Future Watch

September 1996 / Bits / Future Watch

Jason K. Krause
A consortium of radar-detector manufacturers and the Georgia Institute of Technology have teamed up to create a more helpful -- and more useful -- radar detector. Next-generation units will double a s safety-warning devices, giving drivers messages such as "Road Work Ahead" or "High Winds Ahead."
The receiver's on-board microprocessor will hold 64 fixed-text messages, which can be displayed on an LCD. A transmitter placed near a traffic hazard or mounted on police and emergency vehicles sets off the receiver and alerts drivers to impending danger. These receivers also function as radar detectors.
No transmitters are currently operating in the field, but the Safety Warning Foundation is working with state departments of transportation to ensure that the transmitters are deployed, which will probably take several years. Also planned are message-only receivers for drivers who are not allowed to carry radar detectors or for use where detectors are illegal.

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Matthew Wilson
My approach to software engineering is far more pragmatic than it is theoretical--and no language better exemplifies this than C++.

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