OhGizmo! Review: The Escort Max 360 Laser And Radar Detector

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Escort Radar + Laser Detectors for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

Earlier this year I was driving in a rural area where the speed limit is typically 70mph. It was at dusk with no one around and I was going about 75mph. Suddenly, I see out of the corner of my eye what appeared to be a police car on the side of the road but with his lights off. He then proceeds to flip his lights on and pulls me over. So I’m thinking to myself, “Hey this shouldn’t be a big deal, only 5mph over the limit isn’t going to call for a ticket, he’s probably just going to warn me to slow down or something”. Nope. He informed me that I was doing 75 in a 55 zone. I was blown away. “55? I just saw a sign that said 70 a few miles back!” I exclaimed to the officer. He was generous and bumped my speed down to 69 so that it would not impact my insurance as much, however I had just joined the 41 million Americans ticketed every year for speeding. I was frustrated with this sudden speed limit change because no sooner did I get back onto the road did I see the speed limit change to 65mph and then in a few miles back to 70mph. I later learned that this particular stretch of road is well known for its constant varying speed limits and speed traps. Boy do I wish Escort had sent me their latest radar detector and driving aid, the Max 360, back in January.

The Max 360 features dual antennas, one in front and one in back. These allow for a total 360 degree protection whether it be radar, laser, air, or photo detection as well as using arrows to indicate where the signals are coming from. While this is fantastic, there are other radar detectors that have similar features. What sets the Max 360 apart I found, are Escort Live and AutoLearn.

Escort Live is a crowdsourced app that you can download to your smartphone that allows you and other Escort users to mark speed traps, red light cameras, and other road hazards. With the Max 360’s GPS system, it can alert you via spoken messages about these hazards, as well as warning you when you exceed speed limits for the roads you are on. This would have been great to have had that fateful day I got my speeding ticket in January. AutoLearn allows for Max360 to take full advantage of its GPS system so it can intelligently reject false alerts based on their signal frequency and location. That means whenever you drive by a gas station with automatic doors you aren’t going to get false alerts like you would with other radar detectors on the market. I learned that you can also manually lockout any false alerts you do encounter by tapping the mute button three times on the car charger. I used this feature often to help teach the system what were false positives. It did surprisingly well I found, and it was not uncommon to have car rides that were completely silent as Autolearn was actively tuning out false signals.

My two favorite examples where the Max360 has helped me in driving were both centered around speed traps. The first was when I was coming home from work late one night and I had just gotten onto the freeway. As soon as I merged, I instantly heard a loud beeping, an arrow point straight ahead and a female voice say calmly “laser”. Up until this time I had encountered an unusually low amount of speed traps in my area and hadn’t really had a chance for the Max360 to truly shine in this regard. But that night it instantly let me know that about a half mile ahead of me was a highway patrolman sitting on the shoulder, lights off, shooting laser at all cars merging onto the highway. I was doing the speed limit of 65mph so there was no reason for him to stop me, however it was surprising how quickly I learned of the speed trap ahead of me and to not worry when I eventually saw the cop on the side of the road. The other example was when I was going to a family function on Thanksgiving. I was driving along the highway when suddenly I saw a highway patrolman on the side of the road, once again shooting laser. I panicked as I hadn’t been paying attention to my speed and was not sure how fast I had been going. As I passed him, I saw his car pull out, lights turned on. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. I thought for sure that I was going to get a ticket again. But then I thought to myself, “Wait the Max360 didn’t detect anything, there’s no way he hit me with his laser gun”. I was right, because soon after I realized this I saw him blast past me to pull someone else over.

The Max360 has been a great tool that has helped me drive smarter since I got it a few weeks ago. By alerting me to speed traps, it has kept me from getting any further speeding tickets as well as keeping me aware of red light cameras and photographic speed traps (through early warning on the K and KA bands). What really has impressed me though, is that Escort will pay for any future speeding tickets you get when you purchase the Max360 from the factory. To me that really shows they stand behind their product, and after having used it for a few weeks, I can understand why.

You guys should definitely check out the Escort 360 website!

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