AJI Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Not sure if its been covered on here yet, a quick search brought up no matches.....anyways... France has brought in a new law which means that any device that can warn a driver of speed trap locations can have the device and the car seized and a rather nice government x-mas fund bill sent your way for their trouble. This means that SatNavs which show and alert the driver of speed trap locations are now illegal in France. And this law would also creep on to android and i-phone devices that have satnav with speed trap locations warnings. But what I can't find out on the internet is whether the law means you can simply disable the POI's (Point Of Interest) within the SatNav that show the speed traps or whether the device has to have all the POI's for speed traps deleted off the SatNav altogether? Do any of you guys know the score? Its clearly one of these knee-jerk reactions that governments seem to be all so often pressurized in to, in that they have created a stupid law. Because marking the locations of speed trap cameras on to a map with a pen would not get police interest, nor would remembering the speed camera locations in your head, but have them on your SatNav and you could lose your car! Also, for those that may be driving in France, from April you are required to carry an un-opened breathalizer kit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grahamc Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Hmmm, interesting, my cars satnav has it built in - not going to remove for the French! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony tt Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 One of many reasons to avoid the surrender monkey onion sellers! Nothing surprises me there now resently they changed the laws for bike riding there aswell that you have to wear a hi-viz vest over your leathers its mental. How can they find out if your phone etc has camera warnings will they have the right to search through the phone to find apps etc?? I would take that as a major invasion of privacy and tell them to get to funk! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnny g Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Useful to know for Dragonball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abz Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 This is a good point which needs to be looked into detail for Dragonball but this is how I understand it. No radar detection devices on car are allowed, even if they are switched off. Road Angels etc are not allowed either. Sat Nav's are fine for fixed camera locations. But as I said, I'll need to look into this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lbm Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 How about camera detector apps in people's phones...will they be checking those too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnny g Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 TomTom have removed Speed Cameras from French roads and are aware of the legislation. Update TomTom and it's automatic. http://uk.support.tomtom.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5560/~/is-the-tomtom-speed-camera-service-legal%3F Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJI Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 Just a word of warning regarding updating TomTom maps on the latest range of TomTom satnavs......... there seems to be a lot of people complaining that the maps become corrupted when updating to the latest version because for some reason they are much larger in file size and they don't fit on to the devices memory capacity. So if you do try to update make sure you make a full back up of the system before you do it. Abz - radar detectors/jammers have been banned for a few years in France, but this new law is aimed at being alerted to the fixed and mobile speed traps without the use of any detector/jammer. The French government is also going as far as banning the sale of paper maps that show the locations. (But as far as I know they haven't outlawed any paper maps that you may already own with the locations printed on it). It is a stupid law and created from knee-jerk reaction to increasing road death numbers on the French roads which for some reason, much like the UK, seem to think that 'speed' is the only cause factor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robzki Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Isn't this coming in after Dragonball? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJI Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 The law for speed trap warnings came in to effect from January 2012 and the law for having an un-opened breathalizer kit in your vehicle comes in to effect in July 2012. Source 1 http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/News/newsresults/General-news/2012/January/jan1312-france-bans-sat-navs-with-speed-camera-warnings/ Source 2 http://www.thelocal.fr/2725/20120301/ Knowing a bit of history regarding how the French police treat UK motorists, even though the Source2 article mentions that police may not fine people until Nov2012, I'd be guessing they'd be making your life a living nightmare for the smallest of infringements. IMO This is largely thanks to the likes of UK Gumballers acting like kids on the French roads and the antics that a number of UK motorists get up to when going over to LeMans etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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