Highway Radar: Waze + VASCAR aircraft alerts on Android

[ferius]

I have tried Highway Radar on a 250 mile trip today and like it. Would like to use it on every trip. I see there is a autostart option and turned it on for the last half of the trip but it didn't autostart. I'll have to check into what permissions I need to turn on to Highway Radar autostart. If I do get it to autostart will it keep running/monitoring if I am stationary for a specific time? Or will I have to hit stop monitoring?

Thanks for your feedback. Autostart option means that you only don't need to click "Start monitoring" button when you open the app -- the monitoring starts automatically. The app doesn't attempt to understand that you started driving. This option comes handy when you use the app with automation tools (like Tasker).

 

[Redmed]

I use MacroDroid but could change to Tasker (if I have too). Do you have a example of example of a Tasker automation?

 

[ferius]

I use MacroDroid but could change to Tasker (if I have too). Do you have a example of example of a Tasker automation?

There is no difference which automation application you use. General rules are following:

• In order to start the app with automation, you need to enabled "Start monitoring automatically" in app settings and make the automation app lust launch Highway Radar application.
• There are three ways to stop the monitoring with automation:
  1. Your automation app should be able to broadcast an intent. The intent should be com.highwayradar.app.STOP_SERVICE
  2. Force-stop the via automation
  3. Enable "Stop monitoring when the app goes to background" and configure your automation app to normally close the Highway Radar

 

[Redmed]

There is no difference which automation application you use. General rules are following:

• In order to start the app with automation, you need to enabled "Start monitoring automatically" in app settings and make the automation app lust launch Highway Radar application.
• There are three ways to stop the monitoring with automation:
  1. Your automation app should be able to broadcast an intent. The intent should be com.highwayradar.app.STOP_SERVICE
  2. Force-stop the via automation
  3. Enable "Stop monitoring when the app goes to background" and configure your automation app to normally close the Highway Radar

I got Highway Radar to start with MacroDroid, Thanks.
Tried to stop when in background by starting another app via MacroDroid then tried to kill Highway Radar as a background process. But this didn't work I don't think Highway Radar became a background process.
Now trying to get it to stop with a intent. Trying to figure out how to configure the Intent.

 

[KeithB]

Is there an option to change the alert button to something other than red? My galaxy 8 has a permanent burn in from using the app for hours at a time.

 

[Bloovy One]

Is there an option to change the alert button to something other than red? My galaxy 8 has a permanent burn in from using the app for hours at a time.

Did you select the "Use dark controls" option? I'm not saying you did or didn't, just wondering if that setting worked or not.

 

[gra]

I test app today in Europe, Romania... everithing seems ok,connected, (green) but no allerts. I use waze on another phone and post my own police alerts, check them on waze web live map, enable second source for planes, settings for spped and alerts radius was ok... but no allerts...

Post automatically merged: Sep 2, 2019

it is a must to move to get allerts?

Post automatically merged: Sep 2, 2019

even on experimental map, no alerts..

 

[200V]

Fyi, it also works through BT and WiFi tethering to another android phone. A great app!

 

[G37X Jockey]

I test app today in Europe, Romania... everithing seems ok,connected, (green) but no allerts. I use waze on another phone and post my own police alerts, check them on waze web live map, enable second source for planes, settings for spped and alerts radius was ok... but no allerts...

Post automatically merged: Sep 2, 2019

it is a must to move to get allerts?

Post automatically merged: Sep 2, 2019

even on experimental map, no alerts..

The aircraft alerts are filtered to remove commercial aircraft etc. It's not unusual that there are no aircraft within your alert perimeter that don't meet possible police aircraft criteria.
Make sure that monitoring is turned on either manually or set to automatically start when app is opened. The airplane and police icons should be green.

 

[firstsage]

Used this on a ~900 mile trip this weekend. It worked perfectly!
Can I ask for a feature? When in window mode, when I click the mute button (speaker with an X) can it turn red or something? I have the volume alert low so I can't always tell if I clicked it and I want to keep my eyes on the road.

 

[ferius]

Just published v1.7 to the Play Store.

This release adds only one experimental feature that might significantly increase overall awareness. Starting from this version Highway Radar shows predictions about chances of meeting police officer in the area at a given time.

The prediction is based on historical police reports – 2 months of data at the time of publishing. Since two months is not a long distance, the predictions are pretty much conservative now, meaning they can often overestimate the risk. Currently, estimations are made based on user location and time of day.

There are 10 possible predictions which app can show:

• Risk: 1/10 (~0% in 10mi)
• Risk: 2/10 (~0% in 5mi)
• Risk: 3/10 (~0% in 5mi ±2h)
• Risk: 4/10 (<10% in 3mi ±1h)
• Risk: 5/10 (10-20% in 3mi ±1h)
• Risk: 6/10 (20-40% in 3mi ±1h)
• Risk: 7/10 (40-70% in 3mi ±1h)
• Risk: 8/10 (>70% in 3mi ±1h)
• Risk: 9/10 (>80% in 2mi ±1h)
• Risk: 10/10 (>90% in 1mi ±1h)

Today the risk estimation is a number from 1 to 10 and a chance of having a police report here and now. For example, if it is 2:17 pm now, and the app shows "40-70% in 3mi ±1h", then it means that the chance of having at least one police report within 3 miles from 1 pm to 4 pm is laying between 40% and 70%. Risk values 1 and 2 assume that police was never reported in the given area.

Once I gather more data (at least for half a year), I may reduce the radius for the rules. Another feature I'm thinking of is marking "hot spots" on the map or adding them to arrows screen. By hot spots I mean small areas (~2000ft in diameter) where police are reported almost every day. Or doing something like heat map.

Anyway, I'm not sure if this is going to work well or will be completely useless – this is just an experiment. I'm waiting for some feedback on it and look forward to your input in improving predictions quality.

 

[Bloovy One]

Interesting ideas!

 

[doubledge]

That’s an awesome idea. Really interesting implementation.

 

[Twi7ch]

Heat maps is something I've always been interested in. I think these are killer ideas. Might just take some time to get the prediction algorithm dialed in.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[G37X Jockey]

This could be especially helpful when driving in an unfamiliar area. Judging relative risk for a given road isn't easy, so this idea is well worth refining.

 

[Delaney]

1.7 looks great, certainly worthy of another Paypal donation sent your way. Highway Radar Donation

 

[G37X Jockey]

Right now I'm on one of B.C.'s gulf islands, and the risk is showing 3/10 which is about right, since police are only here part time at most. I'll be watching closely when I return to more populated areas. This feature really has potential.

 

[ferius]

BTW, forgot to mention, the predictions are only meaningful for USA and Canada for now.

 

[G37X Jockey]

BTW, forgot to mention, the predictions are only meaningful for USA and Canada for now.

Will Europe be included in future? I know cameras are the primary form of enforcement there as opposed to live traps, but I never want to get complacent when I'm driving around on vacation.

 

[ferius]

Will Europe be included in future? I know cameras are the primary form of enforcement there as opposed to live traps, but I never want to get complacent when I'm driving around on vacation.

I can't say yes or no for now. At this point I don't even have historical data for Europe. If the experiment goes well then high chances I'll include other countries using VVase as well.