Cobra – Elite Series Road Scout 2-In-1 Radar Detector and Dash Camera Driver Alert System

I like this because it’s an all in one setup, compared to my other radar detector with the camera needing to be attached to the side. This radar detector does very well when picking up Laser, and K Band so far. Picks up police and troopers from miles out. I love the jobs, being able to turn them instead of tapping on the unit. The only con is the size, it’s HUGE. Other than that, I love it. Oh yeah it talks to you as well!

The Cobra Elite Road Scout is the first radar detector that I have used in many years. I have an older model of a different brand and this really is light years ahead in the design and functionality of it. Gone are the 2 push buttons that I would have to use to set the detector in different modes and I have to say the functionality has come a long way. The Road Scout has a ton of settings that you can adjust, from the color of the display, the bands it displays, language, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, dash cam loop time, etc. It is nice that you can access these (and many more) settings on the unit itself by holding down the SEN/BRT buttons together. You use the ring around the Mark button to cycle thru the menus and the Mark button to select, but I did find it easier to use the iRadar app to make the changes (menu / Settings). I am still trying to figure out how the Cobra Road Scout connects to the iRadar app on my phone. I expect it to just connect when it is on and in Bluetooth range, but that may not be the case. The iRadar app is similar to Waze and how it works with speed zone and alerts so for now I am going into the iRadar app settings and selecting Devices and then select the Road Scout, but I wish it would just auto connect to it when I launched the iRadar app from my phone. And it is nice if I do see a hazard up ahead, I can hit the Mark button and then select what type of hazard it is to help other drivers on the road.
Now let us talk about the 1080p camera that is built in. To be honest, I did not expect much from this portion due to my experience of buying devices that try to do too many things and usually fail to meet expectations. However, this is a particularly good camera that is built in and the accompanying app (Drive HD) is a well built and especially useful. You connect to the camera via a Wi-Fi network that the Road Scout is broadcasting (if it is turned on). Then you have access to the video files on the included 16GB micro SD card. You can download them to your device and share and edit them all within the Drive HD app. You can even get a live feed of what the camera sees and this was useful when I was placing the Road Scout on my window for the optimal spot that didn’t block my view and provided the best view for the camera.
this is a very solid device that combines the benefits of a good radar detector technology and equally good 1080p dash camera in a very sleek binoculars looking unit. It has a suction cup mount for the window and a magnetic mount for the Road Scout so you can easily remove it, for another car hide it from thieves, along with nice carrying case, although the suction cup itself does not hold very well. The price is a bit steep, but you go get a lot for what you pay here. I am looking forward to many road trips once this Covid thing is over with and I plan on having the Road Scout looking out for me on the road ahead.
Pros:
Very customizable with alerts
GPS location built in
Speed can be displayed on the unit
Marking alerts from the unit
Portability
1080p camera
included 16GB microSD card
Cons:
Suction cup mount doesn’t hold
Price
Doesn’t auto connect to iRadar app

