Safety Camera Detection in France outlawed

X5Sport · Post by **X5Sport** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 3:29 pm

For those of you who traverse French Roads or you are planning a trip across France any time soon, and have either a standalone GPS based 'safety camera' device such as a Road Angel, or possibly a Garmin type SatNav with camera warnings enabled, or a non-OEM disc in your nav system which contains any data on safety camera locations in France, all such systems were completely outlawed with effect from 3rd January 2012. Beware! Some systems were still legal due to loopholes in French Traffic Law. Those loopholes have now been closed.

Garmin system databases have been modified to now show 4km long 'danger zones' indicating where said devices might (or might not) be lurking. Other manufacturers may be following suit if they detect you are in France, but don't count on the systems automatically disabling the functions.

The fines are swingeing (â‚¬1500) so if you have this technology be sure it's not in use, installed, or even visible if you are in France and get stopped. If you don't have a camera warning database loaded, or have not purchased the capability as an add-on then you are fine. BMW OEM Nav discs don't carry the info anyway, so put your OEM one back in before travelling!

pvr · Post by **pvr** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 3:59 pm

Thank goodness the French don't speak English so can't operate our equipment

X5Sport · Post by **X5Sport** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 4:04 pm

You may well be right there. I did a work trip to the European Parliament a few years back and can remember a non-UK MEP saying there are three official languages in Europe. English and German. It took us a few moments to twig what he meant, but it did raise a smile.

I'm told that French men wear high heels too........well one in particular does..

jaynana · Post by **jaynana** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 9:02 pm

this is serious stuff!

mkIV with v32 - can switch off cam warnings, but i suspect they will still show on the screen.

do you think switchin off cam audible warnings is sufficient to be on the legal side?

dirtymonkey29 · Post by **dirtymonkey29** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 9:31 pm

Mine don't show on the screen or beep when turned off, music volume dips a little when camera are turned off though

X5Sport · Post by **X5Sport** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 9:42 pm

Carry two discs and swap as needed at the relevant borders. V32 is the last Nav OS firmware released for the Mk4, not the map data - in case anyone is unclear - like some newbies perhaps.

Powercat · Post by **Powercat** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 10:44 pm

I would suggest turning off your GPS if you get police attention, then argue The other countries and the country I come from do not have this law, but to respect the French law I switched off my GPS, you should have a roadmap in the car if you need to back up your argument.
As already mentioned before the French police generally do not speak English and once they see your papers they normally just want you to go away

My GPS is often turned off as I know the route very well......... flashed number of times over the years......nothing ever came of it

squeaky2 · Post by **squeaky2** » Mon Feb 20, 2012 5:56 pm

Interesting stuff......I will have to see if TomTom has an update for the system.

As someone who drives through france a lot ill be interested to see if they start stopping english drivers more often to check theyre GPS systems.

Denis O · Post by **Denis O** » Tue Feb 21, 2012 7:45 am

The OEM system uses POI to give camera icons. All you need do is change your POI to hotels or something else amongst the myriad of items and no more camera icons on the screen.

Le Gendarme will never know.

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