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Posts Tagged “
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gadgets
gadgets
Toshiba Smart Side Mirrors Claim To Gauge Distance; Accuracy Unknown
At the 2008 Automotive Engineering Exposition, Toshiba demonstrated a new technology with the potential to change how drivers view the lowly side mirror. By replacing a vehicle's standard side mirrors with cameras that feed live footage to monitors inside the vehicle, the Toshiba Smart Mirrors can display a yellow, green or red line when another vehicle is getting too close. More »
novelties
Unique Clause Gets Google Street View Banned From Minnesota Town
The wacky and crazy Google Street View vehicles that manage to capture all of the perfect moments have gotten themselves banned from a United States city, again (kind of). The town of North Oaks, a northeast community and suburb of Minneapolis has chased the Google cars away. They were able to do so because the roads in this community are owned by the residents. The residents reportedly enforce a strict "trespassing ordinance," and per a letter sent to Google earlier this year, the search engine giant removed the pictures and banished the vehicles from ever returning. More »
novelties
Mooning Speed Cameras Are Quickest Way To Get Your Ass In Trouble
Those fancy tea-drinkers from across the pond are all up in arms over a man who was photographed mooning a speed camera. The man drops his trousers and bares his ass for a speed camera on the A1171 Dudley Lane in Cramlington. The police aren't too happy about the matter (honestly, who would be? ass lovers?) because the stunt is dangerous and offensive. The police will be contacting the owner of the vehicle and may take action against the man for public order offenses and failure to wear a seatbelt. We're still pretty amazed that the guy could stand up, pull down his pants and turn around while riding shotgun in a moving BMW X5. [BBC via Neatorama]
traffic
Brits Give Crossing Guards Cams To Catch Speedsters
First off, are crossing guards in the U.K really called lollipop ladies and men? If it is true, is it because their signs look like lollipops. Or even more creepily, do they hand out lollipops to kids? Regardless, these men and women are now being equipped with helmet-mounted cameras to catch aggressive motorists. Apparently, drivers aren't as nice to these lollipop-passing-out guardians of the walkways. There have been 1,400 incidents of aggressive lollipop haters was recorded last year with dozens of crossing guards needing hospitalization. More »
offbeat news
Louisana Traffic Official Fights The Law And The Law's Him
From the department of "do what I say, not what I do" comes this awesome story out of Lafayette, Louisiana playing perfectly into our dislike and mistrust of government nanny bureaucracy. Tony Tramel, the Director of Transportation for Lafayette Consolidated Government, is the chap tasked with monitoring and approving tickets issued by speed cameras. Mr. Tramel was recently caught with a radar detector mounted in the windshield of his personal car. Huh? We're confused. We thought the only reason to install a radar detector is to speed and flaunt the law, which doesn't really make any sense. Couldn't he just trash the camera images of him speeding and be off the hook? Fox guarding the hen house indeed. (Hat tip to Richard!) [TheNewspaper (these guys might want to consider a better marketing department)]
offbeat news
Six Cities Busted For Traffic Camera Scams
Union City, California; Lubbock, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Springfield, Missouri; Dallas, Texas and Chattanooga, Tennessee — you're all on notice. We already hate the idea of the omnipresent big brother handing out speeding tickets through the watchful eye of the traffic camera, but when the deck is stacked in the states' favor, it's time to call shenanigans. All six of these cities have been accused and found guilty of excessively short amber cycles on certain traffic camera equipped intersections — a convenient way to pickpocket unsuspecting drivers as they pass though an intersection. More »
news
Red Light Cameras Not Generating Enough Money, Turned Off In Dallas
We've been debating the validity of red light cameras for quite some time now, but if you need some more evidence for or against them, take a look at what my glorious home city has done. Dallas has decided to "idle" (or shut off) a quarter of the 62 red light cameras scattered around the city because they do not generate enough money to pay for themselves thereby leaving non-functional cameras still up and hopefully still deterring red-runners. More »
