Autoblog

There are times in everyone's life when you have an idea that sounds brilliant when explained in the audience of friends, but in practice is "exposed" as pure idiocy. The passenger of a BMW X5 gave a Cramlington, UK speed camera an uncensored view of his backside in an obvious attempt at humor, but in the end (no pun intended) the stunt could result in some hefty fines. Since local authorities weren't amused by the Braveheart salute, the passenger could receive tickets for public indecency and for not wearing a seat belt. Well, that is if the driver is willing to rat on his or her offending comrade.

While we admit this is kind of funny at first blush, mostly because we never before noticed that a BMW grille looks a little like a human butt, mooning a speed camera is stupid for a couple reasons. First, it's not cool to expose yourself in public. That's the kind of thing that will get you on a sex offender list if you're not careful. Second, speed cameras are really good at taking pictures of cars, giving authorities the plates of the vehicle as they pass through intersections. Third, and perhaps most important, why would the owner of a Bimmer want someone to press their bare ass up against their windshield? Lets just hope someone remembered to sanitize the soiled glass. Thanks for the tip, everyone!

(Source: BBC News)

A pair of Pittsburgh Revenue Officers misunderstood the rules surrounding the use of some LIDAR gear loaned to the department for testing and issued a raft of tickets that the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police now has to retract. Apparently LIDAR is only approved for use when teamed with other systems like VASCAR and ENRADD, which measure speed in different ways, and these boys in blue were using it solo. Their mistake instantly invalidates about 650 speeding fines that were issued on account of the loaned LIDAR equipment.

Pittsburgh police chief Nate Harper has apologized for the erroneous tickets, and motorists with LIDAR-only tickets were encouraged to request a court hearing. If the citation has already been paid, the unlawfully caught speeders will be reimbursed. A full refund for a speeding ticket is novel, but our sarcastic side wants to make a crack about the payouts being funded by shortening yellow lights at intersections with camera-bots. Thanks for the tip, Eddy!

[Source: WTAE, Photo: nist.gov]

Photo: Nicholas Bowman

Most people have pretty weak arguments for speeding. Everything from having a broken speedometer, going with the flow of traffic, or desperately needing to find a bathroom are usually feeble excuses that generally don't hold up. Simon Grills's case is unique. Despite being caught by a speed camera and slapped with a £60 fine, his case was dropped because the speed limit sign, which changes the allowed speed from 70 mph to 50 mph, isn't lit at night and was extremely difficult to see. While one case wouldn't necessarily make the news, it's been found that Simon isn't alone. The lights for the sign have been broken since November of 2005, and approximately 214,000 motorists have received tickets for speeding with the sign unlit. Despite the promise that the lights will be fixed, speed cameras are still ticketing motorists at a rate of 500 per day. Grills' legal battle, for which he has spent over 300 hours, has opened up the possibility of other motorists to receive refunds.

Thanks for the tip, Fernando!

[Source: SundayMirror.co.uk]

Njection is a website for guys like us. In addition to their forums and picture resources, they have compiled a database of more than 50,000 speed traps worldwide -- areas with high radar use and speed cameras -- that works with Microsoft Live Maps. Njection is now offering owners of Garmin GPS units the ability to download speed trap and red light camera information to their portable navigation units.

A SpeedTrap-enhanced Garmin portable GPS unit will be a great companion on a road trip, long commute, or while traveling in unfamilar areas. However, as sophisticated as the technology is getting, GPS still won't find your lost keys.

[Source: PRNewswire via Winding Road]

Last night's episode of Mythbusters was wonderfully auto related. The show's hosts, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, take on the myth that a speed camera can be foiled. They attack the myth from various angles, including testing various types of license plate covers that claim to obscure one's plate from the prying eyes of a roadside speed camera. Of course, every mailorder plate cover fails miserably.

The real myth behind this segment, however, is that one can drive so fast that a speed camera will be unable to snap a pic before the car moves out of frame. They begin with an average car, the late-model Dodge Neon. On an abandoned airforce runway the Neon manages to hit 100 mph, clearly not fast enough to foil the camera. Their best shot is with a Lamborghini Murcielago, but they make the mistake of using a drag strip this time that doesn't offer enough room to get up to speed. A professional driver manages to reach about 140 mph, though it's still snapped with ease. Their conclusion is that the speed camera cannot be foiled just by going faster. Really? The Top Gear crew actually managed to foil a speed camera back in their first on-air episode back in 2002, when a TVR Tuscan S driven by the Stig passed a speed camera at over 170 mph, and the camera never went off (check the video here). Now, speed camera technology has no doubt advanced in the past five years, so perhaps the Mythbusters crew is still right and it is impossible to beat a speed camera in 2007.

