VEHICLE Tire Pressure Sensors Enable Silent Tracking reveals that TPMS, designed for safety and maintenance, can be exploited to infer movements and driver patterns. A study by researchers from universities in Spain, Switzerland, and Luxembourg deployed around $100 spectrum receivers along a road and collected over six million TPMS transmissions from about 20,000 vehicles across 10 weeks, attempting to link signals to individual cars and tires.
The researchers found that TPMS transmissions, which include a unique ID, can be intercepted by anyone with a suitable receiver, enabling potential tracking of vehicles and owners. The transmissions are sent in the clear, without authentication, and prior work noted interceptions up to 40m from a car, with this study achieving data capture from 50 metres and even from inside a building.
TPMS sensors have been mandated in the US since 2007 and typically transmit tire pressure readings automatically when a vehicle is in motion, without pairing or authentication. The article, dated 3 March 2026, quotes the researchers as warning of the broader surveillance implications of modern vehicle signal ecosystems.