Filed under: Gadgets, Euro, Tech
Europeans can avoid speed cameras with Inforad
Speed cameras in Europe are fast becoming a royal pain in the ass, which makes a device like Inforad a stroke of genius. It's a little black box that sits on your dash and plugs into your cigarette lighter like a radar detector, but instead of detecting cops with quotas to meet, it uses GPS positioning hardware that links up with satellites to pinpoint your car's location relative to known areas covered by speed cameras. If a user encounters an unknown speed camera location, he/she can press a button on Inforad that saves those particular coordinates and uploads them later to a central database where mobile engineers can verify them before being released to fellow users. Genius! The box itself costs £79.99 with yearly subscription for updates going for £24.99 and a lifetime subscription is just £49.99.
[Source: Inforad via Ubergizmo via Foursprung]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
sr20de 12:39PM (7/07/2006)
How long until devices like these are illegal? You can be sure that if speed cameras were in use in the USA like they are in the UK and other European countries, our pathetic politicians would find some way to make them illegal.
With all the big brother stuff in the UK, I'm surprised they haven't outlawed these things already. The concept is simple and effective. I wish radar detectors were as useful!
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Gardiner Westbound 12:40PM (7/07/2006)
You gotta love it! Almost as quickly as governments and the insurance cartel come up new ways to fleece motorists, the geeks invent cheap countermeasures.
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Billie Joe 12:47PM (7/07/2006)
Truthfully they need speed cameras in the UK especially where tourists, like myself, travel. The "natives" blow us off the roadways as we are very cautious because of the "wrong side" passage on the roadways! We don't need them here in the States 'cause the Bill of Rights gives us the right to face the accusser and what can a camera say in court!
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Hooty 12:56PM (7/07/2006)
Tom Tom Navigator for PPC does the same thing...
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FireSoul 1:15PM (7/07/2006)
I'm not sure why this is news. The Road Angel and Snooper S6 have used GPS to show speed camera locations for years.
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Scott 1:25PM (7/07/2006)
Although helpful in warning you about the speed cameras it still doesn't allow you to speed (which is why you'd want one of these in the first place).
This simply tells you that you should slow down to avoid a ticket... the objective of the law enforcement is still met, you're not speeding.
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verdegrrl 1:31PM (7/07/2006)
We'll need these devices sooner than later. Who's ready to start up a company here?
Red light cameras spreading like lice in the US, even though plenty of evidence shows that accident levels rise where installed:http://www.caranddriver.com/columns/1934/patrick-bedard.html
Speed cameras are coming too: http://www.caranddriver.com/columns/11185/fish-stories-from-the-operators-of-traffic-scameras.html
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verdegrrl 1:37PM (7/07/2006)
Scott,
It's a sad thing, but they really don't want you to slow down, they want to pick your pocket. Driving in places with this equipment is actually MORE dangerous. Maybe that's an angle we can use to sue the cities - which would remove the reason (money, not safety) for them.
The objective is to fine you without legal representation so there is minimal overhead. See my post with links above.
One thing to point out, a major plank in a political party in British Columbia Canada was to abolish speed cameras. They won the election handily.
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Karl 1:57PM (7/07/2006)
Ditto on what verdegrrl said. It's the sad truth. They masqurade as safety measures when it's all about the bottom line: taxes.
And what makes it even sadder is when they add points/demerits to the poor saps who get nailed. Then they take away what for many people is the only mode of transportation for them. Sure, I could take a bus, but I'd have to leave about two hours earlier to make it work so I could get to my job on time. Likewise for getting home. How is this reasonable? Especially when your only crime was driving the same way everyone else is?
Side note: if there's anyone who would like to tell their story about contesting a ticket, or a very unfair ticket, email me. Win or lose.
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gbh 1:58PM (7/07/2006)
As FireSoul brought up, this tech was news maybe 3 years ago.
I still often wonder if articles like this are just filler because Autoblog has to have 'x' number of articles per day.
The only argument against it being filler is so many of the commentaries by the Autoblog submitter, really makes it sound like really old news is, in fact, fresh news.
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Greg 1:59PM (7/07/2006)
At least some are fighting back:
http://www.speedcam.co.uk/gatso2.htm
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mr lux 2:09PM (7/07/2006)
these devices only work until cops eventually outsmart them
http://luxuryaffair.com
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prodigy 2:50PM (7/07/2006)
No 6
As a WASHINGTON DC residence i fuck resent those cameras, they ranking millions and roads are fucked up?
this just show how fucked up our society is?
On the bright side the camera system works well for speeders because then you don't get any points on your driver lience at least down here YET!!!!
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Bob 2:57PM (7/07/2006)
It seems hypocritical that we mention increase in accidents where cameras are installed, when there are as many studies that show distracted driving and speed lead to accidents. Why don't we all just ride bikes?
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Karl 3:19PM (7/07/2006)
No 10, how nice of you to put in a completely unrelated link to hock your crap.
#12 lies, damn lies and statistics. You can make the data say anything you want it to.
In many places, if there's no clear cause of an accident, they assume it to be speed related. Of course it's speed related, two objects that are not moving will not collide. Feel free to ride your bicycle as much as you want. They'll find some way to hide revenue generation behind safety on those as well.
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UH2L 3:29PM (7/07/2006)
Great idea with this product. Yes, I wrote a post about law enforcement recently on my blog.
http://uh2l.blogs.com/things_ive_noticed/2006/03/police_highway_.html
They often seem to be around to "Pull over and collect, not serve and protect."
There's one way to catch people on toll roads that would be totally fool proof but would lead to decreased use of toll roads... All they have to do is look at the distance between entry and exit toll booths and divide it by the time it took you to make the trip. If it's over XX mph, you get a ticket. There's no safer way to enforce, (just don't tell the cops.)
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Bob 3:30PM (7/07/2006)
Very true, I hate statistics. I look forward to the day I get a speeding ticket on my bike, I will frame the damn thing. People don't realize how hard it is to bike at 25 for more than a few blocks. Still the best thing is to pay attention. If only we could give out tickets for being an idiot...
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Santiago Rodrguez 4:50PM (7/07/2006)
Why don't take a look in the above one (other it's www.busnews.blogspot.com) so we can be a link at your's
"Auto Types - Commercial Trucks" ?
Thanking in advance, remain
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Dirk Dundenburg 5:33PM (7/07/2006)
Flashing your headlights and using CB radios years ago was the preferred way of avoiding "the Man".
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gbh 9:41PM (7/07/2006)
Bob,
Don't ever go to LA. I promise they write excessive bicycle speed tickets all the time.
They also will turn around and try to catch you to write you a ticket for jaywalking. However, I've heard that of you sprint into a multi-story office building, they'll give up. Just what I've heard.
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