AirTag - Notify When Found behaviour

The Notify When Found behaviour of Apple AirTags seems pretty baffling, and I wonder if I am just misunderstanding how it is meant to work.

I use an AirTag in my car, which is sometimes used by others, and I like to use the AirTag to track where the car is (those using it know the AIrTag is in the car). For example it is particularly useful (potentially) for me to know when the car is nearby so I can go to the pick up point efficiently.

However I think that the use of Apple technology where I am is very much the minority, most people I think use Android phones. So coverage of the AirTag is spotty to say the least.

That is not the issue. Given that the AirTag is often somewhere that it is only occasionally found, I set “Notify When Found” on. I expect it to notify me when the Tag is newly found, either because it moves and is picked up by an Apple device, or because an Apple device comes within range even though it has not moved.

What I find is that I get many notifications that the AirTag was “seen” at some location. Let’s say it was last seen 10 minutes ago. I get a notification that it was seen, I check it, it’s the same location (expected, it hasn’t moved) but the time stamp on its location is 10 minutes back. Notify when found is unchecked, I turn it back on.

10 minutes later I get another notification that it was seen. I check it - it shows same location but now 20 minutes ago.

So AirTag is frequently (more often than every ten minutes) notifying me that the AirTag has been seen when the notification seems to refer to a sighting that I already know about. I expect to be notified about a newer sighting only.

The Notify When Found on these notifications seems randomly to stay on or to switch off requiring to be reset, only to be notified of something that it has already notified me about many times.

Does anyone know how this is meant to work, as this implementation is baffling and frankly useless?

Thanks for any insights!