ESCORT, Cobra Release Community-Based Systems to Prevent U.S. Drivers Against Speed Traps

This week, only apart from a few days the two leading North American vendors of radar/laser detection systems have announced community sharing features for their respective devices.

ESCORT released an accessory and mobile application as add-ons to its existing radar detectors that allows to detect, confirm and share, via a Smartphone, speed controls made by the police. Cobra, which already had launched a mobile application paired with a radar/laser detector, enabled a community feature allowing users to share police spotting made by their device.

ESCORT LIve
The ESCORT Live service is available for select iPhones and Android devices. Current ESCORT owners with compatible detectors can purchase a Bluetooth-enabled power cord, (the SmartCord) the mobile application and the service subscription through 2012 for a special introductory price of $79.95.

In addition, for a limited time, customers can also purchase a special package which includes a new ESCORT radar detector equipped with ESCORT Live through 2012 for a $100 savings.

Cobra iRadar
The Cobra iRadar Community is included in the latest software release of the Cobra iRadar app which works by pairing it to a hardware iRadar detector (for Laser/Radar gun detection).

The community allows users to report and alert other iRadar users to live police, caution areas, and photo enforcement areas. When an iRadar unit detects a radar or laser alert, it can automatically share this information with other iRadar community users nearby.

The Cobra iRadar detector cost around $100 and the application is free on iPhone and Android.

According to Cobra, “Since its debut one year ago, the Cobra iRadar app has been downloaded and installed by hundreds of thousands of Cobra customers.“ Therefore community effect is likely to be faster for Cobra, but the ESCORT bluetooth enabled power cord offers a community feature to a very large range of their existing products.

It is interesting to see the emergence of such devices and communities in the United States four years after this approach was pioneered in Europe by Coyote Systems.

The two markets remain however quite different in terms of laws, tchnologies and consumer interest for such devices.