Front Brake Lights Could Drastically Diminish Road Accident Rates
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Japan introduced brake lights that increase intensity based on how hard the driver was braking. 20+ years ago. They tested it in the US and drivers found it to be “confusing.”
If Japan introduced that they never caught on, unless it's specific to an area or model of car.
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It used to be mandatory with always on rear lights in Sweden (you couldn't even turn them off). But an adaptation to EU rules removed that requirement.
I strongly doubt it was genuinely linked to that. There are EU countries where having lights on all the time is mandatory.
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It used to be mandatory with always on rear lights in Sweden (you couldn't even turn them off). But an adaptation to EU rules removed that requirement.
I strongly doubt it was genuinely linked to that. There are EU countries where having lights on all the time is mandatory.
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I've actually always found it weird with all the automation vehicles have, that blinkers aren't linked to the wheel. it already automatically disengages when turning, it shouldn't be too hard to have it auto engage as well when turning
The thing is, you want the turn signal to turn on before the start of the turn, so other drivers, pedestrians, cyclists can react.
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The thing is, you want the turn signal to turn on before the start of the turn, so other drivers, pedestrians, cyclists can react.
agreed, I don't think the blinker switch should be removed, but a late indicator is better than no indicator.
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I have seen some cars flash their brake lights when ABS is activated, but this would be better
The EU has approved G-triggered brake lights that do just that, flash rapidly on hard braking. I’ve only seen it on higher end cars so far, but they absolutely exist. Unfortunately in the US people stick brake flashers that blink in patterns every time they touch the brake. Mostly useless as they’re installed to be “look at me, aren’t I cool with my blinky brake lights?” rather than any additional safety.
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Yeah, the only thing I could think of is that I'm driving down a country road, and I see the front brake light ahead of me because someone stopped for a deer in the road or something.
in front of this vehicle" is going to get people killed.And the negative state of "the lack of this light means that the vehicle could be moving" is exactly what we have now.
Reading through the article, it seems like one scenario is that a vehicle stopped at an intersection might be about to pull out, endangering another vehicle about to cross? It seems like the thinking is, if you notice a front/side brake light stops being lit as you approach the intersection, it might indicate they're about to accelerate - be cautious!
I'm not fully convinced either, it seems like a lot of the benefit they're projecting is based on analysis of historical collisions, rather than any kind of experimental results. It sounds like the study is to justify expanding research to that sort of simulated experimentation, though - I'm curious what that kind of testing would find.
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The hazards are to indicate you are stopped and now a hazard.
Only when you are stopped and now a hazard. Your car becomes a blinking light. We have road rules for blinking lights, so it SHOULD be saying one specific thing.
Thank you for coming to this road safety talk.
They also indicate slow moving road hazards like a semi carrying an oversized load
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and honestly i have the same problem with that intended use. it often looks like a stopped car is attempting to turn out into traffic. IMO emergency lights should have a faster blink pattern or something to differentiate from turn signals.
Faster blink is already used to indicate that one of the lights is burned out. It's a consequence of the mechanical part that operates (used to operate) the blinking; less resistance caused by a burned out light means it blinks faster
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I think what he wants is the front turn signal to wrap around the front, so I can see the left signal from the right quarter.
I'm not aware that this is not the case, but I don't know that I would have noticed if it was not.
I'm pretty sure most cars have a turn signal near the headlights, and one on the mirror or on the side for that use case, no?
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I'm pretty sure most cars have a turn signal near the headlights, and one on the mirror or on the side for that use case, no?
Actually I think I remember watching a technology connections video about how card in the US can use the headlights as a turn signal, or something like that.
I don't think that's allowed in Europe or the EU or whatever. -
with computers these days an acceleration based system should be achievable for all types of cars. hybrid/electric cars already do it with regen braking.
hybrid/electric cars already do it with regen braking.
Not all of them. It is becoming more common, but for a while Hyundai and Kia didn't do this, and I know my older Ford doesn't.
Probably just in the US, since brake lights are only required when pressing the brake pedal. Mercedes illuminates them but then turns the brake lights off once the vehicle comes to a stop using regen.
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I strongly doubt it was genuinely linked to that. There are EU countries where having lights on all the time is mandatory.
There was an EU rule about ten years ago that stipulated that rear lights are no longer mandatory in daylight. The reasoning being to save on fuel. Which is a ridiculous reason, even more so with today's LED lights.
