Inventor wins speed camera battle

Another story in another thread about a teenager who's parents used gps tracking as proof their son wasn't speeding when he was ticketed. Kind of like when they invented the bulletproof vest, it didn't take too long before someone invented the bullet that would penetrate the bulletproof vest. Now there's technology coming our way that allows us to question the "indisputable proof" of radar and traffic cameras law enforcement has had over us all these years. Yea!

Good article, thanks.

I was hoping one day someone would work on this.

It reads like the inventor may have used his gps enabled phone to either continuously save time/positioning information for download at a later date, or maybe used a bluetooth connection between his bluetooth enabled gps and phone whenever they were within range of each other.

If there is someone who can write the code required to make that connection and transmit the data to smart phones might be able to make a little income from such a program (I use Palm, so anyone who can write to Palm/Garmin devices, please do me first:)).

Actually, intermittent location coordinates sent to and stored on an SD card inserted in the GPS would be even easier... No multiple hardware issues to deal with. Make it self-purging as memory is used up, the oldest files get deleted, like a black box (all encripted, of course, to avoid charges of "tampering"). Bigger cards get longer historical memories. If you get stopped for speeding, pull the SD card and hope your data offers better news than the ticketing officer's.

Please, please, someone write that program... Can I get a discount because I suggested it? I'll even offer to be a beta test site!

Finally. I knew I have a reason to question those cameras...

How long will it be until some ... tort attorney subpoenas your GPS to prove you're at fault for an accident?

They're already doing it with electronic control units in commercial vehicles. With the increasing use of electronics to monitor so many things in vehicles it's only a matter of time before regular drivers will undergo this increased scrutiny.

Your best bet is to make sure to immediately erase any information stored in your GPS if you're involved in an accident. Even if you're not at fault, some of the information could be used to convince a jury that you were doing something wrong so your at least partially at fault.

Commecial drivers have always had to be careful to make sure their miles travelled and time driving matched up or they could get a speeding ticket based solely on their logbooks.

The stock garmins don't come with any kind of history that I know of that would be useful in a trial. The max speed can't be proven that it was the speed that you were going at the time of the accident.

What kind of info do you see that would be useful...I really don't see any.

Remind me not to reset my max speed the next time I take my GPSr on a plane. That should make for an interesting conversation if my GPSr is ever subpoenaed.

True the Streetpilot and Nuvi lines don't have much information that would be usable. However, my 126 has a downloadable file that has a second-by-second record of location, speed, direction, altitude, etc . . .

While your max speed may not be immediately useful, a "good" lawyer could use it to show "a blatant disregard for public safety" in a civil trial. Remember, that a civil trial doesn't have to be about facts, just whatever a lawyer can convince and uneducated and vindictive jury of.

However, the point of the original posts was that someone could use GPS or other electronic monitoring information to beat a ticket. My main point was that the information could be used both ways.

I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder.

I removed an insult from a post earlier up the thread along with a couple of later posts that came in response to the the insult.

Let's keep insults out of the posts.

JM