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Feature-rich portable navigation devices (PNDs) are now illegal in Switzerland—if one of the features is an overlay showing the location of traffic-camera speed traps and red light cameras. Europe relies heavily on the devices, more so than the strategy of hiding state troopers behind billboards or letting traffic set its own speed based on congestion.

What's more, the European community doesn't speak with one voice. Some countries want the information embedded in PNDs so drivers remember to slow down (especially if the locations are high-risk areas, not high-revenue areas). Germany forbids electronic maps of speed traps located in Germany. But Switzerland goes a step further, reports Telematics Update, and apparently bans a device that has information about speed traps outside its borders.

In the U.S., this isn't a big issue, because photo radar isn't that widespread. In most states (Virginia and D.C. excepted), legislatures or courts have upheld the belief that noting the location of a device that emits radio waves (that's what radar is) is legal.

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