ESCORT Live™ debuts at SEMA 2011
 

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ESCORT Live™ debuts at SEMA 2011
The future of Radar detection and Social Networking is here, and it's amazing.

In a sea of thousands of automotive products, it's relatively easy to get overlooked at SEMA, especially with the outrageously tuned luxury and exotic vehicles gleaming in every direction. But just when you thought you covered the majority of the show, you make your way through to the North Hall of the Las Vegas convention center, and are basically blinded by a sea of electronics and thumping car audio. This wasn't the case for our fiends at Escort Radar.

Debuting to the public for the first time in the new products showcase was not only a show stopper, but a show winner, capturing the prestigious "Best New Mobile Electronics Product Award" at this year's SEMA show.

ESCORT Live™ delivers revolutionary radar and laser ticket protection by using real-time, cloud-based threat and information sharing among millions of drivers just like you. The result is social networking for the road -- ESCORT Live™ allows you to know sooner, react faster, share important information and help you Drive Smarter. To learn more on this amazing new technology hop on over to the Escort Live dedicated page on their website here: ESCORT Live

ESCORT_Live_Smartphone_App - YouTube

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Here is the official SEMA product release from Escort Below:

ESCORT Revolutionizes the Radar Detector
Category Introducing ESCORT Live™, The Ultimate Live Alert Network

Imagine you are cruising on a road where ticketing threats prowl, especially those miles out of visible range. What if you could track threats sneaking up from behind, or know where mobile ticketing vans are before they see you? Introducing ESCORT Live™, the world’s first connected, real-time ticket protection network. ESCORT Live™ uses the alerts of ‘scout’ drivers connected with their smartphone ESCORT Live™ app to help other drivers accurately know where ticket threats are … before you leave your driveway! “Our radar detector products have always provided drivers with the highest level of ticket protection in the marketplace. We are determined to reinvent the radar detector category by offering real-time alerts broadcast to members across the ESCORT Live™ network,” said John Larson, ESCORT President and CEO. “With ESCORT Live™ you can truly drive smarter!” ESCORT Live™ can be seen in the 2011 SEMA New Products Showcase.

The ESCORT Live™ smartphone app allows alerts to be shared between compatible ESCORT and BELTRONICS radar detectors. Using Bluetooth technology embedded in powered SmartCord Live™ cords and the driver’s smartphone, alerts are transmitted to the ESCORT Live™ intelligent host where they are analyzed and then broadcast across the ESCORT Live™ network. “Following an ESCORT Live™ ‘scout’ yields excellent information about what lies ahead because the first vehicle’s experiences and alerts are actively handed off to following cars similarly equipped with the ESCORT Live™ app,” said Tim Coomer, ESCORT Vice-president of Product Development. “ESCORT Live™ dramatically magnifies the level of information known about potential threats.”

The ESCORT Live™ revolution relies on the power of strength in numbers. Consider a neighbor departing for the morning commute. His ESCORT radar detector alerts to an unexpected laser gun – simultaneously that alert information is relayed to the ESCORT Live™ network as a confirmed ‘laser detected’ threat. Later, as you head the same way, miles before the waiting laser gun, your smartphone equipped with the ESCORT Live™ app displays a red ‘laser spotted’ alert before you are in range! Thousands of “scouts” just like this help provide live alerts that are broadcast across the ESCORT Live™ network. Multiply this data gathering and sharing process by millions of miles and driving hours and the result is a nation of protected ESCORT Live™ drivers.

ESCORT Live™ alerts are displayed with band, signal strength and frequency. Events spotted previously in the network are indicated by an ‘approaching live alert’ message with directional location arrow and distance-to-arrive to the alert source! Alerts appear at their coordinate location and are marked with an intuitive ‘heat map’ decaying icon that changes color and transparency based on alert relevance. App display information includes speed limit data, compass heading, vehicle speed and over-speed limit alerts. The app features map and dashboard views, icons for live traffic and multiple user settings.

ESCORT Live™ is currently available for iPhone users with Android in the near future. Visit ESCORTinc.com or call 1.888.265.9391.

On a personal note I'd like to extend my thanks to Ron and Kim from Escort for taking time out of their overwhelming schedule this week to and spending time with me explaining thoroughly the ins and outs of the new products, we are looking forward to working close with them for many years to come!

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Can the iphone use two bluetooth signals at the same time? What if I get a call on my phone, will my OEM bluetooth in my car have priority over the escort system? I like this thought of this system and technology but I wonder if it is completely vetted yet.

i will remain skeptical until it's proven.

I really love the idea behind this and like the others would like to see it in action before I make my final assessment as I have many questions! Would be great if someone from ESCORT was here to answer a Q & A on this, is that possible?

I was as well but after I was given the full demonstration I am rather confident this will be the way of the future for detection, it really needs to be seen in person to truly get the whole picture.

I think that this is certainly going to be the future of radar/laser detection. This, being the first incarnation, will certainly leave some things lacking, but I am excited to see how this idea matures in the near future.

Once every manufacturer comes up with their own version of this, there will be no advantage to keeping it separate, and I would hope that they decide to share their user info to create a massive database of users that contribute live info to the system. There are not enough users of each individual manufacturer's devices for it to be very reliable, but combined, there would be enough users to really make a difference in advanced alerts of laser use in front of you.

Ideally, instead of alerting on the phone, the future detectors would interface with a cloud based app through the cellular phones and would set off a radar or laser alert on the detectors instead of the phones as they approached the location of the cop.

A question that comes to mind is how do they accommodate false alerts? My V1 alerts for laser around certain cars (like the Infinity FX and some GM vehicles with LED tail lights) and goes nuts on K around new Audis. If that info was broadcast to others when the target is moving, that would totally mess up the system. Garbage in - garbage out...

Working on it for you guys!

This looks great, would like to try it out soon.

Saw it reviewed in Automobile a month or so ago. Looks like a good app. Wont be buying it though.