Radar & Laser Detection

Jman423

Original poster
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Mar 24, 2014
1,874
United States
I've had a radar/laser detector installed in every vehicle I've owned for the better part of two decades now. Recently, I decided to sell my (high-end) radar detector and just throw in the towel. While they tend to be very effective in radar defense, they are, and have been, totally useless for defense against laser speed detection since it became a mainstream method. Throughout my time as a driver, most of the radar detector brands have been basically snatched by one of a few parent companies and quality/value has drastically decreased. Another issue is lane-departure and blind-spot systems tend to use the same radar bands and constantly cause false alerting with most brands/units. While some manufacturers have baked in some features to reduce these false alerts, it basically just reduces the effectiveness of overall detection quality.

Laser Jammers are an option and are generally "legal" because they live a double life as parking sensors, but the cost of an effective system with the right amount of heads for the size of the vehicle is very prohibitive to most people.

I don't consider myself a typical speeder, but I like to know what's going on ahead of me, and lets face it... we all speed even if we don't mean to.

Many will likely bring up Waze as an alternative, and they're right. With its own pros and cons, its a hell of a lot cheaper than most quality radar/laser systems these days (especially those with crowd-sourced "Waze-like" features with paid subscriptions).

Considering all of that, what are you using and how is your track record?
 

Reprise

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Jul 22, 2015
2,724
Nothing now (commute changed). Formerly Escort 9500ix. Still have it; ran across it recently in the garage. Last usage was prolly 5yrs ago or more.

Got it about 10yrs (!) ago for a 150mi weekly drive downstate via I-55, which was supposed to be speed trap city. I think I saw 2 patrol cars in a year and a half; one was running radar; the other was visual.

As far as the alerting, it was good. Occasional falses; it did have a learning memory / lockout feature, along w/ updatable database for red light cams & the like (paid sub after yr 1; I never did).

My longer drives on the superslab these days involve towing, and I don't exceed posted limits, for safety reasons (equipment guidelines, more than liability or competence fears)

As far as my metro area (highway), everyone does +10-15 over, and traffic is so heavy, it effectively enforces a limit, anyway.
 

mrrsm

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Oct 22, 2015
7,619
Tampa Bay Area
I agree with the "Heads up at The Horizon" idea and that ... Forewarned...is Forearmed. However, in the 'Sunshine State' of Florida, If the FHP's Pursuit Vehicles' Sensitive Equipment determines that a stopped Driver has Anti-Radar Equipment on board ...and they were pulled over specifically for speeding, the Troopers WILL include that interesting little bit of Data on the Unavoidable Citation that WILL accompany the Traffic Stop.

This information becomes instantly available to Insurance Companies via the online FLDHSMV (Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles) and will serve as an EZ Excuse to REALLY bump up errant Drivers' Car Insurance Rates. I know this to be true because my wife worked for a Major Florida Insurance Company for over four decades... and the Customer Sob Stories she often described about them subsequently getting 'Jammed' with High Insurance Rates' is an absolute fact. Auto Insurance Companies will pounce on every opportunity to raise Insurance Rates, regardless of the Driver's DMV Point System accumulation being below the State DL Suspension threshold. YMMV between different states. The "Major Insurance Players" in the Industry follow this Golden Rule:

"Three Moving Violations in Three Years = Immediate Cancellation" and the Underwriter's in ALL of them will insist on charging Customers for VERY Expensive "High Risk Driver" Insurance Coverage. BOHICA.

But... For anyone still interested in getting this kind of Alert System, this is an On Topic Link that includes information about which States allow the Use of Radar Detection vs. Radar Jamming Devices, etc, and has a Tab covering Accessory Mountings that may work with certain Model of these Devices to improve their detection coverage. Checking the Laws in relevant States for the latest legislative variations on what is covered here will also be a good idea as well:

 
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