Contemporary Vehicles Disrupt Radar Detectors. Here’s How Escort Adjusts.

      Andrew P. Collins

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      Escort Radar, a prominent name in the radar detection industry, has faced criticism this year, as users and reviewers have noted underwhelming performance from the $800 Redline 360c—Escort’s top model. Today, the company is releasing a significant firmware update aimed at addressing these concerns. I recently tested this new firmware and spoke with someone at Escort, and I gained some insights that may be of interest, even if you don’t have one of these devices mounted in your vehicle.

      All radar detectors can be influenced by the radar-based collision avoidance systems in modern vehicles. As the number of these vehicles increases each year, filtering out those signals has become a greater challenge for detector engineers.

      For those who may not be familiar, radar detectors are intended to alert drivers when police are measuring, or about to measure, their speed. They are legal in most of the USA, except in Washington, D.C., and Virginia. Since this isn’t a topic we cover often, I’ll briefly go over the basics before detailing Escort’s new update.

      How Radar Detectors Operate

      A radar detector is primarily a radio receiver. When police set up to issue speeding tickets, they often aim a radar gun down the road, sending out a radio wave toward approaching vehicles. When that wave reflects back to the radar gun, it processes the information to inform the officer of the vehicle's speed. Many police departments in the U.S. utilize K- and KA-band radio waves for this purpose. The effectiveness of a radar detector comes from the wide beams of these signals, which can alert drivers to their presence before police can visually confirm a speeding vehicle—similar to the difference between a shotgun and a rifle.

      Another method employed by law enforcement to gauge speed is laser, which is considerably more challenging to detect in advance. Laser is quicker and more accurate; while a decent detector can signal when a laser is being aimed at you, your speed will have already been recorded at that moment. Escort and other brands offer an additional device sometimes referred to as a “laser shifter” intended to confuse these signals, but legality varies.

      Interestingly, the FCC regulates radio waves, while the FDA oversees laser regulation, contributing to the inconsistency in rules surrounding the usage of both signal types.

      The Need for Escort’s Update

      After engaging with radar review sites, forums, friends, and peers in a California car club, I discovered that high-end radar detector buyers often prefer brands like Valentine One, Uniden, and Escort, with Whistler and Radenso mentioned frequently as well. However, the Escort Redline 360c has recently lost favor due to reportedly slow response times, resulting in its removal from Vortex Radar’s recommendation list because of these issues, false alerts, and general reliability concerns earlier this year.

      Users can update Escort devices using a smartphone's internet or a computer with free official software. This latest update is substantial—expect an update time of about 30 minutes or longer.

      The Escort Redline 360c remains the same physical unit released in 2020 but has seen several firmware updates since its launch, typically receiving one or two over-the-air updates annually.

      The Evolution of Radar Detectors

      In general, the technology used by American police for measuring speed hasn’t significantly changed in recent years or decades. However, traffic dynamics and enforcement strategies have evolved, both of which are crucial factors in the radar detector landscape.

      To address traffic, the rise of modern safety systems such as blind-spot monitoring and radar cruise control has led to a notable increase in false alerts for radar detector users. Joe Sherbondy, the Director of Escort’s Radar Detection Products, explained that this overwhelming number of alerts from modern vehicles is called a “CAS blast”—with CAS denoting collision avoidance systems. Sherbondy mentioned that Escort continuously works on refining technology to minimize these issues, a process likely shared among other brands.

      Additionally, there's the quick-trigger speed enforcement method that detectors must contend with. Officers are aware that radar detectors can pick up Ka-band signals before they visually confirm speeding vehicles, so they may manually trigger their radar guns to potentially capture a reading before being detected. However, according to Mr. Sherbondy, this method only provides an approximate speed reading, and officers must hold the trigger for a time to get a confirmed reading to issue a ticket. Thus, if a detector can register a quick-trigger ping, there's still a chance a driver could reduce speed enough to avoid a ticket.

      To understand these challenges and advance their research and development, Sherbondy explained that Escort prioritizes feedback through user forums, their brand’s Facebook page, and information obtained by their customer service team. Just a few months ago, Sherbondy posted in a radar detector forum to share an update and invite user feedback.

      Some product testing is conducted by customers, while Escort has its own network of beta