Brent P

A couple of years ago I started getting extended false alarms on the highway which turned out to be from late model Audi's I was approaching from the rear. It is far worse today and I can't drive more than a couple of minutes in the city without an Audi setting off my detector (Escort). I recently changed to a Valentine 1 and was hoping it might screen out the problem, but to no avail.

Has anyone else noticed this problem that seems to be specific to Audi's, and does anyone have an explanation? I am getting extremely pissed off by the worsening situation.

tuffluck

what? i have never heard of that. and never had a problem and i have driven in front of/behind many audis. i have the escort 8500.

what band? if you live in the city and it is X band, just disable it. i haven't used X band in 7 years.

ADD

Never had it happen on Audis, but likely is the high mount brake light.

I usually had it happen with Trailblazers.

Brent P

Hmmmm..... I did some Googling and found the following info on another forum. It seems Audi introduced optional "side assist" and "adaptive cruise control" a few years ago that operate on the same K-band as police radar, and it causes false alarms. In a different post, I read where Audi drivers are complaining that they can't use their Valentine's anymore because it constantly shows a radar contact from behind. In my case, I pick them up from about 1-2 km behind on the highway and the falsing stops the moment I pass (with my old Escort and now with my new Valentine). Wonderful

If you haven't experienced this problem, then you probably don't have many new or fully optioned Audi's around. Around here, they seem to be like flies on $hit.

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From ACURAZINE Forums:

I saw my first Audi Q7 4.2 on the road a couple days ago... what was interesting is that my radar was going totally ape shit detecting multiple sources and what not. The dude finally turned and my detector went quiet again. I was going to wait till I saw my next one to see if it happened again.

Anyways.... I was just reading my new Car & Driver mag that came in the mail today, and they talk about an option available on the Q7 called "side-assist." Well I guess this option lets the drive know when he turns on his signal if there is a car next to him. Great for him... the bad part for all of us is that Audi decided to use K-Band radar to accomplish this hence it sets off everyone's radar detector around. They also use the same K-Band on it's adaptive cruise control. This is freakin genious!

Just a warning to people that if you come across one and your detector goes ape shit, he probably has the side-assist option (I'm guess you'll only see this on the total optioned out versions). The article went on to talk about the adaptive cruise control on the new Infiniti QX56 that uses lasar instead of radar... well great, but C&D said it would trip off their laser alerts on their detectors.

jm545i

k-band, very annoying. Make that VERY annoying. A lot written about it, I don't think there is any current way of excluding these alarms, though maybe V1 will some day be able to distinguish and we can upgrade.

Also get laser false alerts from both certain GM-brand high-mounted stop lamps and Nissan/Infiniti laser-based cruise control systems, which are also VERY annoying, particularly when you've got a jack-a** in an FX45 who wants to live off of your alerts.

Google it though - a lot written on the topic.

pukka

+1 A few years ago I was SPPEDING on a straightaway near the GA/FL state line when my V1 laser alarm lit up. Couldn't see a police car or helicopter anywhere. Turns out it was an Infiniti SUV behind me that kept triggering the alarm. Never had any problems with Audi's, but i don't see many around where I am.

As for X and K band, you get lots of false-positives whenever you drive past a shopping district. Most police use Ka or Laser now since its instant-on and much harder to react to.

Brent P

That makes sense. During my research today I discovered that Infiniti uses Laser for it's Adaptive Cruise Control rather than radar, so it would light up your V1 laser alarm like a Christmas tree if it was behind you.

You would think that if these companies had any engineering staff who were 'enthusiasts', they would have identified this as a problem immediately and come up with another solution. SHEESH :thumbsdown:

Brent P

Here's a couple of excellent articles on the topic. Apparently the V1 is most susceptible to the Audi problem because it's the most sensitive to POP radar, which the Audi's adaptive cruise and side assist emulate. If your detector doesn't false around late model 'fully loaded' Audi's, it's because either it doesn't have POP detection capability, has poor capability, or has POP turned off by default.

Radar Detector Interaction With Collision Avoidance Systems

Field Testing Audi Collision Avoidance Interaction with different detectors

vkhong

Infrared from in-vehicle entertainment system's remote controllers and headphones are also known for triggering false laser alerts, as are some brake light.

--Victor

Brent P

Whew... problem solved.

The V1 has great flexibility when it comes to programming preferences. The work-around is to eliminate false Ka warnings from late model Audi's is to go into programming mode and turn off POP protection. I was a little concerned about doing this but with a little research I discovered that only the states of Oregon, Nevada, and Iowa offer the Bee III radar with POP Mode as an option to be purchased by law enforcement agencies via state contract, so chances are if you're from outside these states you will be okay without POP detection.

Expect this to become an ever increasing problem.