I don't know about other EU countries but this was the reason that Sweden removed the requirement.
All cars in Sweden used to have the rear lights turned on at all time, even if the light switch was in the off position, but that changed around the same time. -
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.bestiver.se/post/424410
Reminded me of this Technology Connections video, in which the dude explained (among other brake-light related things) how some law allows electric vehicles to get away with not using their brake lights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0YW7x9U5TQ -
Same. I don't think I've ever seen a car that can show me the signal on the opposite side of the car, but I have seen a lot of cars where I can see the indicator while stopped at an intersection and the car is perpendicular to me, since I have a little bit of angle to see the edge w/ the indicator.
99% of the time, it's not an issue, and the other 1% of the time it doesn't really matter if I can see the indicator (I.e. they're already halfway turning, so they're angled away from me).
Yes that's all I want, to be able to see the indicator again. A lot of newer cars have moved them too far to the side of the vehicle.
I encounter this pretty often because a Boston area streets are terrible and the drivers are worse, so a visible indicator helps all drivers make traffic flow more smoothly.
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I've seen newer cars turn the headlight off while the turn indicator is on, so you get a sort of double-blink effect.
I don't see any reason why we can't just have the whole headlight blink yellow as well with the turn indicator. LEDs are everywhere and can handle changing colors really easily, so it's not hard to require that for all new cars.
I've seen newer cars turn the headlight off while the turn indicator is on, so you get a sort of double-blink effect
Those are typically DRLs. Chrysler did this for a while in the 2000s-2010s (maybe still, idk), where the high beam - in DRL mode - turns off while the turn signal is doing it's thing. Other manufacturers do this with dedicated DRLs, sometimes integrating the DRLs and turn signals into one multicolored unit (Kia Telluride, for example).
No manufacturer shuts off a headlight for a turn signal when the headlights are intentionally turned on (whether by light sensors at night, or by the driver).
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Anyone complaining about lane keep not letting them change lanes or make turns is telling on themselves
There are a couple situations where it's annoying and I turn it off. My truck has the "steer back into lane" style assist, but it's tried to push me off the road before while I was towing a trailer on some narrow 1-lane roads. Some of the corners it's just not possible to get around without touching the center line.
The vast majority of the time it stays on though and is quite helpful.
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There was an EU rule about ten years ago that stipulated that rear lights are no longer mandatory in daylight. The reasoning being to save on fuel. Which is a ridiculous reason, even more so with today's LED lights.
I don't know about other EU countries but this was the reason that Sweden removed the requirement.
All cars in Sweden used to have the rear lights turned on at all time, even if the light switch was in the off position, but that changed around the same time.that stipulated that rear lights are no longer mandatory in daylight.
I don't believe these were ever mandatory in the EU? UK never had such requirement.
Edit:
What I mean is there are EU countries where lights are still mandatory and countries where it isn't so I cannot see how it could be linked to EU requirements either way.
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I still think rear signaling could be improved dramatically by using a wide third-brake light to show the intensity of braking.
For example -- I have seen some aftermarket turn signals which are bars the width of the vehicle, and show a "moving" signal starting in the center and then progressing towards the outer edge of the vehicle.
So now take that idea for brake. When you barely have your foot on the brake pedal, it would light a couple lights in the center of your brake signal. Press a little harder and now it's lighting up 1/4 of the lights from the center towards the outside edge of the vehicle. And when you're pressing the brake pedal to the floor, all of the lights are lit up from the center to the outside edges of the vehicle. The harder you press on the pedal, the more lights are illuminated.
Now you have an immediate indication of just how hard the person in front of you is braking. With the normal on/off brake signals, you don't know what's happening until moments later as you determine how fast you are approaching that car. They could be casually slowing, or they could be locking up their wheels for an accident in front of them.
I see a lot of those on trucks here in the south. Good for when you are towing shit so people can see around all your junk in the trailer.
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A lot of colorblind people can tell the difference between red-green and white.
They just percieve red-green as the same.
So they lose the visual cue for front-back under the proposed change.
Colorblind person here. If we're talking about limited visibility differentiation of front and back, the color of light is way less noticeable than whether we're looking at headlights or not (based on intensity). There would be no issue telling whether we're looking at a front brake light or a back brake light so long as the front brake light has headlights around it.
