has ads, requires GSF, 4.6 star, 32.7K reviews, 1M+ Downloads
> <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.carfind>

I think it is the same app: it has the same icon as the one I have
installed, but mine is labelled "Car Find". If I click on App Info, it
does go to the "Find my parked car" app in Google Play Store.

Disclaimer: I really don't use the app any more -- I don't think I've
fired it up any time in the past 5 years -- on the few occasions I've
recently needed the functionality, I've used Google Maps.

-David

On 1/18/2023 1:27 PM, Alan wrote:

> Or you get an iPhone...
> ...and when you drive somewhere, it figures out you've been driving...
> ...and then marks where your car is automatically.

Or you buy a Tesla. The app will tell you where you've parked it & the
app will run on any phone, so you're not stuck in Apple jail.