Short answer: no, radar detectors are not legal in the UAE. They are prohibited and confiscated, including at customs. A speed camera app that warns before known camera locations is a different thing, and it is widely used across the Emirates.
“Is this legal?” is the first question many drivers ask about speed camera warnings. In the UAE the answer depends on how the warning works.
Radar detectors: prohibited
A radar detector is a device that senses the radio signal of a police radar. A jammer tries to block it. Both are prohibited in the UAE: Dubai traffic officials have described using them as an offence under the federal traffic law and its executive regulations, and customs confiscate them at ports and airports.
Apps that know where cameras are
A speed camera app does something different: it compares your GPS position with a list of known camera locations. Major navigation apps used every day in the UAE show camera alerts this way. When the question of camera-location maps was raised in the UAE, officials said no decision had been made to ban them, and we are not aware of any rule since that prohibits them.
What Ghost is
- Ghost does not detect, measure or block any police signal.
- It reads a database of known fixed cameras, mobile cameras and average-speed zones.
- It warns you in time, before you reach the camera, with one tone next to your maps.
Abroad, check first
Camera warnings are not legal everywhere. In Switzerland they are prohibited, so Ghost gives no warnings inside the country. France requires warnings as zones. Check the rules wherever you drive.
