Distronic Plus Cruise control operates on K

**omnicide** · 01-11-2006, 12:38 PM

http://www.wired.com/news/technology...w=wn_tophead_1

As long as this stays on cars that cost over $100,000 it shouldn't be a big problem but we all know that technology like this gets cheaper over time and will soon be on a lot of cars. I wondering how badly this will pollute K-band when these radar cruise controls are widespread.

**Buz** · 01-11-2006, 12:57 PM

Oh, great! That's just what we need.
Hopefully by the time these are affordable, K Band will be out of service.
Couldn't Benz have gone with X Band instead??

**kpatz** · 01-11-2006, 01:05 PM

Or better yet, Ku band.

Actually, don't some of these cruise controls use some 70+ Ghz radar? That way it doesn't set off any detector.

Still, better to use K than laser like Infiniti does.

**SmaartAasSaabr** · 01-11-2006, 01:53 PM

In all of those magazines the Society of Automotive Engineers sends me, they are always a few articles from Siemens VDO, Bosch, all the German suppliers about putting those kind of "intelligent cruise controls" on all cars in the future. There are the radar based ones, on K band (cheap) or on something like 77 GHz freq too (expensive) and of course the 904nm lidar setups like Infiniti uses.

**brick** · 01-11-2006, 05:18 PM

There's a good chance that those cruise controls are operating in FMCW mode, which I don't understand but I know it allows the acquisition of object range as well as speed. Not a problem for us because our radar detectors reject FMCW.

**ReadyRadar** · 01-11-2006, 05:23 PM

FMCW stands for Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave.

**omnicide** · 01-11-2006, 07:28 PM

Thanks for telling me about FMCW. I feel better

**eviltwin67** · 01-12-2006, 08:15 AM

So will this affect a detector mounted in a car using this system?

**GTO_04** · 01-12-2006, 12:35 PM

Originally Posted by kpatz

Or better yet, Ku band.

Actually, don't some of these cruise controls use some 70+ Ghz radar? That way it doesn't set off any detector.

Still, better to use K than laser like Infiniti does.

Actually, Mercedes uses both frequencies, 77 GHz and K band. IIRC, the K band is used for close up obstacle detection and the 77 GHz is used for long range.

I would rather that they use laser. Laser enforcement is rare around my area so I can basically ignore any laser alerts (at least for now).

GTO_04

**compu44** · 01-12-2006, 04:52 PM

Originally Posted by brick

There's a good chance that those cruise controls are operating in FMCW mode, which I don't understand but I know it allows the acquisition of object range as well as speed. Not a problem for us because our radar detectors reject FMCW.

Is it only the Valentine that rejects FMCW or do the belscort products do it too?