My mother in law has the beginning stages of dementia. She forgets where she parks the car and scooter. It happens maybe once a month. When it happens it takes us a good half day to go around to the dozen or so places she goes to regularly. (hairdresser, grocery store, train station etc) If we happen to be on the road, she would just go purchase another scooter which is a pain or we have to ask our friends to go look for us.

I would like to find some sort of GPS tracking device to put inside the car and scooter so that I can just log in and "find" the car/scooter. It has to be fairly small, online tracking and fairly robust to stand the different weather conditions. It also needs to be self charging or its battery life be pretty good so we don't need to swap batteries regularly.

Is there such a device? BTW - this is for Japan.

Sounds like it is time to take away the car, not install something to track it.

The forgetfulness is not that bad. Yes we have considered it but at this moment in time, not possible. We are monitoring this very closely.

in the USA you can track with a cheap cellphone , but I am not sure if thats available in Japan ,

I would think that since Japan is a dog lover country that there is something to track lost dogs,
They even sold a lost kids GPS at BestBuy !

Big problem is that these things have batteries that will need to be changed / charged..

If you were in the USA this would be easy , but even at its best GPS is still only going to get you close ,

RB

http://globalbagtag.com/store/purchase.cfm

May I suggest going to the car/scooter dealer. They probably have anti-theft systems that include GPS location.

Look into the products for dogs, they are small, battery powered, and inexpensive if they are available there. Instead of putting it on the dog, just put it someplace on the car where it can get a good signal.

Some car companies have apps to see where you parked the car, that may be worth checking.

My company is cooperating with gurtam.com/en/ , they are tracking our drivers during the work day, you can try to find something there.

Take a look a SPOT Personal Tracker here: http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=101

I do not own one but know a couple of blue water sailors that use it and have had no complaints,