Inventor beats Ticket, Speed Cameras with GPS Invention
Trying to fight a speeding ticket in England? If you're Dr. Phillip Tann, you don't hope for the officer's absence at the hearing; instead, you invent, design and install a GPS-based tracking system to prove your innocence. WhatCar? reports the inventor was successful in fighting a recent ticket with his gadget.
Dr. Tann, a professor at the University of Sunderland, had been clocked by speed camera traveling 42 mph. But Tann held a technological trump card: using a mobile phone, Tann was able to transfer GPS data - including travel speed - to a computer for record.
(Click through to read how the device works.)
Dr. Tann's invention showed he drove no faster than 29.18 mph, and armed with his data, he went to fight the ticket. It paid off, as all charges - which would have fined Tann and marred his driving record - have been dropped.
The device can supposedly locate a phone within an accuracy range between one-half to five meters, making it somewhat more accurate than a speed camera. Initially designed for government applications, Dr. Tann plans to market the tracker to consumers by the end of this year.
Comments
David B
Wouldn't work for me, as it would just prove I'm guilty. (lol)
john
It just proves that the technology is there to line the pockets of those who sell the technology. The accuracy is assumed to be indisputable, there for no one really tests the system and just pays the fine.
dante
If there's a market for this, it would point to an uncomfrtably high incidence of false ticketing. Makes me think these are set to do it on purpose with the burden of proof on the 'offender'. Sounds like extortion.
JN
Speed cameras, radar and laser speed detection are for one thing and one thing only, Revenue. All other "reasons" are just after the fact justifications made up by the users (government). If it has a benificial side effect, like slowing down traffic, great.
Foris
Wow, that's a huge discrepancy, being clocked by the speed camera at 42, when his actual speed was 29. If this was anything else (aircraft for example!...) the dodgy units would be grounded until the problems were sorted out.
Somehow, the authorities' response seems just a little too "Yes, Minister" - er, the operating officer has now retired, and we need to retrain officers... Yeah, right.
J. Mills
Good for him, England really seems to be out of control with all of it's traffic enforcements, glad I don't live there.
gino
England, with over a gazillion cameras, has long since become '1984' and well beyond--a spy state.
But the radar, lazer, speed-camera operations anywhere are as noted--revenue raisers and nothing else.
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