If you are looking for a dashcam, and want the peace of mind of a radar detector, this Cobra Road Scout Elite is the one you want. There are a few other radar detector options on the market that attach a dash cam to the detector, but this is the first one I have seen that has both a top of the line radar detector and a top of the line dashcam are integrated into one unit.
The design is interesting, it’s very sleek and looks like a binocular, and unlike a lot of other models on the market, the buttons are on the front and not on top. The unit comes with a travel case, windshield mount, power cable, micro-USB cable, and an industrial 16gb microSD card. The unit clips onto the windshield mount via a magnetic interface, which I found extremely easy to adjust and very strong to hold the unit without it falling off.
Upon powering the device, the unit goes through its self-test before being ready to drive. The unit comes with a limited quick start guide to get you started, but for more information, you will need to download the BILT app to get the full manual (or on the Cobra website). I was able to quickly format the microSD (SanDisk Industrial) card and set the color of the LCD to Red, the default is blue. I am glad that there is an ability to change colors of the LCD as night time driving is not affected by Red vs Blue can impact your night vision. There are several options to adjust, but the one that I quickly turned off is the one called “Overspeed alert”. It would kick in at 70 mph speed limit, which around here is the normal traffic speed which is above the 65-speed limit. It will be useful to be when you are in an unknown area of the country, but the speed alert indicator is not exactly accurate as speed limits vary in construction zones, etc.
This is not my first radar detector, this is my fourth or fifth unit over the last twenty years. My first radar detector was a Cobra. It kept me from getting speeding tickets through college until 2006 when I replaced it with an Escort. Today, Escort and Cobra are part of the same company, which means this Cobra Road Scout is not only amazing in its radar detection, the integration for the mobile app is awesome.
Any long drive requires a radar detector. I live in Los Angeles County, and around here it is hard to find an active radar source around here that is not a traffic speed counter. The local police do not run around with radar on. Around here, you are more likely to be hit by a laser from a hidden motorcycle officer than a radar-equipped officer in a squad car. Given that the chances of finding an officer to test out the radar detection capabilities of this unit are slim to none in my area, and even if you find an officer, you may not be hit by an officer with a radar gun, it’s more likely to be a laser. The laser is much harder to beat and much harder to detect. Instead, I headed out on I-10 on my annual trip towards Palm Springs for the weekend. This time last year, I got a speeding ticket, my 2nd in 25+ years of driving, and surprisingly like the first speeding ticket more than a decade before, I was not running my radar detector. This time however I came prepared with my radar detector on, I did get scanned by police cars, but because I had my radar detector on, I was able to slow down in time.
One thing to realize, a radar detector is not an end-all solution, even if you use the iRadar app on your phone (which feeds data to Escort Live too), there is only so much one can do if you ignore the first warning signs of a “Ka” band (what is used by CHP in California, places like NJ still use the old X Band) or a “K” band alert or worse yet, a Laser. On this trip, I got to see the Ka and Laser detector go off as I got scanned multiple times on my drive. (Note: Check your local laws to see if a Radar Detector is legal to use in your state)
In terms of its detection range, the Ka-band is definitely long enough in terms of range, giving you a minimum of ½ mi to a mile advance notice on highways, but depending on the power setting on the radar gun, you could see a couple of miles out of it. The K-band seems to detect about ½ mile+ to a mile depending on road and speed conditions (it is speed-sensitive in Auto Mode, I kept it in High). That said, around here, the only K band is usually speeding verification signs along the road. I did notice this Cobra is very good at rejecting the X band, but it did go off in a few isolated places (which made no sense other than random X band emissions). The Blind Spot Monitoring radars from passing cars are sometimes detected, but way better than my older radar detectors which trigger on a regular basis.
The dashcam features on the device are good. My estimate has a 160-degree viewing angle (the manual says 154-degrees). The video quality is not bad, but it can get washed out when driving into the sun. Low light is not bad, a bit of grainy noise, but completely acceptable. The image quality is way better than what I expected and the sony sensor definitely makes this dashcam worth the price. I did manage to use the DriveHD app to capture some dashcam video. It is not the easiest app to sync, but once you have connected via the wifi, the app seems to work rather well. In a pinch, it will allow you to show the officer video of who was at fault. The app allows you to view, copy, edit and annotate videos as well as share them but I found the interface a bit clunky on android. It definitely needs adjusting to, and the interface to connect via wifi is not the smoothest process.
Other Thoughts:
To update the device, it’s best trying to use the iRadar app at home, connected via Bluetooth, and then syncing it to the home wifi. That allowed me to get to the latest firmware (May 2020 – RScout08 version). For some reason, it would not connect to my mobile hotspot. The app documentation needs additional help, definitely, a lot of features that it presents are not completely documented in a how-to. I am still unable to update the defender database through the app. I find the iRadar cloud sync works pretty decent but does not point to the direction of travel, and the app needs a ‘heads up direction mode’. I had it running on my phone mount so I could view the map while driving, and it was quite accurate, identifying areas where people were hit with “Ka” radar, but the app still needs more work I feel. Good thing, the radar detector does not need the app to work, it’s stand-alone!
My SO asked what the difference between the iRadar app vs. her Waze app which shows police locations. The explanation was best demonstrated by the several times that a “Ka” signal was picked up, and where there was no cop listed on the Waze app. It is not exactly accurate when you need it most.
Final Thoughts:
My impressions of this radar detector can be summarized in one word. “Impressed”. I am thoroughly impressed by this device. I got this for my sports car and should make for some great driving videos in the future and still provide me enough coverage to protect me from the rozzers. The integrated radar + dash cam will save me space on my windshield.
Pros:
* Dash Cam works, radar and laser detector work very well – a great all-rounder for a mid-range detector. Escort Live integration is awesome.
* Love the beep “chirp” sounds to quickly identify bands (used to my old escorts doing that) – I turned off the voice alert
* LCD color change is a welcome addition
* The windshield Magnetic mount is solid, and it’s very easy to level the detector and remove.
Cons:
* Overspeed Alert is very sensitive, needs to be turned off from default or adjust to a true over-speed (85 mph for me)
* Miss the bright screen, even in “bright” mode, it is still not bright as I’d like the display to be used in the daytime
* Bluetooth & Wifi connections with apps are fussy at times.
* MicroUSB connection to the PC does not seem to work with RScout08 firmware, it turns on, shows the firmware version, but no way to download the videos unless you pull out the microSD card.
* Smart Cord is not as long as I’d like. There is no factory remote smart cord relocation available as yet, but there are options available to rig something up.

So I got this in time for my road trip from Kansas city to California and back again. So a perfect time to test it out. I just got a new mustang and was thinking about getting one for a long time and decided to go on a little road trip this has worked out great. Yes we all drive over the speed limit at some point in time this makes it a little more relaxing. Great signal strength and notification display. There is a lot of speed bands out there and this pick them all up. Just know what band to really look out for. There wasn’t a lot of false calls when it call for a real band call the cop was there. Enough time to make sure we were doing the correct speed. The display is nice and big you can change the color of the display and all setting from the device itself or by the app. It was easy to use the app and play around with the setting. The camara function is great it seems that you should always drive with a camera in the car now so much goes on around d you and you will always have evidence if you need to use it. You can download the app and play with the camera and edit. The mount is nice and the device doesn’t move and shake this has to be one of the better mou to have have seen for a car. Easy to take the device off and on you get a nice case to carry it in and store it with the cords.
Now the things I’m disappointed in is the cord its just in the way from the center of the window and center of the dash I put a picture of it. I wish they would have made a rechargeable device as everything now is rechargeable. Or make a cord to be a le to tuck it around to hide it.
There is a voice that will speak but its so fant you can’t really hear it and I haven’t been able to find a way to turn it up louder.
Overall a great buy