About Road Angel Blackspot
Back in 1994, Dave Clark was involved in various new GPS applications including the highly publicised speed limited Ford Escort demonstrated by Leeds University. This rather scary project used GPS to locate the cars position which was compared to a database of speed limits in and around Leeds. When a speed limit was neared, the vehicles speed was compared to the target speed of the road ahead. If the vehicle was exceeding the limit it was mechanically and electronically slowed down, regardless of how fast the driver wanted to drive. In effect if you drove around on full throttle the car would only reach the maximum speed allowed by law, even braking automatically if a slower limit was approached at great speed. We all know the arguments for and against this technology and the debate rages on.
However a more sensible and practical use for this became apparent - to advise drivers of certain speed sensitive areas and reduce accidents. Add to this a collation of repeat accident blackspots and incorporate the technology within a purpose designed dash-top unit and surely the advantages were obvious. All that was required was the massive funding to properly develop the product.
Dave's interest in cars is about as far from GPS speed limiters as you can imagine, having competed as a Professional Racing Driver for the last five years in Caterham Roadsports, Superlights, Chrysler Viper GT2, Lister Storm GT2 and Marcos LM600 Evo. Dave also instructed high performance road car drivers and racing drivers.
It was one such meeting that brought Dave and Joe Eagle together. Joe had been involved in International Sales and Marketing within the Pharmaceutical industry, starting his own business in 1985 which grew to be the largest medical marketing communications group in the world. Keen on cars, Joe was immediately attracted to Dave's plans to improve driver safety through the use of GPS technology. In July 2000 the aptly named Blackspot Interactive Limited was formed by Dave and Joe to fully develop and commercialise Road Angel.
Both Dave and Joe are actively involved in making Road Angel the best Blackspot alert unit you can buy and are currently developing new ideas to further guard your life and livelihood.
In 2005 Road Angel is clearly the market leader in the GPS Safety Camera and Blackspot locator market. Dave and Joe are still actively involved developing new ideas to further "Guard your Life and Livelihood".
(all the above copy is taken from www.blackspot.com)
Road Angel Classic
The Original Road Angel (Now Road Angel Classic) was launched in 2002. A new generation of GPS detector for speed cameras. It Gained mass market sales due to clever advertising by motor racing expert Tiff Needell of BBC's Top Gear and now Fifth Gear. The unit had the following features a GPS based speedo and being a Road Safety Device would give one of four alerts for Fixed, Mobile, Average or Blackspot hotspot locations. In 2003 this unit was revised with the edition of a "Golf Ball like" laser detector to help detect mobile camera vans, or police safety camera vans, as a growing number of speed camera vans with laser guns mounted in the back became even more of a nighmere for drivers.
Road Angel 2 (New Road Angel)- 2004
Next was the New Road Angel in 2004, now referred to as the Road Angel 2. This was a improved unit with larger display, better clearer visual alerts and with added voice alerts.
The laser sensor in this unit was inbuilt into the detector with both forward and rear facing laser (360 degrees) detection for a more portable plug and play unit. Including Blackspot locations the New Road Angel will also alert you to school locations , overspeed alert to warn if your speed creeps over a preset level, useful on motorways etc. It also had a more specific alerts for Gatso, Truvelo and SPECS cameras for example.
Road Angel Navigator - 2005
In the Autumn of 2005 the Road Angel Navigator was launched combining speed camera detection and safetly alert systems with Satellite Navigation, This was the 1st of its kind combining proper Camera Data base with GPS Navigation. The unit also incorporated the very reliable NAVTEQ mapping data and CoPilot interface. The Navigator could be used as a dedicated Camera Detection unit or in navigation mode with the addded camera alerts.
Road Angel Plus - 2006
Easter 2006 saw the launch of the Road Angel Plus.This was Based on the award winning New Road Angel 2 the Plus has two added improvements. The road angel plus was battery powered for a wireless setup requiring no installation or power cables. Secondly being database driven in addition to the fixed camera alerts it will also indicated what the road speed limits were when approaching certain types of cameras
Road Angel Navigator 6000 - 2006
In Summer 2006 the Road Angel developed the Navigator 6000 to compete with units such as the TomTom Go with a cheaper sat nav using TeleAtlas mapping but still with the well known Road Angel GPS database. With touch screen navigation full 7 digit postcode search and 2D or 3D map options this is the ideal entry level system for people wanting a camera detector for everyday use and satellite navigation for occasional or weekend use.
Road Angel Navigator 7000 - 2006
Following quickly in the Autumn of 2006 came the Navigator 7000, an upgrade of the Navigator 6000 with the major roads of Europe, Bluetooth capability and optional TMC traffic information.
