Alex Roy’s Team Polizei 144 Blog

Today Autoblog covered the release of the a new radar detector from Cobra with the first useful new feature I’ve seen since 1992 - a built-in GPS. Cobra isn’t the first to add GPS, for Beltronics and Escort’s latest models do so as well, but their new XRS-R9G rounds out GPS features among the big three US detector vendors. Interestingly, Valentine Research trusty V1 - the detector of choice among hard core drivers - does not, but Valentine, privately held by Michael Valentine (the genius behind the original Cincinnati Microwave Escort waaaaaaay back in the day), presumably remains - with but a single model in their line-up - presumably smaller than his competitors in the radar/laser detection market.

GPS functionality has grown common among UK detectors, yet although I’m convinced of its utter necessity if implemented correctly, I’m still not convinced it’s time to replace my V1.

Why?

First of all, let me say that I don’t now have - nor have I ever had - any official relationship with Valentine Research, nor any political or profit motive whatsoever in endorsing their products. This must be stated up front, because I am one of the most vocal proponents of the V1’s superiority over competing products, and have felt this way since its release in 1992.

So…the V1. The V1 has remained at the pinnacle of cviliian radar detection technology since it was first released, but even I will admit its lead over competing products has dwindled - almost to the point where its unique functionality may no longer be compelling to those interested in raw detection range, if not false alarm filtering.

From extensive personal experience I think most agree is far more harrowing than the average radar detector user, the V1 remains my detector of choice. Although some competing units raw detection range may be slightly better, the V1’s patented directional display makes it the only unit granting the user the ability to interpret incoming signals such that the unit may be used for its express purpose:

Speeding.

Why lie? Everyone speeds. Perhaps not all the time, but sometimes. As I’ve matured I recognized the futility of speeding on a regular basis, however mildly. My rally experiences notwithstanding, I rarely speed. Anyone - everyone - who has ever driven alone in the American Southwest (or Northwest, even) has pushed past the posted speed limit, and if even the most law-abiding citizen occasionally does so without remorse, and if police officers occasionally (and arbitrarily) let such people go with but a warning (for cops, sometimes aware of the debate between the spirit and the letter of the law, are also human), then clearly there is a gap between some speed limits and higher-yet-safe driving speeds. Even France, with some of the lowest speed limits in Europe, allows highway cruising at nationwide limit approaching 80 miles per hour.

I am not advocating speeding (read - law-breaking) per se, but rather the institution of realistic speed limits where possible, balancing both safety and the average citizen’s desire to cover a given distance in a reasonable span of time…which the Europeans - with their superior driver’s education - have clearly accomplished more successfully than we Americans.

The institution of realistic speed limits, combined with a serious multi-state (if not Federal) commitment to driver’s education, would profoundly improve our quality of life, reduce the number of road fatalities suffered each year, and lower the insurance premiums which have become so burdensome in our increasingly litigious culture.

In the meantime, Americans - bored and impatient - will continue to buy radar detectors until they are banned, or, at some inevitable point in the future, cars become fully automated - which I hope is delayed well beyond the end of my lifetime. (If you don’t know Rush’s Red Barchetta, buy it here.)

Since the sole purpose of a radar detector is to evade police detection of speeding, any feature that enables the driver to do so as successfully as possible is essential, and the absence of any feature which mitigates the detector’s effectiveness in fulfilling its sole purpose renders it useless.

The addition of GPS functionality - with its myriad applications for the mapping of speed traps and false alarms - is clearly beneficial to the speeder, but I see two problems that must be solved before GPS functionality can/will become useful, if not as indispensible as it might be:

1) Pre-programmed speedtraps/false alarm data

    Manufacturers have only four sources for such data:

    A) Law enforcement/government agencies.
    B) Physical research. On the ground. The hard way.
    C) Third-party research, licensed.
    D) User submission.

    (A) will with never happen. (B) isn’t cost effective. (C) is possible, but accuracy and freshness will remain issues.

    Which leaves (D).

Would you bet your license, insurance premiums (and possibly your livelihood) on the accuracy and freshness of speedtrap locations submitted by complete strangers months or years in the past? Especially if you knew that law enforcement agencies, once aware that their favorite speedtraps were stored within increasingly popular civilian hardware meant to evade capture, would undoubtedly adapt and move to new locations?

I’d rather slow down, save the money spent on that GPS-enabled/pre-programmed detector, and spare myself the stress and doubt.

Pre-programmed GPS-enabled detectors are like ABS and traction control and electronic stability control. A false sense of security based on "safety" technologies one doesn’t fully understand can only lead to complacency…and disaster.

Helpful features, but not sufficient to replace human judgment, skill and/or experience.