Travel Tuesdays: Escort Redline 360c Radar Detector

There's enough stress these days without adding a speeding ticket into the mix. Of course, nobody's perfect, but a reliable radar detector can help you avoid missteps caused by a lead foot.

The $750 Escort Redline 360C is the company's latest top-of-the-line windshield model. It looks front and back, scanning for the primary tools of law enforcement, Ka radar and lidar (light detection and ranging, known colloquially as laser). It will also scan in several other bands, of course, and includes cloaking technology so it shouldn't be spotted by police above the 49th parallel. The 360c also has built-in GPS, which helps in recording false alert spots, and when connected to a smart phone, it gives you access to shared info on red light cameras and the like from a million other Escort users using the same app.

I traversed a couple of thousand miles with the Escort Redline and found that in general it was extremely sensitive without producing annoying false alerts. I was saved from one lidar-related infraction, for example, simply because I had a chance to slow before my nearest fellow highway traveler was able to (you can guess what happened). The front sensor did a great job alerting me, although in the popular Ka band it could be a little inconsistent on registering approaching radar. I'd get an initial couple of warning chirps, but then a gap, until I'd get a direct hit. On the other hand, the rear sensor proved to be quite good, alerting me to approaching troopers with a rear pointing red arrow long before any one else behind realized what was happening.

With built-in Wi-Fi, the Escort Redline 360c can deliver software updates as needed (in fact, a firmware update was planned to allow for more accurate arrow switching to follow the position of radar traps as you pass). All in all, it's an up-to-date radar detector with state-of-the-art features. The Redline's only downside is the price. For example, the Valentine V1 Gen2 is only $500—although its user base (and thus online support) is smaller than Escort's community.

Bottom line: If you don't want to see red lights in your rear view, the Redline 360c may be just what the doctor ordered.