I lose my car fairly regularly. Whenever I park in a lot larger than my driveway, I never seem to quite remember where I parked. It’s especially true in bigger venues that I haven’t visited before.
The folks over at Tile think they have a solution to find my parked car, though.
Here’s how to make sure you or I never lose our car again.
First up, you’ll need a newer Tile; the older ones have expired and you’ll want the newer functionality of Tile, like finding your phone with a click on the “e” on the Tile itself.
Grab your Tile, power it on, and then put it in the center console, the glove box, or stick it to your dashboard. This will bring the power of Tile to your automobile.
Next, launch the Tile app on your iPhone when you arrive and park at your destination. You’ll need it running in the background — as you move out of range of your Tile, the app will save the last location automatically.
When you get back out to the parking lot, simply bring up the Tile app and it will remember where your car is, bringing up a helpful little map, like in the video below.
https://youtu.be/gBbDn4kkNP0
Even better, if you lose your iPhone in the car somewhere, like under the seat or buried in the center console, you can press the “e” on the tile to find the iPhone in the car as it beeps at you, even if its in silent mode.
There’s even a story on the Tile site about someone using this little trick and having his car towed. Thanks to other nearby Tile owners, the Tile in his car updated its location to the Tile network and he was able to find it even after it moved. Amazing, really.
Now you can make sure to never lose your car wherever you park it with these amazing little white Tiles. I can’t wait to get my own new Tile to put in my auto.
Source: Tile
Rob LeFebvre is an Anchorage, Alaska-based writer and editor who has contributed to various tech, gaming and iOS sites, including 148Apps, Creative Screenwriting, Shelf-Awareness, VentureBeat, and Paste Magazine. Feel free to find Rob on Twitter @roblef, and send him a cookie once in a while; he’ll really appreciate it.
6 responses to “How to never lose your car again with Tile”
I bought three tiles. One never worked at all. The second worked occasionally and the third worked fine, only, I never actually used it. Then it expired and I started getting emails offering me a new replacement at a discounted price, dispute the tile stil having battery left.
Waste of money and seriously, who really loses their car?!
I hear you – the first round of Tiles I had basically hung on my keyring with not much effect – I never lose my keys. But the new Tiles have a find your phone functionality that made me finally upgrade – esp. with the 1/2 price email I got a week or two ago. I lose my iPhone around the house all the time – pulling up Find my iPhone on my Mac or iPad takes too long – a simple Tile press works to cause my iPhone to beep.
I do actually lose my car more than I should. :)
Hey Paul,
Sorry to hear that one of your Tiles never worked. We have a one year guarantee on Tile – we would have replaced it for free. If you want to email us at [email protected], we’d be happy to look into it. We do have a exchange program where after 12 months, we allow our current customers to get an upgraded Tile at half price – that’s what the offer was about. We are glad to hear they surpassed our projections on a full year on a single battery.We do not turn off the Tiles. We proactively email people at the end of the period so they will always have a working Tile with no gaps in service.
Per your comment about losing a car – people do all the time. Well, not always “lost”, but we hear from our customers all the time they “forget” where they parked. Not as often as losing one’s car keys, but maybe every few weeks. Often it’s after a long trip or even a night out for dinner at a new place in the city. They will find it eventually, but its really about finding it faster. We are all about saving people time & stress.
Again – if you had a defective Tile, we stand behind our promise and would be happy to replace it. Please reach out to us.
Patrick @ Tile.
There are other similar products which have replaceable batteries – I’d rather do this with one of those.
i think “google now” does the same for me..every time i park somewhere is tells me where my car is. i think it recognizes it by speed change if i am driving a car and then when it stops it marks the spot by itself and reminds me where is the car parked on the map.
I didn’t have a question. The Tile dying after a year may be good for Tile, but not for me. Make one with a replaceable battery and I’ll consider it.