Edgy01

Spending a little bit of time working on my front plate system. It's designed to flip up upon hard braking. When it flips upward, it effectively will cause any laser speed sensor to break-lock. Effectively, a passive laser countermeasure. (it's obviously dependent upon some early warning--e.g., the Valentine 1). (I suppose you can even just leave it UP all the time so that it can't be used--but then they'll laser your headlights, which are highly reflective.)

SARGEPUG

Bond......James Bond.

Swoody

Edgy, cool idea but what does that front plate signify (does Cali have a front plate law?? I notice in your avatar a different location and plate) Do you have it on there all the time or is it just for designing your product??

SilverSteel

His plates expired May 7th of 06, but no matter as euro plates are not legal anywhere in the US. They are just momentos from a great time in Europe.

In Texas it is state law the two matching plates be displayed on the front and rear of the vehicle at all times. However, it is NOT strictly enforced by any municipality, but can be. It is strongly enforced by state troopers and will draw you a minimum fine of $80, but is usually combined with some other moving violation. In the last two years, states that have these laws on the books have begun to crack down on this as if it were a moving violation.

Running with euro plates will get you a ticket in Texas faster than you can toss a jalepeno. I just took delivery of my European Delivery BMW 750Li stateside, and have been pulled over twice as the dealer forgot to put my temps on the car (I'm in Texas and the dealer is in Georgia). Needless to say, I'm a fast talker and got out of it.

Cool idea of a dropping plate, but I'm concerned it may draw more interest in my intent to avoid a ticket. No cop I know would just walk away from a coincidentally dropping plate while he's scoping your plate with his lazer. Rather he's going to want to look more closely at your plate, and determine your intent. I know many cops and can tell you nothing pisses them off more than someone trying to skirt their efforts, especially a James Bond device--certainly cool, though.

I'd rather use a lazer defractor and a shadow driving strategy. And when all else fails, have your lawyer represent you. Just my 2 cents. Love your engenuity.

_Nathan

Cool! Are you going to install an ejection seat and machine guns too?

RF5BPilot

Having a front plate that is angled upward might deflect enough of the laser upward to help.

But assuming that any mechanical device (or your manual braking) is fast enough to flip the plate upward to beat the speed of light in a reflection from the source seems......um......enthusiastic. I suspect that if I were a LEO and didn't get a lock on your front plate, I'd just move to a headlight.

chance

whoa. VERY cool!

Edgy01

The front California plate is a bit larger and thus I have to offset it a bit more to be effective. This is just for prototyping.

PHDX2

Your idea seems to be better than this---http://www.altecproducts.com/---as it doesn't present a scrape hazard.

Dadio

Laser lock ,read and off take an experienced trooper less than 1 sec to accomplish. You are being kind with your use of the word "enthusiastic". In the real world, by the time he hits his breaks the trooper will have already started his car to make chase. Cool gadget though and well executed.

stevepow

Damn - you read my mind.

abe

Are cannons and machine guns behind there...he shoots you with a laser..you shoot back.
abe

Edgy01

laser canons. One must keep up on the weaponry escalation...

Minok

Au contraire! European plates ARE legal in the US. If they are on a car that is registered in Europe. Only if the plates don't match the legal requirements for plates in the locale that the car is registered/licensed in, is there a problem.

I'd never really thought about it much, as European plates are pretty uncommon in north America beyond the temporary customs plates seen (red end), but while going through Yellowstone in 2004 I noticed 4 motorbikes parked at the lodge with German plates on them. Puzzled I was, and when I was in the gift shop I noticed some Germans standing about and asked them about it. They make the trip annually, the bikes are shipped as freight in the cargo hold of the airplane when they fly over and then they drive somewhere across the west.

Granted, for cars, that's much less likely, but I imagine the same rules still apply.

Minok

Not to mention the risk to the guys behind you running into you or just cursing you out because you decide to stomp on the brakes for no good reason in the middle of an unobstructed road.