Execs
Compact
IVT Filtering
Two-In-One Performance
Cons
GPS Lockouts
Detection Vary
Meddlesome Overspeed Alerts (iRadar App)
Affiliate Disclosure: Automoblog and its companions could also be compensated if you buy the merchandise featured on this evaluation. The Street Scout pictured on this evaluation was equipped to Automoblog by Cobra Electronics at no cost. The opinions beneath are my very own primarily based on my private expertise with the product.
Radar detector or a touch digicam? Selections, selections. How about each on the similar time, built-in into one unit? That’s the thought behind the Cobra Street Scout, a two-in-one driving companion with a 1080p HD sprint digicam and a radar detector. With the radar detector portion of the Street Scout, you’ll be able to modify the sensitivity of the X and Ok bands, mute false alerts, and mark areas like velocity traps and crimson mild cameras. In the meantime, the sprint digicam presents a g-sensor and an emergency recording characteristic.
We just lately spent three weeks driving round metro Detroit with the Cobra Street Scout. Sadly, my total opinion of this two-in-one combo is blended at greatest. Having each a touch digicam and a radar detector in a single unit is a gorgeous proposition, however so far as the Street Scout is worried, it’s a superb thought with below-average execution. On this evaluation, I’ll run by the Cobra Street Scout’s “spec sheet” and elaborate a bit additional.
Why Purchase a Radar Detector/Sprint Cam Combo?
Insurance coverage suppliers and cable firms are all the time speaking about the advantages of “bundling” your companies. And in so many phrases, Cobra Electronics has completed the identical factor with the Street Scout. Choosing one thing just like the Street Scout has three primary advantages.
Buy Worth
Relying on which radar detector and sprint digicam you might be contemplating, shopping for a “bundle” just like the Street Scout might prevent a bit cash. As an alternative of shopping for two separate models, you buy one and hopefully keep away from spending further money (a great instance of this sort of financial savings is with the Escort MAX 360c & M1 Bundle).
The Street Scout retails for about $400 on Cobra’s official web site.
Saves Area
One other good thing about the Cobra Street Scout is just not having to slap two particular person models in your windshield. Because the Street Scout incorporates each a radar detector and a touch digicam, you’ll have a look at just one display as a substitute of two whereas driving.
Don’t Have To Resolve
If you’d like or want a touch digicam in your every day drive, it most likely gained’t damage to have a radar detector as effectively, and vice versa. True, you’ll be able to eat Oreos with out milk, nevertheless it’s simply not the identical. It’s the combo of the 2 that’s actually particular, and it’s no completely different with a radar detector and a touch digicam – not less than for my part.
Once I take my twice-yearly 900-mile drive from Michigan to South Dakota to go to household, I could make a case for mounting a touch digicam to my windshield. Likewise, I can even make a case for eager to have the safety and options afforded by a high-quality radar detector. The Street Scout provides you two fascinating objects in a single bundle – a radar detector and a touch digicam – for an extended journey like this.
Cobra Street Scout
6/10 Our Rating
With the radar detector portion of the Street Scout, you’ll be able to modify the sensitivity of the X and Ok bands, mute false alerts, and mark areas like velocity traps and crimson mild cameras. In the meantime, the sprint digicam presents a g-sensor and an emergency recording characteristic.
The Cobra Street Scout can be light-weight, which is useful when mounting the unit to your windshield.
Cobra Street Scout In-Depth: What It Presents
The Street Scout comes with a suction cup windshield mount (referred to as the “EZ Magazine Mount”), a 12-volt SmartCord USB energy wire (so you’ll be able to nonetheless cost your telephone), and a 16GB SD card and micro USB cable for the sprint digicam. A useful journey case and a fast reference information are additionally included.
Set up is simple with the windshield mount and USB adaptor wire. As soon as the Street Scout has energy, each the radar detector and sprint digicam are energetic. Regardless of having twin performance, the unit is surprisingly light-weight at simply eight ounces. The EZ Magazine Mount is greater than able to securing the Street Scout to the windshield. It stayed put the whole time throughout my three-week drive.
The Street Scout is appropriate with Cobra’s iRadar app. With the app, you’ll be able to both report or obtain real-time alerts generated by a whole community of customers. iRadar alerts embrace crimson mild and velocity digicam areas, velocity traps, air patrols, photo-enforced areas, and different warning areas. Along with the iRadar app, the Street Scout can even connect with an in-vehicle Wi-Fi hotspot for software program and database updates.
Cobra Street Scout: Radar Detector
Outlined beneath are some key options of the Street Scout. We are going to begin with the radar detector portion first, then cowl the sprint digicam.
Sensitivity Modes & Show Indicators
The Cobra Street Scout will provide you with a warning to X, Ok, and Ka radar bands and laser (LiDAR) weapons from each the entrance and the rear.
