Cobra Electronics 7700 PRO GPS

I was wondering, does the 7700 keep track of miles traveled in each state? Grabing a pen and paper while driving over a state line can be a pain in the neck. Thanks

 

Well, kinda. Respectfully Brian, I just wanted to maybe round out the IFTA specification on this point briefly because this is an industry hotspot point of discussion that is being violently beaten about at this time.

The spec states that electronic methods can now supplement, or even REPLACE, manual recording methods of the past - IF THEY MEET THE FOLLOWING REQUIREMENTS" yada, yada. It is being done today without using the truck odometer (the principle two methods being satellite tracking and on-board data recording: active and/or passively.) I am working on two unrelated projects / think-tanks concerning this right now and suspect that MUCH is going to happen in 2010 in this area (both legislatively and technologically.) Right now it does not define any specific devices by name that are "approved" because the subject is being deliberately kept gray due to the regulatory bodies being unable to agree on methodology at this juncture. So what they have opted for is to state WHAT it must collect and HOW the data can be processed for fuel tax reporting.

There are several pages in the current spec that outline what you need for "legal" mileage collection by "other than manual" means, but rather than make this subject even more tedious here, the main challenges seem to be with agreeing in a calibration standard and properly inclusive output data reports, which cannot be generated by the device itself - but instead by an interpretive device (i.e.. a computer rather than the GPS or data recorder on board the truck.) In other words, on-board data recorders are already logging IFTA miles in thousands of trucks right now. GPS devices are not EXCLUDED from playing in this game either, as one of your competitors is doing. But in your position, I'm sure you are aware of competing features and weaknesses.

Specific to Cobra and a couple of other GPS companies that have taken a serious step into this truck GPS market over the last year, I think that getting around the fact that it ISN'T recording when it is turned off, and would likely require some crazy regulatory calibration standards that would be cost prohibitive, are two rather daunting technological challenges. The other bombshell is that to be acceptable data, it must have all reasonable steps taken such that the data can't be tampered with, turned off, or changed. HOWEVER, as these units mature, I also think that Cobra and others should not take this feature lightly or scrap it as a future enhancement, if even just as a reference feature anyway. I think that what we can now obtain in this truck PND market is but a faint shadow of what these will be doing in the near future given their relatively youthful development stage today combined with the stunning mobile tech advancements occurring.

I continue to run my Cobra unit with the others in our testing as it has its merits and look forward to seeing how it progresses.

Best regards and sorry so long-winded.

- Don

 

can we get free up dates every 1/4 or every yeay

 

Brian, thank you for starting this tread! I will be a solo truck driver in late july of 2010. at this point i would like to get a gps. I do not need to reley one since i love reading maps, but i like the POI you get from them. Is it better to wait until july to get the cobra with future updates installed, or will the still be free in the summer time. thanks

 

Thanks for your Help!

 

Any chance that this unit will be added to the Deiselboss comparison chart in the nearterm?

Steve

 

I just updated my Cobra to software version 1.5.1.9 from their web site (this was a very simple and straight-forward process.) I do not have one of these in a truck at this time but can update the chart to be able to see the features comparison though. Give me a day or two because there is a lot of criteria to check on that chart for sure.

Brian - I'll send you a link to "sanity-check" for accuracy before anything is posted for general "consumption."