I spotted this on one of my favorite blogs (gizmodo.com). It's the coolest idea I've seen in awhile. I say that because I had it like a month ago
but apparently someone beat me to it (and did it way better). Basically it lets all GPS enabled phone owners share speed trap sightings with each other in real time.
Trapster
I'd love to see this thing succeed in one of those limited cult-type ways where the police wouldn't get angry about it but there would be enough of us using it to make it good.
This isn't a Cayman electronic exactly, more like a radar detector so if this thread should be moved that's cool.
I like the idea but I do see one big downfall. Once the police know about it they will be putting in bogus info and eventually nobody will use it because they won't know when to trust the info and when not to. Just think, if the police put in a live police report ever quarter mile for 5 miles. At some point you won't believe it.....and just about that time the live police will be waiting for you. Good idea, just have to find a way to keep it out of the hands of the police.
Great Idea. Hope it works out. Has anyone else had trouble getting it to work on there Blackberry??
Edit: I think its actually the trapster server because there web site wont load either
I had a problem trying to register on their site. They have an announcement link at the very top the page (hard to see the link) explaining the database is being crushed due to the overwhelming and unexpected interest. Good sign.
In terms of bogus reports by the police, they claim it “learns the credibility of traps based on how many users agree. It also learns the credibility of each user, over time.” What might work also is to allow us to define ‘trusted user groups’ either defined at a user or even system where I can chose to only see and get those users alerts. I travel the same ten miles every day between work and home… right now 2-3 of us will txt or call to warn of traps but we only do it about 20% of the time.
Another cool tie-in would be to partner with Valentine One and when my detector goes above a certain threshold have it auto-report the event. With the audio out most detectors have you might even be able to develop something that would do this on any detector.
Additional cool functionality would be to use Bluetooth phones to have the warning announce on my car stereo. As well as 'aging' the events so a set number of hours later the alert is considered stale.
Hi Chillie - Thanks for the kind words! I had this idea long ago, and got it working in 2003. Then I got busy with other stuff. Like anything in software I underestimated the magnitude - this is a HUGE project.
Interestingly enough, the police don't get upset about it even in it's mass market form. It's been on more than 100 TV stations. Almost all of them interviewed their local police. Here's one of many, I picked this because I live in CA and the CHP is interviewed:
http://www.kcra.com/video/16183310/index.html
The idea started off that way (groups of a few), then gravitated to more of a mass market thing with the karma score etc.
Now it's come full circle - today we released the Trapster(R) "Trusted Groups" feature that we've been working on for weeks. Turned out to be a major effort since it impacts almost every part of the system (mobile, SMS alerts, map...). It's a supplement, not a replacement, for the public system, but it allows totally private use, immune from false positives.
You are right - you only need a few contributors to input most of the traps, even in an area populated by millions. So why not just put together a group who you know? That's what the Trusted Groups feature does.
In fact -- I found this Cayman site by Googling "Trapster Trusted Groups"!
PS Cayman is an awesome ride! I had a 987 Boxster S and I miss it!
