back to article Coyote Systems Mini Coyote

Whether you want regular reminders to keep your speed down or simply love breaking the speed limit, the Mini Coyote is here to help. And with a built-in GPRS module, you’ll get regular updates without the need for a PC, as well as real-time information on nearby mobile speed traps submitted by fellow users. Coyote Systems Mini …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Seems expensive ...

    ... when you can buy a widescreen Garmin or TomTom GPS with UK and Europe maps and traffic alerts for less than £150. Add on £30/year for a Cyclops UK speed camera subscription, or EUR 9/year for an scdb.info subscription and it still works out cheaper.

  2. Chris

    Other systems

    Hi,

    You might want to give a try to some other much cheapers systems like FoxyTag , with Speed Cam Hunter for Android Phone or EyeRadar for Iphone

    Heck , you can almost buy yourself a new handset for the price of this system

  3. JohnG

    Sat Nav POI warning

    Many popular satellite navigation systems include a function to warn when approaching certain categories of POI (Point Of Interest). As some of these allow the POI databases to be manipulated, speed camera updates can be downloaded for free from various websites - i.e no subscription needed.

    This Coyote device seems to do less and cost more - or maybe I'm missing something.

  4. Richard Sloan
    Paris Hilton

    Meep Meep!

    I am sure that with the aid of this device and all of those supplies...

    I could have caught that roadrunner...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Expensive

    Alternate Options

    1. Buy a decent radar detector, they work well for most speed cameras, and false bleeps (traffic lights etc) keep you alert.

    2. Watch for the road signs warning of cameras (I know some a "a bit concealed"), ie stay alert - works well with option 1.

    3. Don't speed. Its free, works all the time, and as for" need to speed" time vs money, think petrol consumption vs speed.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @JohnG "speed camera updates can be downloaded for free from various websites"

    But that doesn't work when you are doing 60 *cough* on a country road and want to make sure you are up to date. Unless you fancy surfing the web while steering with your knees.

  7. Jim
    Thumb Down

    Tat

    I always find that the best way to check my speed is within the speed-limit is to use the speedometer, which those nice motor manufacturers already include in all cars, and observation of road-side signs which indicate the _maximum_ speed allowed on a stretch of road. Combine that with further observation of the current conditions to provide the _safe_ driving speed. Simples.

    £200+ saved ;-)

  8. Dapprman

    It's the GPRS Updates ...

    I think it's the GPRS updates that cause the subscription, as they also offer an alternate unit that updates the traditional way (USB via a PC) for just 149 quid, and that includes a lifetime's subscription to updates.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Speed cams

    Again the speed cams thing.

    They did an advert claiming that a child has an 80% chance of living if hit at 30mph and 10% chance if hit at 40mph, but that's not true. It's much closer than that (perhaps a 10% spread, NOT a 70% spread), the number is skewed because there are many more non fatal accidents in slow zones making slow zones appear SAFER than they are when quoted as a ratio of fatal accidents to all accidents.

    http://www1.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/09/ofcom_clarkson_ruling/comments/

    I recently found out it's not even as good as that, because accident speed can't be determined reliably at slow speeds, so <40mph accidents in 30mph roads are assumed to be at 30mph unless the skid marks really prove it was faster. (Keep in mind it was based on 1979's data before anti-lock brakes and when cars had metal bumpers, so they had skid marks to measure and more people died when hit even at slow speeds).

    And that this magic effect *changes* with the speed limit. In other words if they reduce the speed limit to 25mph, then cars travelling faster than that are assumed to be at 25mph when their speed cannot be determine otherwise and the magic shift between fatal and non fatal appears to be lower.

    The obvious solution is to separate cars and people and cars and bikes like they do on the continent, with bike lanes separated from cars (and railings at dangerous corners). Instead they just lower the speed limits, increase the fines and wonder why it doesn't fix anything.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    @ AC, 09:13 GMT

    Quote: "Buy a decent radar detector, they work well for most speed cameras, and false bleeps (traffic lights etc) keep you alert."

    That wouldn't work here in Holland - the traffic Police have radar detector detectors. If they catch you with a radar detector, they will pull you over and make you rip it out of your vehicle there on the spot before confiscating it, and fining you for the privilege.

    I've seen it happen, it's hilarious.

  11. Carl Williams
    Flame

    @Jim

    God help anyone around you then as you spend all your time looking at the speedo and not the road, you may not be speeding but driving without due care and attention is a far worse crime.

    Bear in mind that lots of cameras are located in areas where there are frequent pedestrians (including children) you need to be looking at the road and not your speedo.

    The best thing about these devices is the way it takes this constant checking of the speedo out of the equation, mine little £30 device goes nuts when I'm in a 30 limit and I stray 2 or 3 mph over the limit until I bring my speed under the posted limit safe, easy and I keep my eyes on the road all the time. This one is too expensive considering the alternatives though.

  12. Iain

    @AC

    "Unless you fancy surfing the web while steering with your knees."

