CES: A radar detector that also alerts drivers to red-light and speed cameras

LAS VEGAS -- Cobra Electronics has taught its radar detectors a new trick: they also detect red light cameras and speed cameras.

The Chicago company does this by maintaining a database of intersections known to have red-light cameras and stretches of road with speeding cameras. The database currently has more than 5,000 intersections, speed camera locations and popular speed traps. But it's being updated twice a day by Cobra employees who are tasked with finding and verifying new locations by calling various cities, police departments and local businesses near major intersections. Due out in the spring, the detectors are priced from $389 to $439, depending on the model.

Users download the database and updates from their computers via a dongle that's equipped with GPS. Connect the dongle to the Cobra radar detector and, voila, you have the ultimate traffic ticket-avoidance device.

Of course, the company insists that its detectors exist to enhance safety; red-light cameras and speed cameras are generally installed in areas with high accident rates. To show that it means it, Cobra also included in its database intersections that have high accident rates but don't have the traffic robocops. It also detects signals that ambulances and fire trucks can use in an emergency to turn oncoming traffic lights green. In this case, the device encourages drivers to be more alert to these vehicles and drive more cautiously.

"It doesn't enable you to speed," said Christopher Kooistra, a Cobra marketing manager who showed us the device at a sneak preview for the media at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. "It simply warns you when you're under surveillance or when you're approaching a dangerous intersection."

Dangerous to your health, but at $250 or more for each traffic ticket, also dangerous to your wallet.

-- Alex Pham

Photo: Cobra XRS 9960G radar and laser detector. Credit: Cobra Electronics

Comments

[AndrewZela]

Here's a device that also uses GPS to warn you for only $99.

www.gpsangel.com

[Henry]

Invariably there will be comments saying, "If you stop running red lights you won't need to buy this product."

"Not so," I say. To the holier-than-thou who think they're above all this: Get out your wallet! Assuming you occasionally venture outside of your neighborhood into unfamiliar territory, you need to buy a $300+ system to warn you when you're approaching a camera enforced location. Why?

The drivers in front of you will be exhibiting unexpected behavior, like slamming on their brakes on a brand new yellow, or because they have "local" knowledge that there's a speed camera there. The warning from the nav system will save you from rear-ending them - an accident for which the law would automatically hold you responsible.

Oh! Once you have your nav system, you will also need to spend some time each month downloading the database containing the newest locations - and of course you will need to pay for a subscription to that data. (You will also need to maintain the nav systems belonging to all your computer-illiterate friends and relatives.)

Have fun out there! NO ONE gets out of this camera fad for free.

Since they haven't cut me off at 200 words, I want to mention another California-only perversion. About 30 cities here issue FAKE red light camera tickets, called Snitch Tickets, to bluff registered owners to turn in whoever was driving their car. What the RO's don't realize, until after they've already turned-in their kid, wife, or friend, is that the fake tickets can be ignored, since they have not been filed with the court. Warn your friends about these. The way to recognize them is that they look just like a regular red light camera ticket, but do not have the address of the court on them. For more info, Google the term.

Hen-ry!

[MarkMan]

does this thing also detect laser speed guns? radar speed guns are kind of outdated.