Urgent the SEN button will help you modify between three completely different sensitivity modes: Low, Excessive, and Auto. Throughout our three-week drive, we stayed in Auto mode more often than not, which is velocity adjusted. In different phrases, the slower or sooner you journey, the shorter or longer the X and Ok band detection might be. In response to Cobra, at 50 mph and above, X and Ok bands default to the utmost vary whereas Ka band detection vary is all the time at its most, whatever the sensitivity setting.
The sensitivity mode seems on the underside center portion of the Street Scout’s show. The colourful show is full with a number of essential “indicators” (as Cobra calls them). These indicators embrace GPS, sign band and energy, digicam and microphone, a scanning bar, and velocity alerts (when linked to the iRadar app). You possibly can change the frequency show characteristic on through the settings menu for those who like. If that’s the case, the GHz measurement will seem beneath the sign band and energy indicator.
To entry the menu, maintain the SEN and BRT buttons on the similar time. BRT is brief for brightness, of which there are a number of settings.
Detection Vary
One potential (if not vital) downside is the Street Scout’s detection vary. Primarily based on my expertise, it’s greatest to decelerate instantly if you obtain an alert, particularly a Ka band notification.
On two separate events, I obtained Ka alerts to seek out the patrol automobiles have been almost on prime of us. The primary was a Michigan State Police automotive on M-10 by Southfield close to Telegraph Street and the 696 interchange. The Street Scout picked up the officer’s Ka band from the rear, however only some automotive lengths again. The second alert was from a Wayne County Sheriff deputy on Telegraph Street (additionally a Ka band). It was an identical state of affairs: the deputy’s Chevy Tahoe patrol automobile was solely a brief distance away. Even when selecting up false alerts, like street building signage, the Cobra Street Scout can really feel prefer it’s late to the get together.
Sadly, the Street Scout leaves lots on the desk when it comes to long-range detection. I might hazard to guess that is due to the sprint digicam. It appears one of many compromises for such two-in-one performance is detection vary. If detection vary is extra essential than having a touch digicam, I like to recommend going with both the Uniden R3 or Uniden R7 over the Street Scout.
False Alert & IVT Filtering
Though detection vary is a matter, the Street Scout makes up for it by providing a stable false alert filtering system – not less than at first look anyway. The IVT Filter (or in-vehicle expertise filter) prevents any potential false alerts that might be triggered by the superior security options on different automobiles round you. This consists of radar-sensor-dependant methods like adaptive cruise management and blind-spot monitoring. Even in heavy Detroit site visitors, the IVT filter works flawlessly.
Most spectacular was how the Street Scout is impervious to malls, procuring plazas, grocery shops, and different comparable mounted location false alerts. Whereas driving by a Kroger or Meijer car parking zone on my night snack runs, the Street Scout by no means makes a sound. For those who do obtain a false alert, you’ll be able to silence it through the MUTE button on both the USB energy wire or the unit itself. The one problem is if you go to lockout false alerts . . .
GPS Filter & Lockouts
This characteristic by no means completely labored for me, and it grew to become one of the vital irritating issues in regards to the Cobra Street Scout throughout my three-week drive round Detroit.
Within the proprietor’s handbook, below the “GPS Filter” part on web page 11, Cobra says the characteristic lets you retailer and lockout mounted location false alerts within the Street Scout’s reminiscence. To retailer a false alert location, press MUTE 3 times throughout mentioned alert, both on the unit itself or the USB energy wire. If you’re linked to the iRadar app, it’s also possible to lock out these false alerts through your smartphone. Subsequent alerts to this sign might be muted and displayed in grey.
As of late, I’ve been making a every day journey to the Grosse Pointe space of Detroit. On my approach, I encounter a pocket of ongoing street building on I-94 with digital velocity restrict warning signage (the Street Scout flags it as a Ok band alert). Irrespective of what number of instances I lock that false alert out, it by no means works. I’ve hit the MUTE button (3 times because the proprietor’s handbook says) on the USB wire and the unit itself. I additionally tried locking it out with my telephone by the iRadar app. No luck.
Granted, the false alert did flip grey, simply as Cobra says within the proprietor’s handbook, however once I drive by the street building zone once more, the Street Scout alerts as regular. For no matter motive, the lockouts don’t stick.
Primarily based on my expertise, the Cobra Street Scout struggles with digital signage. The gallery beneath consists of three photographs of the John C. Lodge Service Drive in Detroit, a one-way avenue that runs north and south above the faster-moving M-10. The primary photograph is an aerial shot from Google Maps, with the crimson arrows representing the place two completely different digital velocity restrict indicators are situated (roughly). The opposite two photographs, additionally from Google Maps, present the indicators up shut.
On this explicit space, you’ll be able to flip a perpetual circle on John C. Lodge for those who drive as much as Forest Avenue, then again all the way down to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. By doing so, you’ll encounter each the digital velocity restrict indicators within the photograph gallery above. And that’s exactly what I did.
I misplaced rely of what number of loops I did attempting to get the Cobra Street Scout to lockout each of those indicators. I imagine it took about 4 or 5 passes to get the northbound signal to lockout and almost 10 to lastly lockout the southbound signal. Every time, the alert would flip grey as I locked it out. Nonetheless, it might be again once more on the subsequent go, lighting up in blue as if nothing occurred.
