My husband and I will be driving in France for about 3 1/2 weeks and would like to use the GPS function on our mobile phone. We were going to purchase a holster that attaches to the windshield but then it occurred to me that perhaps this is not legal in France. Does anyone know?
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23343 posts
Why not just attach it to the dash?
Posted by
Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada
533 posts
I never considered that attaching a phone or GPS to the windshield might not be legal in some countries. It's a good question. We've used a windshield suction cup mount for our GPS in half a dozen countries. On a more recent trip to CR we brought the GPS but forgot the suction cup attachment. With clear packing tape from a large grocery store we were able to fix it to the dash Hillbilly style. Worked well.
Posted by
Somerville, MA
612 posts
I don't know the answer. The below podcast provides tons of details:
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32921 posts
Just be sure that whatever gps you use it doesn't warn you of radar zones - that is illegal in France.
Posted by
Truro, NS, Canada
3941 posts
Peter... http://gpstracklog.com/2014/07/gps-windshield-mounts-illegal-half-u-s.html
Many of the states in the USA have restrictions.
When we went to California, they have certain areas you can put it. I guess we decided to be law breakers because we put it in the middle of the windshield (lower part - where you would normally place them). If it was on the drivers side, I wouldn't have been able to input while hubby was driving (gotta find those gas stations and restaurants!) and had it been on the passengers side, hubby wouldn't have been able to see/follow the directions very well. (And, apparently we broke the law as well in NY and NJ! Sorry about that!)
Posted by
New Paltz, NY
9103 posts
Buy this:
http://tinyurl.com/mwrylz6
or this:
Also, as an increasing number of cars now have semi-autonomous driving features like adaptive cruise control or per-collision braking, nothing can be placed on with windshield as if may interfere with the cameras on top.
Posted by
Normandie
277 posts
Windshield-mounted phone or GPS holders are common in France and nearly ubiquitous in taxis.
But applications that track speed radar locations, such as Waze, I understand are "Waze" illegal in France. Not that traffic duty is common among French police (that process is largely automated) but the risk, as they say, is not zero.
Posted by
OP
Berkeley, California, US
621 posts
Thanks everyone! And yikes! I had no idea that using a GPS with radar detection was illegal in France! Also had no idea that wayz included radar detection. Any advice as to which GPS systems are legal to use in France? That, indeed was why I wanted to attach my phone to the windshield, to use a GPS function. I also have a Garmin GPS (does not give real-time traffic updates) which we have used in the past but it was always sliding under the seat or getting stepped on so I thought it would be a good idea to have a system for mounting. I seem to remember it notifying us of speed cameras. Is this the same as radar detection? I'm also new to smart phones so any additional advice would be much appreciated.