GPS squeals on squid

From
http://www.insidevc.com/vcs/ca/article/0,1375,VCS_165_2204725,00.html:

A Camarillo man was arrested late Thursday after he allegedly
led authorities on a motorcycle chase that reached speeds of
up to 130 mph...

The bike was...equipped with a global positioning system that
showed its top speed had been 140 mph within the last 243
miles.

 

So GPS "max speed" counts as evidence now, huh. That makes me a little
nervous. My GPS (garmin gpsmap 76) has some kind of firmware bug that
causes the "max speed" to be pretty much meaningless. A lot of the time
after a short drive it'll be in the high hundreds, though on one
particular ride across the bay bridge it thought I'd hit 655 mph. I'd
hate to see the fine for that.

On investigation it turned out that it inserts random very,very incorrect
location values into its log, and if two consecutive ones happen to be
really far apart geographically, the max speed gets set to the distance
between the two divided by the sampling rate.

 

It would have to be proven in court - and you could have experts explain
real (or possible) problems. On its' own I would think it would hard to
use - in corroboration with the actual pursuit with speeds in the triple
digits, just adds to the "preponderance" of evidence.

bruce

 

In this case the speed shown in the GPS is just confirmation of what the
police already know. A good lawyer can get the GPS's calculated speed deemed
unreliable. The concern for the rider is the record of where he was and
when - that places him right in front of the CHP during the chase. Biker boy
should have cleared his GPS memory and forced the cops to prove it was him
they saw, and not another guy the same size on an identical bike with
identical riding gear and a tilt-up license plate that matches except for
the last digit.

Even without the GPS, he's screwed. But remember, the authorities *are* able
to seize electronic records, and the GPS memory would fall under that
definition.

tpm

 

All this rider needs to ask the authorities is... are you sure I didn't
loaned my GPS to a flying buddy???

Larry L
94 RC45 #2
Have a wheelie NICE day...
Lean & Mean it... the extended warranty in every corner of your life...
If it wasn't for us the fast lane would rust...
V4'S are music to the seat of my pants...
Yank & bank your brains loose in my DeHavilland Chipmunk...
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/-xlax-/

 

That issue also came up in the discussion of South Dakota Rep. Janklow's
recent car crash, in which he killed a motorcyclist. Initial
speculation was that a data recorder in his car had retained speed for
several seconds before the collision occurred and the airbag was
deployed. The latest reporting is that his car doesn't have that
feature.

BTW, the same principle applies to the Sigma bicycle speedos some riders
install on motorcycles. The one on my bicycle has a trip odo and
maximum trip speed, the same data taken from the GPS.

 

Put a video camera on the tank then you can prove beyond doubt you
were only doing 115mph at the time

 

You might even go into the Guinness Book of Records with this
speed..congratulations

Pius
00 CBR600 F4
00GSXR750 (track bike)

 

I'd hit 655 mph. I'd

Better yet... I'd like to see the prosecutor squirm trying to explain
how your bike penetrated the transonic state of 0.8 Mach...

Larry L
94 RC45 #2
Have a wheelie NICE day...
Lean & Mean it... the extended warranty in every corner of your life...
If it wasn't for us the fast lane would rust...
V4'S are music to the seat of my pants...
Yank & bank your brains loose in my DeHavilland Chipmunk...
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/-xlax-/

 

Woof... Cub drivers rarely see 100 mph... mercy... let alone 140...

Larry L
94 RC45 #2
Have a wheelie NICE day...
Lean & Mean it... the extended warranty in every corner of your life...
If it wasn't for us the fast lane would rust...
V4'S are music to the seat of my pants...
Yank & bank your brains loose in my DeHavilland Chipmunk...
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/-xlax-/

 

GPS speed was discussed just recently on the ST Owners Club mailing list.
The record is from a rider with a Garmin e-Map GPS, here is his story:
*******************************************
My fastest speed according to Garmin has been 3452.9 mph.

I was riding around various side roads off the Cherohala Skyway. The
combination of clouds and canopy made for very poor satellite reception. At
one point, I looked at the map and was surprised to find myself on I95. I
zoomed out and discovered I was in Savannah, Georgia!

I made my way back to the Skyway and found one of the open overlooks. Once I
had a clear view of the sky, Garmin told me I was back in Tennessee. That's
when I noticed the max speed. The odometer only showed 231 miles for the
day. A round trip to Savannah would have been much further. My ST's odo was
very close to that 231.
******************************************

He took a picture of it, before clearing it off the display. And people say
ST1100's aren't fast!

Don in Castro Valley, CA

 

Doing the Bay Bridge at Mach 1 is likely to get the FAA into the act.
I was up there last weekend staying in Oakland and the BB proved to be
the bottleneck I always feared it would be -- even on weekends. I did
of course get passed by many lane-splitters, but I'm not sure how much
better the experience was for them.

R, UB

 

Your Garmin beats mine then. All I have ever gotten mine to do is about 280.
It think it might be something to do with swinging it around on the
cable....

--
Jim Stinnett
VTR1000
NT650
Too much motorcycle information @
http://moto-rama.com

 

The article didn't say that it was being used as evidence. The cops had already
clocked him at 130 during the chase.


Ben

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/rockland_mc_riders

 

True. But it typically is decently correct. I'd be a tad more concerned
with any track log it may contain (I make heavy use of track logs for maps
on my website). There you will have a large sample data points for review
to which the errant ones could be discarded.

We need a mfgr that'll make a GPS with a big RESET BUTTON on it that'll put
in some 25MPH numbers instead of just zeroing the thing.

 

After all, the factory engine in the cub is less than 1/2 the power of
a Busa.

 

If you have a Garmin, it most certainly does. Download the track files
sometime and take a look at the details. It has a speed for every
breadcrumb.

Steve
95 Buell S2
96 Kawasaki ZX7R

 

ok, that would be mine, though i've never bothered to try to hook up a
data cable to it. I suppose the federales would have no problem if they
knew to look. But just looking at the unit itself, you can't get at this
information. (moral: clear your track files, or only speed near
airports)

 

It does it with an eMap and one of the wide dashboard mount models,
III or V, can't remember which he has. I use Mapsource 4 right now.
Rarely has more than a couple of seconds between points.

That's still more than short enough to nail you, especially if they
look at the speed before and after that particular segment. I keep
mine on BS mode all the time and it's still pretty accurate. I might
have to try it in normal mode and see how many more breadcrumbs there
are, though.

Steve
95 Buell S2
96 Kawasaki ZX7R

 

I built my data cable for about $3 and an old credit card Don't ask
where I got the software...

Steve
95 Buell S2
96 Kawasaki ZX7R