Android app gets a college student out of a speeding ticket

College student Sahas Katta was terrified when he received his very first speeding ticket. Back in 2010,  he got pulled over by an officer and accused of doing 40 mph in a 25 mph zone. Even though Sahas was sure he wasn't speeding, he handed his license and registration without asking any questions. Luckily for him, Sahas later realized that he had My Tracks by Google running on his Motorola DROID all along, which eventually helped him avoid getting fined.

As its name suggests, the free application tracks information such as traveled distance, average and max speed by using GPS data, and visualizes it on a map. When Sahas had to defend himself in traffic court, he presented the log of his trip, which clearly showed a maximum speed of only 26 mph. It turned out the officer could not recall when his laser gun was calibrated for the last time, which questioned the credibility of the laser gun data.

Even though most people do not stand a chance in traffic court, Sahas Katta was declared not guilty. The judge's decision was based mainly on the lack of evidence on the officer's part, but it is believed that the GPS data had a significant impact on the outcome.