Cobra XRS 9960G: Excessive False Alarms and Incomplete Hazard Database Reduce its Value

The industry calls radar detectors "safety devices," which you might charitably call a polite fiction. Sure, some of the umpteen bands these devices can receive will warn of oncoming emergency vehicles, railroad crossings, and construction zones - assuming someone pays for the transmitter (with tax money? in a red state? bwa-ha-ha-haaaa). In truth, in a decade of owning detectors with this capability, only two BestBuys and a Home Depot have ever warned me of oncoming trains. No, the reason for owning a radar detectors is to avoid traffic tickets, which even the manufacturers admit: "You should take appropriate action immediately whenever an Instant-On alert is given"; or, in other words, "Slow down: there's a cop with a radar gun ahead." Honesty: always the best policy.

Years ago, I had a six-band radar detector; then came nine- and twelve-band models. Now I'm up to fifteen bands: four different radar bands, both passive and instant-on; three detector-detector signals; six LIDAR (sometimes known as "laser") detectors; and two flavors of safety-signal detection. The XRS9960G is really a Cobra XRS9955 with a GPS tacked on to track location and speed. The GPS comes with a lifetime (its life, not yours) subscription to AURA, a database of speed traps, red-light cameras, and other "wallet hazards'" That last, I suspect, is why Cobra wanted people in Houston - home to fifty red-light cameras - to test the product. Oh, and you can also store hundreds of "personal locations" (high-accident intersections, speed traps, ex-girlfriends' apartments, pole-dancing schools...)

Like other radar detectors, the XRS9960G juts back from the windshield on a suction-cup-mounted bracket (or mounts with Velcro®). The awkward, front-heavy shape created by an oversized screen is worsened by the GPS unit plugged into the left-hand side, which also conflicts with the power cord. There are five top-mounted buttons: a City/Highway switch, mute button, and dimmer switch are joined by a mount release and a menu button. The four switches are overloaded: in menu mode, they scroll among choices or toggle settings on/off; in regular mode pressing the mute button when there isn't an active alarm cycles though the screens (speed, lat-long, compass, etc.). Progamming is easy, with on-screen menus and voice prompts/confirmations. Figuring out what everything means requires study of the user's manual. That's because of all the bands...

Da bandsssss:  You got your different flavors of radar (X, K, Ka, and Ku) plus instant-on detection of radar guns ("POP" alerts). Since X (and, for that matter, K) signals are nearly ubiquitous in urban areas (X is used for automatic doors), "city" mode can be programmed to ignore X or X and K. You get three different radar-detector detector bands (VG-2, Spectre I, and Spectre IV), and can program VG-2 for visual display only (a blessing, since the audio is extremely irritating). You get six different LIDARs (LTI 20-20, Ultra Lyte, Pro laser, Pro Laser III, Speedlaser, and Stalker), all detectable over a full 360° if the detector is properly mounted. For the final two bands there's Strobe Alert (emergency vehicles) and Safety Alert (road hazards).

Can you shut that thing up? Yes: besides being able to disable any alert in the menus, there's (of course) a volume control disk on the left side. The mute button immediately silences any alert, and most alerts also AutoMute after a few seconds. Users can program full muting of all alerts when the engine RPMs fall below a set point, the "IntelliMute" function.

Anything else? Sure: the XRS9955 has a built-in magnetic compass, which is overridden by the XRS9960G's GPS: once it's locked in sufficient satellites, the GPS supplies an eight-point compass display. It also supports speed display and lets you program an alert for when you exceed a set speed. There's also a voltmeter with on-screen display and a shutoff function if battery output drops below 11.9v.

What's all that technology like on the road? Glad you asked: living with the thing is like spending time with a particularly obnoxious mockingbird. It can emit a near-constant stream of chirps, squawks, screeches, sirens, beeps, boops, and buzzes. K and/or Ka band radar signals leak constantly from the cruisers of at least one of the four local police forces (Harris County Constables); so whenever a patrol car is anywhere nearby, the K or Ka signal warbles constantly. That AutoMute function sort of works - it mutes the alarm but if there's a "burp" in the signal it comes back on full volume. On the other hand, County Sheriff cruisers don't seem to put out any kind of signal at all (nor does the DHS car I see cruising Eldridge...)

It's good that you can disable X and VG-2 alerts, since (as far as I know) about the only place they're still used by police is in places like Bugtussle and East Podunk. I gather they got tired of false positives from automatic door openers and microwave towers. I can't speak to the LIDAR alerts; I've only heard that alarm once (and it was on a different Cobra, years ago). As for the others...

POP (instant-on radar) alerts are ubiquitous, especially when driving the toll roads - it's almost as if the EZTag sensors are tripping them. Since POP signals are from hand-held radar guns, they have a limited range; however, I have yet to see a cruiser anywhere around when I heard a POP alert. I also get frequent Spectre I false alarms: the radar-detector detector signal also shows up without an obvious police presence.

I'm especially disappointed by the GPS. It gets speed, direction, and location right - I fed googlemaps the lat-long coordinates it records for my house and came up within thirty feet or so. The "user-defined locations" work - I'll never drive past my driveway or the entrance to the parking garage at work again. However, even though I've twice updated the GPS from the AURA database, the detector fails to alert me that I am at an intersection with red-light cameras. I already know where they are; HPD not only published a map of the sites, but they also post signs at the intersection warning people that there are cameras (in case you miss the half-dozen cameras mounted on the light standards). I tried at several intersections; came home and updated the database again; and then tried two of them again the next day. Nope: not a single chirp.

Don't get me wrong:  I have nothing against radar detectors; having owned several over the years. I still use them on road trips (when I can find them buried in the electronics collection). I'm not particularly impressed by this one, however, because of:

• faulty AutoMute system that fails to suppress signals from one minute to the next
• excessive false POP alerts warning of instant-on radar
• excessive false positives for Spectre radar-detector detector signals
• an inaccurate or incomplete AURA database that lacks publicly-available red-light camera locations
• design flaw that kinks the power cable when the GPS unit is installed

The XRS9960G  has many attractive features like colorful display, but this is a device that is supposed to protect the public, or at least the public's wallets. Excessive false alarms (remember the little boy who cried "Wolf!") and a $140 (list) GPS unit that doesn't know where red-light cameras pretty much negate that core function.


Please note: the people at Cobra provided a free Cobra XRS9960G Radar Detector in return for my honest opinion. Well, they asked for it...