Radar detectors will be able to warn others of speed traps

— -- In the cat-and-mouse game of avoiding police radar, speeders are about get a potent new weapon: each other in an automatic social network.

Two major radar detector makers are introducing features that automatically share the location of police or photo speed traps or red-light cameras with all others on the system. Both show how "crowd sourcing" — linking people to share mass information — promises to revolutionize transportation by giving motorists real-time traffic data reported by fellow travelers.

Going on sale today is a system from detector maker Escort, based in West Chester, Ohio. Escort hopes to have "hundreds of thousands" of Escort Live networked devices in place within a year. The system consists of nothing more than a new power cord for an Escort unit, costing $79, that transmits radar sightings to the user's GPS-enabled smartphone. The phone then will automatically transmit the information to all others nearby in the network. About 2 million drivers have Escort units.

"Our goal is to make it the ultimate crowd-sourcing network for the road," says Escort CEO John Larson.

At the same time, rival Cobra Electronics of Chicago will roll out a similar system next week. It will be free to all existing users of its iRadar. "I think there will be a high adoption rate," says spokesman Chris Kooistra.

Websites such as Trapster.com and Waze.com have created smartphone apps that let motorists send messages to a network of others about speed traps, traffic jams and other issues that might warn others to seek alternate routes. The difference in the new systems is that they work automatically — the driver doesn't have to push a button or take any other action to alert other users.

They're the latest escalation in one-upsmanship between motorists and traffic enforcement. What began as primitive "crowd sourcing" — motorists flashing headlights to others or truckers using CB radios — evolved on each side with more sophisticated technology.

As detectors arrived, police tried different bands of radar, which brought new types of detectors, which prompted police to develop laser devices that are tougher to detect. Crowd-sourced systems could switch the edge back to the motorist.

"This takes it to a whole different level," says Roy "Radar Roy" Reyer, a retired sheriff's lieutenant outside Phoenix who runs the radardetector.org website. He sympathizes with police. "I don't know how they are going to keep up."

Larson says the power of smartphones could open a new business segment for the company: radar warnings without detector units.

Going further, automakers including Honda and Ford are working on systems, still years away, that let cars communicate with each other to avoid collisions.