I am not sure it is done directly by satellite, but through a scanning system built into the bed of the highway itself and then transmitted to the satellite?. Next time you are driving down the interstate around or through a large city notice the dual square pattern on the highway about 2' x 4' in size ( a thin tar line rectangular pattern) occurring about every 1/10th of a mile. That is the magnetic pick-up field which is interrupted each time a vehicle with a chip on the underside passes over. I was under the impression that every vehicle in the u.s. manufactured since 1985 was trackeable, but the article indicates a later date.
These loop detectors don't monitor individual vehicles in any way -- they just detect a heavy object passing over them, estimate the size of the vehicle, and compute the speed. They are basically high-tech versions of those rubber hoses you sometimes see on roads that are used to count traffic.