Adam and Jaime have so much fun testing cars that at the end of the show they implore their viewership to send in more auto-related myths. You can do so here, and tell them Autoblog sent you. Maybe we can get a walk-on roll or something.

We've left some surprises if you still plan to watch the show, which will now enter the pantheon of Mythbusters reruns on the Discovery Channel, and can also be downloaded as a torrent here (NSFW).

A blind man was recently caught by a speed camera doing 98 mph on public roads in Spain. The man had lost his sight in a car accident in 1996, and, as he explained to the court, wanted to drive just one more time. So, just like the last time we heard about a sightless driver, the man had his wife sit shotgun and dole out verbal directions on which way to turn the wheel.

In this case, however, the courts tried to strip the man of his disability benefits, citing the fact that he successfully drove the car as proof his accident didn't leave him blind. In the end, however, a Barcelona court believed the man truly had an earnest desire to hop behind the wheel one more time and threw out the case.

Frankly, we're surprised at how many times people who have lost their sight felt it's a good idea to get behind the wheel. We can understand wanting nothing more than to feel the power and control that driving offers, especially when a disability does so much to remove those feelings from your daily routine. Nevertheless, there are other innocent people on the road, and sight is one of those gotta have senses when it comes to driving. Smell and taste on the other hand...

[Source: Piston Heads]

Though the isle of Britain isn't that large in terms of square miles, it still contains 24,000 potential speed traps (about the same number in Ohio, we think). The Rossini Navigator and Camera Spotter is a satellite navigation unit that has each one of those traps plotted on its digital topography and will audibly warn a driver if one is fast approaching. The unit also does the whole door-to-door, turn-by-turn navigation thing, but the addition of such comprehensive camera spotting technology moves it to the head of the class. The distributer of the Rossini Navigator, Car Parts Direct, has also decided to guarantee the device will keep you ticket free in the UK by offering £60 cashback if the device offers no warning of a speed trap and a ticket is issued. Those purchasing the Rossini Nav system will also get free camera updates emailed to them through January of 2009, since most people don't bother to go get updates on thier own when they're made available. The unit costs £399 and is ready to use right out of the box.

[Source: Car Parts Direct]

Nobody likes a tattletale, but is that any reason to blow up a speed camera that just caught you breakin' the law? A 28-year-old British man who had just gotten snapped by a speed camera thought so, and believed he could beat his ticket by blowing up the witness to his crime. Wrong. The hard drive of the camera survived and showed police the man returning to the scene in one frame and "sparks and flames" in the next. Here's a thought, did he have to walk in front of the camera to blow it up?

[Source: Drive.com.au]

Audi's advertising agency, Ogilvy, decided to have a little fun with a speed camera in South Africa by placing in front of it an ad for the Audi RS6 with the line, "say cheese!"

One might find need for such a warning/laugh in an RS6, which at the time of this pic boasted 450 hp from a twin-turbo version of the 4.2L V8 in the A6. That makes for one very photogenic sedan.

[Source: German Car Blog]

A man accused of driving at speeds up to 147 mph is about to get his day in court -- and many are looking at the case to challenge the freeway photo enforcement program in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Lawrence Pargo of Goodyear was supposedly running late for work and was caught by speeding cameras on Loop 101 going 102, 105, 128 and 147 mph between 5:47 and 6:20 a.m. The city of Scottsdale and its speeding camera vendor, Redflex Traffic Systems, both say that the readings were accurate; however, an unmodified Sonata is speed limited in accordance with federal regulations to 137 mph. If found guilty, Pargo could face jail time and get his license suspended.

Steve Spence, managing editor of Car and Driver magazine, said that the cameras were likely wrong -- the Hyundai Sonata, he said, topped out at 137 in a test drive for the magazine. And for those who think Pargo may have modified his Hyundai to reach speeds higher than intended, the car wasn't even his, it was a rental.

[Source: East Valley Tribune]