Slate.com reports that LoJack, the company that brought the world tracking devices for cars, is getting into the business of tracking “people at risk of wandering, including those with Alzheimer's, autism, Down syndrome and dementia.”
The Alzheimer's market looks pretty lucrative. LoJack anticipates up to
16 million Alzheimer's patients by 2050, most of whom wander away at
some point. But the company also notes that “autism, which is the
fastest growing developmental disability that now afflicts one in every
150 babies born, can also cause children to wander.” In fact, LoJack
aims to address the whole range of potential wanderers. According to
CEO Ronald Waters, “This offering is a natural extension of LoJack's
family of products and services and takes our solutions beyond 'getting
the bad guys' off the streets to now protecting those afflicted with
cognitive disorders.”
Great. But this news begs so many questions. Are people LoJacks covered by my auto warranty? If a LoJack-equipped wanderer gets in a LoJack-equipped car, will the two LoJacks cancel each other out? And how does the “I've-fallen-and-I-can't-get-up” lady feel about this?
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.