    Umm, you download the free update at home onto your satnav. Obviously.

  13. This post has been deleted by its author

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Best way to cut road deaths...

    Teach the stupid pedestrians - especially children - that getting hit by a car is a Bad Thing, and that roads are for cars, not people. Then make the parents responsible for any damage caused by their precious offspring when said darling little tyke runs out in front of the car.

    It's not always the fault of the car driver, as the stupid little girl who CYCLED straight across a pedestrian crossing, without looking, right in front of me learned the hard way.

    The thing that always amuses me is where the "road deaths" figures come from... according to my local council, they get the figures from the Police. When I asked the Police where they get the figures from, they said the local council... and when the only "roadkill" mentioned in the local paper is a drunken idiot who stepped out from between two parked cars straight into the path of a car but the signs justifying the speed camera claim "21 deaths on this road in the last three years" you have to wonder exactly who is making these figures up...

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is it legal to warn of a mobile speed trap?

    I'm sure it used to be illegal to flash oncoming traffic to warn of rozzers round the next bend?

    Isn't this just an electronic extension of that?

  16. Cody

    Why speed kills

    The reason is very simple. As speed rises, force of impact rises as the square of the speed. This is just physics. So, if you go from an impact at 20 to an impact at 40, the force of the impact does not double. It is 4 times as great.

    This happens with something else. The human body, for rather obvious evolutionary reasons, is not damaged by impacts as a straight line function of their force. As the force of impact rises, the damage done rises as the square of the force. You can see why we would have evolved like this. We evolved in an environment in which low speed bumps and falls were common, and high speed ones rare.

    This is why it is simple undisputable truth that if car hits pedestrian at 20mph, 90% will survive, and at 40mph 90% will die. It is the combination of a non linear rise in impact force on a non linear rise in susceptibility to damage.

    There is empirical evidence that when speed bumps are installed and speed limited to 20mph, pedestrian deaths fall by about 70% and cyclist deaths by about one third.

    We need to run the country for the convenience and safety of those who live and walk around and cycle in neighborhoods, not for the amusement of people who just want to drive through them as fast as possible. So the more speed cameras the better. The lower the limits the better.

    You see, we do not care how much fun you have driving. We don't care if you don't like being careful to monitor your speed. We don't even care how fast you get from A to B. We just want you going through where we live very slowly and carefully. And if you won't do that, we want you off the road.

  17. Jim
    Flame

    @Carl Williams

    I'm going to work on the principle that you have passed your driving test; do you check your mirrors whilst driving (as opposed to when you put your make-up on)? How long does it take? It's just a fraction of a second isn't it, same with the speedo. Any experienced driver should be able to check their speed without any impact on their driving and any experienced driver should be able to guestimate their current speed if their actions (they lift or depress the gas pedal) or the road conditions (they meet a hill) cause a change in speed.

    If you need one of these devices to check your speed you need some further tuition and to re-take your test as you are a danger to yourself and all other road users.

  18. Rasczak
    Boffin

    @ AC best way to cut road deaths

    I was just saying to the wife today that they ought to bring Darth Vader out of retirement, if his back is up to it.

    And Shirley I'm not the only one who remembers the Tufty Club.

  19. Eponymous Cowherd
    Flame

    Re:Best way to cut road deaths...

    So you saw some little kid riding a bike on the pavement near a crossing and it didn't occur to you that she might ride onto it?

  20. Richard Sloan
    IT Angle

    @AC 12:01 GMT

    Some radar detectors are designed to shut down their oscillators after making a detection, which stops it from being detected. The cheaper ones still will get busted though.

    @Carl Williams

    Speed cameras located in residential areas? Never seen one there. I only ever find them on trunk roads and overtaking straights on single carriageways. I have _NEVER_ seen one outside a school and I am doing 20k miles a year all over sussex right now. I just guess there is no money in it, and the cameras don't detect people at 30mph passing vaccuous mums in fiestas and 307s parking 2 abreast to drop off their little snowflakes with sugared up kids running all over the road.

    SpeedCam on Nokia series 60 is good. I am currently testing out RadAlert on Android which looks to do exactly the same stuff as the Coyote and is on free trial. Most fixed cameras are easy to spot anyway, the exception being some SPECS and Monitron locations. The ones that will get you are the mobile vans (aka "Talivans") and bikes. The laser guns they use are so fast they will clock you just as you see them. Even if you have a laser detector by the time it goes off you're clocked. Only jammers can save you but many don't work. People who have been using them to seriously extract the urine have been busted for PCJ but many users i hear have no issues.

    Sprays and special paint won't work. Numberplates are corner cube reflective so stand out like a bulldog's proverbials with a diffused laser on. If the plate is missing the headlight reflecters will still do it.

    The cameras themselves have the potential to be used for good but from what i've seen of their use so far in practice I ended up in the anti camp. I've only ever seen one camera placed in a good spot (A24 Dial Post jn).

    For the record I don't jam, if I could afford one I wouldn't be doing this driving job x_x

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