Cobra XRS 9970G radar detector has a touchscreen, will not make radar detectors useful
By Nilay Patel 
posted January 7th 2010 7:32AM
posted January 7th 2010 7:32AM
posted January 7th 2010 7:32AM
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Thankfully they have yet to make a detector to foil vigilantes who follow bad drivers to their destinations, and then jump them as they get out of their cars or trucks. Have fun speeding you fuckers. I'll see you soon!
Seriously though, driving is far and away the most dangerous thing any of us participate in on any given day, and probably in our whole lives. It's astounding that people are so dumb that we need laws to tell us to buckle seat belts, drive at safe speeds, leave enough room in front of you to stop, not to stop in intersections, etc etc etc.
@mello
that's because ehre in the states any dumb@ss with a 5th grade reading level can get a license for what 50 bucks? I know in germany a license will run you about $1000. People in other countries drive better and at higher speeds, why because they arent morons. they take driving seriously, unlike us who have cell phones going while reading the morning paper.
If americans wanted to make our driving experience better, we would make getting a license much harder(as in i dunno at least highschool reading level would b a nice thought). this might keep a lot fo crappy drivers off the road.
@hexideciml actually you're wrong. I'm 17, i got my driver's license when i was 16. In the states, at least in Wisconsin and Michigan, you need to take about 3 months worth of classes taught by mostly former police officers about driving and driving safety. These classes and the time spent in the car with an instructor can cost easily over $1000. Not to mention the costs of obtaining learners permits and the actual license. For me, i won't have my actual license until i turn 18 because i still have restrictions. Its not really easy to get a license in the states, maybe in some states, but not where i grew up.
@taytayclark
see youre an idiot and decided that apparently u needed private driving lessons, or ru parents did and wanted to give away 1000 dolalrs(here in IL/chciago we havea company called adams driving school that charges the same thing for PRIVATE LESSONS). all public highscools offer drivers ed for let's see i paid oh yea 45 dolalrs and thats for class costs and the book and the test and the eye exam. So yea private lessons=exspensive, lessons at local public highschool=cheap
and they have just started to do the graduated drivers licenseing program but that only applies to teens(and it maybe makes them drive for an extra 6months w/o a pssanger). yes teens are the worst drivers on the road besides for the elderly. and 3 months of driving to get ur license(in IL u can get ur license at 16 and a lot of other states) and however many hours u have to drive(my parents jsut signed off the paper i never did the 50+hours for my permit)
and if ur 18 all u have to do is show up to the DMV, take a written test, take a driving test, then bam ur done.
so yea its cheap and its easy and the drivers it produces are well mediocher at best. its why we need slower speed limits, otherwise more crappy drivers and innocent bystandards would b injured every year
@hexideciml
while i agree with your point somewhat, based on your spelling and grammar it's hard to believe you have higher than a 5th grade education
@hexideciml Actually around where I live, public schools stopped offering DriversEd to save $$$. Now private is the only option. I haven't noticed the skill level of drivers increasing though.
@hexideciml The highschools i went to didn't have drivers ed. The only option was to take private lessons. And thanks for calling me an idiot, even though you can barely spell. Its nice to see someone using personal attacks to get a point across, it works quite well. Try maybe being polite when you want to make a point and maybe people will take you more seriously.
Funky looking gun!
Sometimes it seems as though Engadget and some of their related blogs such as Joystiq are so wrapped up in being snide and condescending in all of their posts that they lose relevance in their original goal of presenting technology news.
It's obvious by the comments here that the story became less about the technology being presented and more about the writer's remarks about radar detectors. I enjoy these blogs but sometimes wish that they had filter for the writer's opinions.
@Nineset But it triples the number of comments the story got which was probably the intention.
This device is certified fugly.....some old out of touch truck driver will buy it though and jack knife his trailer while trying to get through the menu on a 1.5 inch touchscreen...SMMFH
I am dreaming of the day when I can have a radar detector built inside of a touchscreen gps device that gives me a real representation of where the state patrol is in reference to the location of my vehicle based on the the signal strength of their radar guns etc....There are radar detectors with gps built in that takes note of the locations where they encounter a radar signal. But to me thats not enough...Ahhh screw I might as well save up some money to buy K.I.T.T.
@Vision77
jsut invent urself a way to link ur radar detectors together and use some triangulation to pinpoint the popo
Call me a dumb brit -
but what the hell is a radar detector?
@FORDY Ok, I re-read all the comments.
I'm guessing its the same as a "scanner" that searches channels for police traffic?
This is a pretty niche market (If you can call the US niche) as in the UK the police have gone entirely digital and encoded, making his now impossible. (I used to enjoy listening to what they were saying as a kid)
@FORDY no, it detects the radars that police use to catch speeders
My car came with a neat little gizmo that'll tell me if I'm in danger of getting a ticket, and to this day it's never put me at risk of getting a ticket.
It's called a speedometer.
Irrelevant? That's a ridiculous statement. I make the drive from Dallas to Amarillo quite often. My $200 Beltronics 990 made my annual speeding ticket bill go from about a grand a year to $0 for the last two years. Not to mention I go 90 now instead of 80. Saves time and money. I've been pegged one time by a laser since I got the thing. As for the Cobra brand, well that is irrelevant. Those things blow compared to Beltronics, Valentine, and Escort.
Since when are radar detectors not useful Nilay. I agree that the touch screen is stupid, but it is just as stupid as saying that radar detectors are no longer useful.
My cheap Radar Detector has saved me PLENTY of times, I am thinking about using all the money I have saved from speeding tickets to pick one of these bad boys up! Haha.