As we first reported in January, Escort, Inc., and NAV-TV have partnered to allow radar warnings to appear in a car’s instrument cluster.
Their new system will launch this month, allowing Escort and Beltronics’ high end, permanently installed radar detector systems to work with a car’s factory steering wheel controls and instrument display.
The new Escort/NAV-TV system is called the Cluster Integrated Radar (CLiR) interface. It uses NAV-TV’s CAN filtering to allow communication between the radar detector and the car’s network.
Drivers can use the factory steering wheel buttons to control the radar detector’s power, volume, sensitivity, location marking, mute, laser disable, software updating, and more.
CLiR will work with The Escort PASSPORT 9500CI and Beltronics STiR Plus. The interface will be available in August for select Audi vehicles and in September for the 2017 Porsche 911, with interfaces for many cars following next year.
Specifically, interfaces for more Porsche and Audi models will be added later this year. And interfaces for BMW, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Dodge, Ferrari, Ford, GMC, Land Rover, Lexus, Maserati and Mercedes Benz will become available in early 2017.
“On some newer vehicles it’s hard to find a place to mount a radar display and controller,” said NAV-TV’s Derek Schmiedl. And adding the radar display to the instrument cluster is a safety feature. Plus with some new vehicles it is becoming harder to find the accessory wire so the new interface saves on installation time, he said.
Street price of the interface is approximately $499.
NAV-TV said it sold out of its initial run of interfaces through pre-order and is now producing a new batch.
Additional features include:
- User-selectable “auto laser disable”: automatically shuts down the laser shifters for 30 seconds upon alert
- On-board USB port: allows for software updates, ensuring a wide range of present and future vehicle compatibility
- On-board power: 4 AMP, 12 Volt accessory output to power the radar detector
- Plug-and-Play installation
For more information contact NAV-TV at 1-866-477-3336 or visit us at www.navtv.com.
Photo: (CEoutlook) Prototype demo of CLiR system at CES in January 2016
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