Finally, I used to be capable of lockout each of the digital indicators within the gallery above. For extra context, the loop I’m speaking about I made on a Friday afternoon. I waited till the next Monday to drive the realm once more to see if the lockouts caught. To my shock and disappointment, the Cobra Street Scout alerted to each of the indicators, regardless of me locking them out the earlier Friday.
Cobra Street Scout: Sprint Digicam
The sprint digicam portion of the Street Scout features a handful of helpful options. Here’s a rundown.
SD Card
The Cobra Street Scout comes with a 16GB SD card to retailer footage as you drive. By way of the settings menu, you’ll be able to change the size of the recording loop between one, three, or 5 minutes (three is the default). Transferring video recordsdata from the Street Scout to your laptop computer is simple with the micro USB wire.
G-Sensor
The sprint digicam portion of the Cobra Street Scout features a g-sensor with three completely different sensitivity ranges (degree two is the default setting). Throughout an accident, the Street Scout makes use of the g-sensor to mechanically lock and retailer the recording. Holding the MARK button additionally initiates an Emergency Recording Mode.
App Connectivity
With the Drive HD by Cobra app, you’ll be able to see what you might be recording in real-time in your telephone. For those who additionally need to use the iRadar app, you’ll be able to change forwards and backwards between that and the Drive HD app. On the Street Scout, maintain BRT till both “CAMERA” or “iRADAR” seems. Nonetheless, it’s not essential to obtain the Drive HD app. Though you gained’t see it in real-time, the Cobra Street Scout remains to be recording to the SD card so long as the unit is on.
Date/Time Stamp & Watermark
Because the Street Scout information, it’ll embrace a date and time stamp together with a Cobra brand watermark. You possibly can take away them each through the settings menu.
Radar Band/Alert Integration
The sprint digicam portion of the Cobra Street Scout is really separate from the radar detector, that means it doesn’t report or log any alerts to the SD card. Admittedly, I want to see this performance on a future model of the Street Scout. It might be good to have the choice to show a characteristic like this on by the settings menu. I feel it might be neat to see the radar band, frequency, and sign energy displayed close to the date/time stamp on the video recording.
Ought to You Purchase The Cobra Street Scout?
That is the place my opinion and viewpoint on the Cobra Street Scout is blended. Primarily based on my expertise, my reply is someplace between “probably, perhaps” and a tough no. I don’t have a heavy proper foot, so the Street Scout’s detection vary, brief although it might be, might be sufficient for me. And I actually like how the sprint digicam is built-in into the unit for the two-in-one performance. Nonetheless, I’ve a tough time getting previous the dismal GPS lockout functionality of the Cobra Street Scout.
On the finish of my three-week drive, I imagine the sprint digicam is greater than passable. Nonetheless, I’m not completely bought on the radar detector portion of the Cobra Street Scout. For a retail worth of almost $400, the restricted detection vary and lackluster GPS lockout efficiency depart me scratching my head. That’s some huge cash to spend for a radar detector that doesn’t minimize the mustard.
For those who don’t want a touch digicam, then look elsewhere for a radar detector (this beneficial video will level you in the best route). Primarily based on my expertise, I might not rely solely on the Street Scout for radar detection obligation. Different models available on the market do a greater job, and your cash is greatest spent there. Having the sprint digicam is sweet, however not on the expense of a reliable radar detector. Even inside Cobra’s product line, the RAD 480i is a greater radar detector than the Street Scout (and it’s a lot much less at $150).
In terms of having each, the extra I drive with my Escort MAX 360c and M1 sprint digicam, the extra I prefer it. Granted, it’s a great deal costlier, however the MAX 360c is head and shoulders above the Street Scout when it comes to efficiency. Whereas I used to be unable to make use of the GPS lockouts of the Street Scout, the MAX 360c with its AutoLearn Know-how takes care of false alerts with out being prompted. And the MAX 360c smokes the Street Scout in relation to detection vary.
Nonetheless, there are redeeming qualities to the Cobra Street Scout, particularly with its compact and light-weight, two-in-one design. If you’re bought on the Street Scout, you’ll be able to seize it on Cobra’s official web site for $379.95.
Carl Anthony is Managing Editor of Automoblog and a member of the Midwest Automotive Media Affiliation and the Society of Automotive Historians. He serves on the board of administrators for the Ally Jolie Baldwin Basis, is a previous president of Detroit Working Writers, and a loyal Detroit Lions fan.
Cobra Street Scout
6/10 Our Rating
With the radar detector portion of the Street Scout, you’ll be able to modify the sensitivity of the X and Ok bands, mute false alerts, and mark areas like velocity traps and crimson mild cameras. In the meantime, the sprint digicam presents a g-sensor and an emergency recording characteristic.
The Cobra Street Scout can be light-weight, which is useful when mounting the unit to your windshield.
