Good morning. I’m Saul Reisman here at Saul’s Automotive. Today, we are going to talk about maintaining control and maintaining situational awareness. As a motor vehicle operator, just like a pilot, you need to always be aware of your surroundings. For many of us drivers, some of which who travel at high speed — though not recommended by Saul’s Automotive — we always obey all traffic enforcement laws. Thank you.
We see several Denver car owners that wish to repair their vehicle for a little bit more situational awareness when it comes to radar or laser frequencies, particularly when it comes to speed enforcement policies. To combat some of these issues, when a vehicle like a 2016 BMW X5 M comes in our door, which is capable of 155 miles an hour top speed from the factory, designed for Autobahn traveling, the owner opted for a little bit more awareness in this case.
We at Saul’s Automotive are able to install several different types of radar and laser detection systems. The state of Colorado allows us to install any kind of radar receiving and perceiving devices along with any kind of laser, infrared or jamming active devices. And these are completely legal for sale to be installed here in the state. In this case, radar can be used in four different audible frequencies for a law enforcement officer who attempts to collect a speed from your vehicle.
Now, because radar is an audible frequency, it’s controlled by the FCC, meaning it’s against the law to use the same frequency to jam it or to interfere with it or law enforcement’s use of it in any way. However, all the way back to the 70s, we’ve had technology known as radar detection so that we can see where a signal’s coming from, measure its redshift/blueshift to determine how far away and how strong the signal is, and therefore make a beep on your dashboard to let you know.
Technology has come quite a way since then, to the point where we now have systems that can recognize false positive radar displays and tune them out automatically, systems that can determine which frequency is actually being emitted to your vehicle and if that’s an active police frequency to know if it needs to alert to the situation or not. Even as far as user compatibility programming similar to the Waze app on Google that allows multiple users with multiple radar detectors to influence a map-based screen and therefore give a great perspective of that situational awareness.
In this case, we’re able to use some great technology to receive all those radar signals to the best limits of what we can legally have. However, in order to slow down a radar signal, we can actually affect that with our own hands very simply. The basic clear bra that many local body shops may spray on your vehicle is actually available in several different viscosities. And here at Saul’s Automotive, we can install them in such so that it provides a gelled front or rear end effect so that when a radar signal hits it, it’ll actually slow that radar signal down and affect the responsiveness back to the vehicle.
While this is not an active system — it is passive — this is completely legal to use and/or install on your vehicle and can greatly reduce the distance that a radar gun needs to be in range to pick up a vehicle’s speed. While all these are well and good, and radar is definitely something we can help protect this vehicle from, law enforcement has stepped up their game and is using a laser, a light frequency, in order to patrol now.
And even with the best detection systems, getting notified by your alert, your detector, of a laser engagement is simply meaning you should pull over.
The use of laser enforcement through the efforts of a radar or laser detector is essentially just telling you: You should pull over. You have been caught by a laser, and your speed has been obtained. While this information is useful to you, it doesn’t protect you in any way, shape or form. It does give you the awareness of the situation at hand, but it doesn’t offer you any opportunity to evict that situation from your premises. In this case, light is not controlled by any government authority — yet.
As a result, we can effectively create our own laser signals that respond to currently active laser signals, either matching their same frequencies in order to re-respond a generic false reading and/or to shift the frequency of the light pattern in order to generate a skewed reading, whether it be higher, lower, in any number of ways. Because this is completely legal in-access technology, we can install this in almost any vehicle to effectively shield your vehicle from a laser. So even though the detecting systems that law enforcement’s been using for 40 years has just been outdated, their new technology we can directly combat.
So, in the case of this Denver BMW car owner and several others, if you wish to have a little bit better situational awareness about your vehicle and have as we call a radar cloak, an awareness system installed, we can help protect your vehicle, ensure that you cannot be received from any kind of radar lock to within a quarter mile of range — meaning you’d be well in visible range — and at the same time, help ensure that you maintain awareness of your situation at all times. In addition, in the case of this motor vehicle, we’re able to make some very small factory modifications to its computer to lift its United States speed limiter of 155 back to its German production speed limiter that matches the tire rating of 186 miles an hour.
This vehicle came to us brand new from the factory, literally from the showroom floor, because the owner wants to ensure a long-time commitment to this vehicle and the ability to use it to the fullest of its capabilities. While we at Saul’s Automotive always recommend to follow the speed limit and follow the law enforcement’s recommendations, especially on our dangerous mountain roads, we understand the desire that some of you have for a little bit better protection. If you would like to talk to us about such, put together a few ideas for your vehicle and your situation, please give us a call. We can be reached any day at 303-919-7769.
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