Another passive countermeasure...

[bituerbo]

Would it be possible to force a pan&sweep error on a lidar gun by having a reflective surface (preferably a flat mirror) mounted 6-8" behind the grill on either side of the headlights. I'm thinking 2 'strips' mounted as depicted in the image below.

I'm still wrapping my head around how lidar guns work, but wouldn't it detect the sudden shift in distance (instant, too quick to result in vehicle speed) if attempting to target a headlamp, or would it disregard the 6-8" of difference since the mirror is still moving at the same speed as the headlight (and subsequently, the rest of the car) and just result in another easy target to shoot at?

*Edit: would love to insert image, but don't have 15 posts yet?
can I pm someone my nifty mspaint picture? it's already hosted on imageshack.

[v1user]

I don't think it would work. The beam reflects back to the direction it was shot. Anyways, you can pm me the pic and I'll put it up.

[bituerbo]

I don't think it would work. The beam reflects back to the direction it was shoot. Anyways, you can pm me the pic and I'll put it up.

Thanks for the host, and the input.

[sethy]

.....is that a cobra in the windshield??

[8freerunner8]

A cobra and mirrors as a countermeasure wouldn't prevent a cop from getting a speed reading with a laser pointer.

[kpatz]

.....is that a cobra in the windshield??

Looks like a Uniden to me. LRD-9000W or similar. I know--I have one.

[JTW]

I don't think it would work. The beam reflects back to the direction it was shot. Anyways, you can pm me the pic and I'll put it up.

No, you're thinking about retro-reflectivity. Only your license plate and parts of your headlights will reflect the beam directly back at the gun. I don't think it's a good idea, but if you were to point the mirrors at an angle towards the road it would indeed redirect the beam to the ground. Your car would look like a POS if you did that though lol.

I would rather have a mirror as my license plate than a real license plate.

[Stealth Stalker]

I would rather have a mirror as my license plate than a real license plate.

Excellent point. Retroreflectivity is definitely the deadly feature of licence plates, which is very different from simple reflectivity. Redirection of the beam is only effective if you can choose where it is redirected to.

[thestaton]

IMO matte > shiny when it comes to defeating lidar.

[bituerbo]

Haha, well the picture of the car is just a frontal view of an Audi that I google'd.
My countermeasures do not include any cobra or RMR products!

Do the lidar guns have internal accelerometers that can calculate whether the operator's movement generates the pan+sweep errors, or does it base it off of the distance/speed that is read by the target vehicle?

I'm not looking to 'bounce' the light away from the source, I just want to provide two distance readings at the same time, which would hopefully generate the same effect as sweeping from the front of the car to the side of the car, a sudden distance change which could generate the pan+sweep error. I drive a silver car, so the flatmatte effect isn't something I can reap the rewards of.