Radar pioneer Mike Valentine is dead. The creator of the popular V1 traffic alarm passed away at the age of 74.
Mike D. Valentine, the creator of one of the best-known radar detectors on the market, has passed away at the age of 74. For years, Valentine's products have helped drivers avoid speed bumps using advanced radar and traffic alert technology.
Valentine died suddenly at his home on September 16, 2024, according to an obituary published onCincinnati.com .
Valentine was behind Valentine Research, where he served as founder, director and managing director.
His company established the landscape of radar detectors for private motorists with the introduction of the Valentine One, also known as the V1. The technology was one of the first of its kind, making it possible to spot police lasers both in front and behind the car.
Before creating his own company, Valentine co-founded Cincinnati Microwave in 1976.
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is he contributed to the development of the first Escort radar detectors, which became a popular brand for many years. In a 2020 interview with Road & Track, Valentine said he left the company in the 1980s after accepting a severance package.
In the early 1990s, when his non-compete expired, Valentine quickly set up his new company, Valentine Research.
Here he launched the Valentine One, a radar detector that became popular because it picked up signals from both the front and back of the car and indicated where the signal came from.
Valentine patented the design and made his product unique for a long period of time. In 2015, when Valentine's patent expired, his former company Escort introduced a new radar detector, the Max 360, which also used the arrow function originally developed by Valentine.
Valentine Research continued to sell the V1 for nearly three decades until, in 2020, the company launched an upgraded version of the iconic product, the V1 Gen2.
The new version featured advanced technology described as military standard, giving the detector even higher sensitivity.
The design still followed the original, but the V1 Gen2 was made more compact and had a simplified control surface with a single multifunction button and two volume buttons at the top.
Mike Valentine's work in radar technology has left a lasting impression on the industry. His contribution to the development of radar detectors has for years helped motorists stay under the radar and avoid speeding tickets.
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