radar warnings

[johnycarper]

Can anyone tell me exactly what the law will be as far as sat navs are concerned and speed cameras,I know it will be illegal to have a radar warning device but what about the ones on sat navs.

We have customers due over this year asking and i am not sure,

Thanks,

john

[Pickles]

Any sat-navs used in France MUST have either:

A speed camera database upgrade since January 2012 (they should look to their sat-nav supplier's site for informationn on this aspect);

Or

The speed camera warning function disabled.

That's the best/simplest advice that I can come up with.

[Sprogster]

The trouble with this ludicrous requirement is that more often than not it is impossible to update a built in car sat nav installed at the factory, as they are not removable from the car or connectable to the internet.

Also what are foreign registered cars visiting France expected to do.

[AnOther]

Factory fitted sat navs can be updated with a CD.

[quote user="Sprogster"]what are foreign registered cars visiting France expected to do.[/quote]Comply with the law of course, what else ?

Don't forget to tell them to carry a French approved breathalyser [;-)]

[Théière]

[quote user="AnOther"]Factory fitted sat navs can be updated with a CD.

[quote user="Sprogster"]what are foreign registered cars visiting France expected to do.[/quote]Comply with the law of course, what else ?

Don't forget to tell them to carry a French approved breathalyser [;-)]

[/quote]

x2

[Sprogster]

Not always possible as not all in car nav systems are CD based and those that are tend to be updated with new CD's rather infrequently. In a previous car I owned from a well known German manafacturer, I wanted to purchase an updated navigation CD because the one that came with the car was hopelessly out of date and had to wait two years for the next CD update!

Also with older cars, you can find that the manufacturers no longer supply updated navigation CD's as their new cars work on an updated system, the discs for which are not backwards compatible in the older units.

[EuroTrash]

surely you have an option to disable the alerts?

tho by the sounds of it they will be so out of date they won't have half the cameras on them in any case

[AnOther]

As I understand it possession of a camera database is illegal regardless of use.

If turning the feature off were all it took to comply with the law why then would the manufacturers have bothered modifying them ?

[allanb]

[quote user="Sprogster"]Also with older cars, you can find that the manufacturers no longer supply updated navigation CD's as their new cars work on an updated system, the discs for which are not backwards compatible in the older units.[/quote]There can be a similar problem with older satnav devices.  I have a TomTom which is now classified as a "legacy product," which apparently means that all technical support for it has been discontinued – including the ability to disable the camera data.

If I want to use a satnav legally in France it seems that my only option is to buy a new one.

 

[Loiseau]

Has any forum member been fined - or even checked - for failure to comply with this rule about static camera warnings on their sat nav?

No one has ever asked to look at mine, though fixed prominently to windscreen. It's such an old TomTom that it doesn't have cameras marked anyway, so they'd be disappointed. . .

Angela

[Gardian]

Slightly off piste, but I saw a piece in today's Midi Libre which said that w.e.f. 1st July, Belgian & Spanish drivers pinged on French radars will be able to be prosecuted and fines collected.

I guess that it's only a matter of time before that'll be extended to the UK - but clearly not this Summer!!

[John Brown]

After getting completely lost I've finally got a Tomtom 20 SatNav, while in the UK

When I fired it up and connected it to the Tomtom website for the first time it had the entire French Radar Database removed saying it was  now mandatory.

Not sure how I'm going to explain that if I get stopped !

The website said a "danger spot" database would be available soon to download.

The display on the Tomtom allows you to mark any danger spots you come across on your travels and these will form part of that download

I did my bit by marking about 10 places I felt were "danger spots" on the way back from the ferry.

[Frederick]

[quote user="johnycarper"]Can anyone tell me exactly what the law will be as far as sat navs are concerned and speed cameras,I know it will be illegal to have a radar warning device but what about the ones on sat navs.

We have customers due over this year asking and i am not sure,

Thanks,

john[/quote]

 What a poor state of affairs it has come to when a person who wishes  to spend their hard earned cash on a holiday in France has worry about setting forth on a French  road in  fear.   Fear of falling foul of the French laws   Having the wrong sat nav  programmed  regarding speed camera locations .. Not having  a means of breath  testing under regulations just introduced .  What is going on.?   Does France want to create a fear in visitors of ever setting  foot in  the country ?  They are going the right way about it .

[cooperlola]

Don't know about the breath test thing but aren't camera data bases illegal elsewhere too (Switzerland, iirc)?  I assume the idea is to make more people just stick to the speed limit and not rely on mechanical devices to slow them down only in the places where they might get fined.  If you believe speed limits save lives then I guess you must,  by definition, think that this is a good move, not a bad one.

[SC]

If you connect your TomTom to your computer and open the TomTom folder in My Computer then open the Western_Europe folder, you can delete the Radar_FR_TomTom.ov2 file which is the French camera database. Don't delete the Fartkamera file though, thats an option that not many people know about....

Steve

[Théière]

Make sure you take a backup before you attempt this as any problems Tom tom don't want to know.