Beacon outdoor and passing cars

Would it be possible to place iBeacons close to streets (or even highways) and as soon as the car passes it, a message will be send to a device (e.g. iPhone) in the car ?

Hi @marcin ,

Unfortunately cars behave like a Faraday’s cage, so in most cases the signal will be blocked and won’t reach a driver.

Best,

Hi Witek, Thanks a lot for the quick answer !
Do you know about any solutions how this could be solved - e.g. GPS ?
This would be a great Plus for our solution as passing drivers are also part of the target population.

Thanks
Marcin

Sending messages while driving? :car: :scream: :boom:

:wink:

GPS should work, although it’ll leave take a bigger toll on the iPhone’s battery than Bluetooth beacons.

Maybe if the beacon had a bigger & stronger antenna, the signal could still reach the driver even through the metal framework, but then it would probably need an external power supply … or a pretty big battery at least {:

:slight_smile: - I know - the use case is that the driver could listen to messages while driving and the passengers could access more content - like videos, etc.

we have a lot of cars passing - but they just say hello and arrivederci - the goal would be to give them some info so that they might stay next time or maybe on the way back.

thanks for help - let me know if you guys have something new :wink:

:question: :wink:

:smile:

I wonder why this tweet came out on 1st April :smile:

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We have a similar sort of situation. We need to place a beacon in the drive thru of a fast food restaurant. The problem is that even when the car is stopped right in front of the beacon, the beacon signal does not get picked up in most cases by the phone inside the car. Is there any way to maybe increase the strength of the signal even though it may adversely affect the battery life. I am assuming that the battery can be replaced even though the beacon seems to be sealed. In anycase, it is really critical for the beacon signal to be picked up inside the car when it is stopped in front of it.

Thanks in advance for your advise.

You can increase the signal using the Estimote app available in the App Store. I have a beacon placed in a metal mailbox, broadcasting power set to the maximum value of +4 dBm, and it’s getting picked up by my smartphone no problem.

Ok. Great - I will try that. How long do you think the battery might last at that strength.

The Estimote app will show the estimated battery life as you’re changing the power settings.

Broadcasting power usually doesn’t affect the battery life as much as advertising interval does. If you want to squeeze some more life out of it, make sure to take a look at the power saving modes, available under the “remaining battery life” section.