How Accurate Is Your Vehicle’s Speedometer?

The answer to that question depends on a number of variables. If you drive a brand new vehicle or one that’s just a few years old, you’re probably not too concerned about how accurate your speedometer is — unless, of course, you were pulled over unjustly. On the other hand, if your car is older than you are and you’re convinced that what your speedometer is telling you is either way too slow or way too fast, then that’s a legitimate safety concern that should be addressed. In any case, it’s always valuable to have an accurate readout of your vehicle’s current speed in real time, and driving with this data may even save you from a ticket headache in the future.

Why Does Rocky Mountain Radar Care About Your Vehicle’s Speedometer?

Simply put, our business is in making sure that everyday, otherwise law-abiding citizens don’t get a speeding ticket just to fulfill a city’s traffic ticket revenue quota. While our aim is for drivers to be as safe and courteous at the wheel as possible, we don’t think it’s fair that drivers have had their time — and their hard-earned money — repeatedly wasted when they were driving just over or even at the exact speed limit. To us, this is a stark injustice.

That’s why our radar scrambler company decided to leverage decades of experience working for the United States defense industry and apply it to the consumer market. With The Judge 2.0, our pride and joy as the best car radar detector you’ll ever come across, we’re helping countless drivers save time and money while merrily continuing on their way uninterrupted. To us, that’s the way it should be.

Put Your Car’s Speedometer To The Test

To more specifically answer the above question, we care about the accuracy of your car’s speedometer because Rocky Mountain Radar offers a speedometer accountability app. Essentially, this useful and free app allows you to accurately track your speed as well as your location, helping determine if you really know how fast you’re driving. As far as keeping your speed in check goes, it doesn’t get much better than that! Download Rocky Mountain Radar’s speed check app on Apple’s app store today.

How Does Your Average Speedometer Work?

That’s a great question, and one that you’ll need to know the answer to in order to understand how accurate your speedometer really is (without using our handy app). Speed simply measures distance over time, but a car’s speedometer doesn’t necessarily measure how fast you’re traveling from Point A to Point B. Typically, speedometers will work by measuring the rotation of your vehicle’s driveshaft, axle, or wheel. Using that rotational figure, your current speed is then determined in real time.

What’s The Margin Of Error?

A difference of even a few miles an hour is more than enough to make or break getting pulled over, or providing you with more ammunition to fight a speeding ticket in court. Though the differences in wheel diameter from tires with different levels of tread wear, tire pressures, or other factors are relatively insignificant, these differences add up very quickly when you’re going at speed. For instance, at 30 mph, your car’s tires are rotating roughly 6-7 times per second. As such, this micro differences between tires — and thus, an inaccurate speedometer reading — can result in a margin of error up to 2-4 mph, give or take.

How Satellite Navigation (Satnav) Technology Differs From A Speedometer

Whether portable or integrated into your car’s dashboard, satnavs calculate your vehicle’s speed by measuring your actual distance traveled over time via GPS technology. The accuracy of satnav systems is unaffected by the condition of your car’s tires, but the satellite signal quality itself may impact what numbers you’re seeing.

Get An Accurate Speedometer Reading And Avoid Speed Tickets With Rocky Mountain Radar

In any case, it’s not enough to rely on the readout from your car’s integrated speedometer or satellite navigation system, especially if you are speeding or think you are speeding. With the power of our speedometer app and the best car radar detector currently available, you’ll be able to travel confidently knowing exactly how fast you’re driving without unwanted intervention from the law. For more information, please contact Rocky Mountain Radar.