Interesting Application for Smartphones

[RJ]

Local news did a story about this application for smartphones this morning, thought I'd share with my fellow busnuts.  Works with iphones, etc.:

http://trapster.com/index.php

Some PDs are not happy with it, others encourage it's use.

Technology marches on!

[Len Silva]

"Well, you see, Your Honor, I was looking at trapster.com on my Iphone when I lost control of my vehicle and went off the road"

[JohnEd]

RJ,

Thank Yeeeewwww!

John

[Tim Strommen]

I always thought this was a terrible use of technology...

[soapbox]

If you are going to catalog anything, catalog school zones, and speed limits for the roads.  Then an app using GPS can tell you if you're speeding or if you need to be on the lookout for kids (all without needing to look at a display by the way).

I think a better use of technology would be a device that sits in your dash board that tells you how fast your vehicle is going so that you can compare it to the posted signs and adjust your speed accordingly... wait - THEY DO HAVE THAT!!!  

I would prefer it if people started obeying the speed limits everywhere instead of just where they can get in trouble.

I don't see this type of technology as ANY different than an app that tells all the burglars, rapists, drug-dealers, gang-bangers, and murders where the cops are in real-time.  This app helps people break laws and avoid consecuences.  Period.

[/soapbox]

All it is going to take is one person who is drinking and driving using Trapster that kills an entire family while avoiding the DUI checkpoint - someone will sue trapster for all they are worth plus damages...

-T

[Len Silva]

Tim,  I agree completely (I'm a law and order liberal!)

With today's technology, it's not beyond possibility that embedded signals from the road itself could communicate with the vehicle limit the speed, even slow them down below the speed limit in hazardous conditions.

How would you guys feel about that?

[oldmansax]

I'm not even going to start......

I can see this topic going downhill fast!


TOM

[Lin]

Often the speed limits on major highways are artificially low.  Remember when some insane control freaks mandated a national 55 mph limit?  Whoever did that must have been as dumb as Jimmy Carter!  I would agree if the speed limits were set according to the roads design specs or close to it, but making people drive 65 on a road designed for 95 is ridiculous.  I'm am talking about cars here, not trucks and buses.

As far as the drunk driver killing the hypothetical family goes, I say ban the booze!  The only legal recreational drug should be chocolate.

[Ednj]

RJ,
I thought you were going to show us this phone =
Hands-On With The LG Expo Projector Phone

[zimtok]

I agree you should do the speed limit and obey the laws that are put in place to protect us from others... (and even ourselves)

That being said, I also believe that if the police were really trying to deter us from driving recklessly they would position themselves so they could be seen. Nothing slows down traffic better then a visible police car.

When they hide and shoot radar they are just trying to get the money generated by the speeding tickets. (Dare I approach the topic of speed traps?)
Almost every police force has a quota of tickets that each police officer needs to get each month. Most officers I have talked to say the quota is rather low and it is easy to reach, but they still have a quota that forces them to generate money for fines.

Just my opinion/observation, of course you are entitled to your own.
I very rarely go more then 5mph over the posted limit, and have not had a speeding ticket in over 10years.





.

[Tim Strommen]

...With today's technology, it's not beyond possibility that embedded signals from the road itself could communicate with the vehicle limit the speed, even slow them down below the speed limit in hazardous conditions.

Just don't buy a GM vehicle with "On-star" - that "hook" is already installed in a bunch of GM vehicles.

The only thing they need to do is take the GPS position data they are already collecting and lookup the road that the driver is using and update the "max speed" value in the engine computer (this is the same thing they do for "vehicle slow-down" and top-speed limiting...).  Even more Big-Brother-ish - instead of helping to driver obey the speed law, what's stopping them from just mailing the driver the ticket automatically?  It's almost like equiping a vehicle with it's own moving speed camera!

-T