news
Mounting Evidence Says Red Light Cameras Increase Accidents
Absentee policing is always a contentious issue. Those for it argue that red light cameras increase intersection safety and act as a deterrent to law breakers. Folks against them get the itchy, big-brother-is-watching feeling and then talk about due process. Well, that or they just blow the things to kingdom come. It seems evidence against red light cameras is mounting. The National Motorists Association, an organization dedicated to protecting the interests of motorists, has collected an international group of studies that point to an increase in accidents and accident severity as a result of the cameras. More »
law enforcement
Dumb British Hooligans Burning Traffic Cams in England
MAD — no, not the drunk driving group, but the Motorists Against Detection — is a group in England that is actively burning and destroying traffic cameras and making sure everyone knows about it. The group claims to be responsible for 1,000 destroyed cameras in the past 7 years. More »
gadgets
CarCam Voyager Keeps an Eye on the Road So You Don't Have To
Here's a toy great for the amateur spy photographer or for the middle-aged gold digger needing to protect her Hummer. It's the CarCam Voyager from Brick House Security. (Disclaimer: Jalopnik does not advocate taking your eyes off the road unless it is to take good spy photos for us.) More »
news
French Revolutionaries Blow Up Speed Cameras
After issuing screeds decrying "the owner State which robs its citizens," the Nationalist Revolutionary Army Faction (FNAR) has launched a campaign of direct action against speed cameras in the Paris region. So far they've destroyed six of the radar-based traffic-enforcement devices with crude explosive devices, and an attack on an installation near the village of Baillet-en-France was thwarted by a road-maintenance team who discovered a seventh bomb last Tuesday. The rulers tremble! [Times of London]
Backup cameras kinda suck. [Yahoo! Tech]
revenue bonanza
Los Angeles County Public Service Announcement
Here's a handy tip for those in Los Angeles County who get fixit tickets for no front license plate. Only after rolling the Starlet through the Vehicle Inspection Station and paying the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department 15 bucks to look at the front plate, did we find out the California Highway Patrol will perform this same inspection for free. As hard as it is to believe, the ticket issuing officer made no mention of this free service. The clerk managing huge line at the courthouse was the one that tipped us off. That line is where you will still have to wait forever to pay the 10 buck administrative fee if you get such a fixit ticket. More »
news
Next Up, Skynet: Siemens Teaches Cars to Read!
Never let it be said that the Germans haven't done their part for literacy. Besides providing the world with the works of Goethe, Brecht and Werner von Braun, Deutschland also gave rise to industrial conglomerate Siemens, who've developed a system that reads speed limit signs and can adjust a vehicle's speed downward at the driver's discretion to stay within limits. The all-seeing eye cross checks the electrosensory stimulus it takes in with GPS data to ensure it's not wonky. We imagine this would be a highly-useful invention in a Gatso-riddled society. More »
news
Your Camera A-Splode! Gatso'd Briton's Thermite Revenge On Video
A month ago, we brought you the tale of the sorry fate of Craig Moore, a young engineer busted for blowing up a speed camera with Thermite after being flashed. Thisislondon has video of both Moore's work van going by and then the sudden explosion of the camera. The reason Moore's plot didn't work? The camera's data is stored in the base. So here's a note to all of you would-be camera-vandalizers: to kill a weed, you've gotta get the roots. Moore just got four months in the pokey for failing to realize that one. More »
news: weird
Adventures in Dumb: Woman Tosses 69 Speeding Tickets, Faces Time in Hoosegow
You know, we've of course come out vocally against speed cameras, but Francesca Cisneros of Chandler, AZ simply does not give a fuck about them. Or at least, she didn't used to. After racking up 69 speeding tickets since March, all but five of which were camera-capture citations, Cisneros faces eleven large in fines and may be looking at jail time. Reportedly, she told investigating officers that she thought it perfectly fine to throw the tickets away. Wow. We're out of florid descriptors for that level of stupidity. Readers? [Thanks to TexansAreHot for the tip.] More »
news
