ELECTRONIC COUNTERMEASURES OR PURE SAFETY? YOU DECIDE.

Welcome to the tightrope, the story with an elephant in the room! For the following story about an item of equipment that I am investigating, as well as planning to test and review, has itself borne upon the horns of a dilemma. Meet Target Blu Eye.
In a world where names like Noble, Pagani, Lamborghini and Lotus, Caterham and Ariel exist. In a mainstream marque scene that has simple class letters like Honda’s Type R, and Audi’s RS (and R8!) and BMW’s M series. Where brand fettlers like AMG, Alpina, AC Schnitzer, Koeniggsegg and Mansory all sell stuff. This product could be about needing to curb your enthusiasm to keep you out of trouble rather than the lofty higher ideal in the press release below, which seems to mention certain things without saying why. Like how this device works on unmarked cars. (It also picks up UK Highways Traffic Officers and police helicopters, by the way.)
For Target’s Blue Eye receives the radio signals from the comms system that the emergency services use. It does NOT allow you to listen in to what is being said, like I used to on FM radio in the deep past. It is called Tetra and basically, in the way that when you see a uniformed police car as you drive on the motorway and you quickly check to see you were not going too damn fast and maybe check yourself, this device is a bit like having your mate JimTheCopper sat next to you. As it basically tells you to pay attention, since you are actually either in the damn way of an ambulance, or about to overtake a police car as a miscreant.
It’s a complex issue, as equipment ownership does not necessarily indicate intent. Nor does it imply specific purpose use if the sales material is only about safety.
But in my world, well, I know we live in the single most technically survielled country pretty much anywhere. I can describe fully TEN different systems that we know about in the UK and that are permanently focussed on my car as I drive past. I also note at least two MORE sets of equipment that I simply cannot identify, that looks at traffic in certain places. Laser beams and infra red. Digital and (thank God, ‘˜cos they run out of film) chemical photography cameras. There are a lot of bits of kit pointing at motorists.
It is not illegal to be told where these fixed devices are by GPS, so I have a Road Angel GEM+ that has a SIM card and keeps itself updated via a subscription (contract for airtime, basically) to all the locations of all the fixed cameras. For I do not feel it inappropriate to be given MORE generous warning than the signs afford, as after all, if they really are for safety rather than milking motorists’ gonads, then more warning is better.
And I feel it is my right to be as informed as possible about the eyes upon me. The fact the system costs a grand less a quid, plus installation, (it’s two wires) means you REALLY have to want to know. And therein lies the controversy. For the grand’s worth of wanting to know, is solidly, under British law, in the hands of the purchaser. This is not any kind of transmitter. It is a simple receiver with a ‘˜Pound meter’ as radio amateurs call it. The lights and beeps do different things to tell you if a Tetra equipped vehicle is coming or going and the whole lot lights up more as you get closer.
When I went out for a demo in the first UK distributor’s car, we had an ambulance come hurtling down the high street hill behind us and the device went bonkers. I hadn’t known it was there and Blu Eye gave me thirty seconds more notice. We flashed and hooted and as the cars in front looked in their mirrors in anger, they saw the blues, then as the ambulance got up to us, heard the two’s of course and had parted like the Red Sea. It damn WORKED and one day, they could be coming for ME. So the whole safety element actually holds water and I was impressed.
Anyway, without any further admitting needing that I require as much admonitory electronics as a naughty schoolboy, here is the release by the UK distributors, who of course, cannot begin to even think of buying the skates, let alone putting them on their damn feet and even THINKING about skating over the thin ice I just flung gravel over. (Which makes the most delightful reverberant pingy noise, by the way!)
Advance Warning of Emergency Vehicles Now Available
Drivers can now use Target Blu Eye to keep themselves, their passengers and vehicle safe when emergency vehicles approach.
Thanks to new technology available through Cambridge-based CBS Automotive, drivers using Target Blu Eye can now get advance warning of approaching emergency vehicles including the police, (both marked and unmarked cars and police motorcycles), ambulance and fire services.
Injuries, fatalities and vehicle damage
Every year there are thousands of potentially avoidable accidents involving emergency vehicles and private and commercial vehicles. The statistics for London’s Metropolitan Police alone are chilling. When you extrapolate across the country, it gets scary. In the three years between 2008 and 2010, the Metropolitan police were involved in more than 12,000 accidents resulting in 3,015 casualties. There were 22 fatalities. This figure includes 16 motorists. And this doesn’t take into account damage to vehicles. (Source: Daily Mail 30 December 2010).
How does Target Blu Eye work?
This worldwide patented traffic safety device uses radio signals from the O2 Airwave Network. Drivers are warned of approaching emergency vehicles by both visual and auditory alerts on the user display even when the vehicle is not using its siren or flashing lights. Target Blu Eye not only increases safety for road users but also traffic safety for the emergency services as well as other road users.
Take control and stay safe
‘Every fatality on our roads is one fatality too many’ says Naeem Khokhar, managing director of CBS Automotive. ‘With Target Blu Eye installed in your car, you are stacking the deck in your favour.’
CBS Automotive are UK distributors for this unique product; the recommended retail price is £999.
For further information contact CBS Automotive:
Tel: 01223 56 30 30
Web: link or link
Email: [email protected]