I’m kind of surprised he made absolutely no mention of manual gearbox vehicles. Some of the problems he’s describing predate EVs and adaptive cruise. I have a manual car and motorcycle. I pretty regularly apply just enough to the brakes to turn the light on without engaging them during engine braking. Engine braking depending on gear choice can be pretty strong. Likely not as aggressive as a regenerative braking system but more than enough to cause issues. I’m certain I’d have been rear ended if I didn’t make the lights turn on while just slowing down, not coming to a full stop.

Yeah, no.

Those things are death traps and there's a reason why they're mostly prevalent in nations where people literally can't afford anything safer.

Like... a horn?

Motorcycle rider here. Yes, families with children will rent a truck anytime they want to purchase groceries, and when it’s raining. It’s not practical.

This is a stupid thread.

Don't worry, my fellow americans, we'll still manage to fuck it up.

Automotive History: Wilcot Flashing Indicators On A 1933 Morris Isis - Curbside Classic

Have you ever looked at a 1933 Morris Isis and wondered what the lamp assembly on the front quarter was for? Well, wonder no more, Curbside Classic will enlighten you. […]

Curbside Classic (www.curbsideclassic.com)

The Wilcot solution was adopted by Morris for the 1933 range, except the cheapest car in the range, the Minor. In essence, on either side of the car, was a block of three lights looking very like a traffic light with red, amber and green elements. The idea was that the colour or combination of the colours, showing on one or both sides would guide adjacent traffic of the intentions of the Morris.

Combinations were more complex, inevitably, than just flashing orange lights. Ahead of a need to indicate, the driver would activate the system which would start with both left and right amber lights flashing, like modern hazard warning lights, meaning “Caution”, ahead of an indication being given.

The system was controlled by a knob inside the car, with a spring based plunger acting as a time control for any selection. To indicate turning right, the driver would then request the system to show red on the right and green on the left in a way that almost echoes nautical practice; bearing right was amber on the right and green on the left.

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Morris threw a tantrum after the MoT approved the use of blinkers on rival Ford cars and vowed never to install them.
The MoT ordered the Wicot "traffic robots" removed and so Lucas trafficators were used exclusively in the UK until Morris was sold to Pressed Metal Holdings in the 1950s (in Australia and Canada blinkers were required by law).

The thousands of unusable traffic robots were used in the foundation for a new factory in Cowley. Also used were used brake pads and used sump oil to keep the dust down.

No. I want to make my voice loud enough for me to stop at a red light and ask the guy behind me if there is a proctology emergency or if they could stop riding my ass, and savor their expression as it dawns on them what is happening.

Red is always on top (at least in Europe) so even color blind people know what the signal is.

I feel like if your car is doing anything to actively slow itself down (as in apart from just cruising) it should turn the brake lights on.

One pedal driving just sounds like motion sickness city.

How would that work? If you look from the side you suddenly don't see anything again, or an arrow point forwards or backwards?

If you look from the front, current turn signals work for that already.

Absolutely, but that doesn't solve the problem that's talked about here (seeing the turn signal from the other side of the vehicle). It might be clearer what the turn signal is, but if you look at the right side of a vehicle, you won't be able to see the left headlight, even when it's massive.

It's not that easy I think (and you had by far the best idea in this thread now).

Can't make them red or orange, they'd be just turn signals.

Can't make them green, that wouldn't work for color blind people, and since you actually need the color for understanding what signal you get (unlike traffic lights) you actually have to make it work

And arguably you can't really make them white, because you can't see a white blinking light inside a headlight and couldn't differentiate it from the back light. Same with light blue.

Which leaves darker shades of blue, which are really hard to see in daylight.

I am not trying to brake check people and get in an accident but I would very much like a signal for "Please remove your car from my butthole, it's getting uncomfortable."

How would that work? On the highway, a slight nudge on a straight means you'll cross a lane, meaning turn signals on.

A kilometer later, the exact same slight nudge could mean it's just a light turn in the road, meaning signals off.

Now you could mandate cameras in all vehicles, which analyze your driving and turn on the turn signals when it thinks you're making a turn. Now who's responsible in a false positive if someone else dodges you and crashes because you suddenly turned on the signals without turning? Except it wasn't you, but your car. Oh and also you made entry level cars 10k more expensive, making them way more inaccessible if you aren't rich.

CB radios often had a "PA" switch that sent your microphone audio to a loudspeaker under the hood

We used to roll those back in the day. A friend gave my very drunk self a lift home one evening and I used it to give commentary to a group of revellers on the side of the road... who threw a beer bottle at us, and then chased the car which luckily didn't get stopped at the traffic light nearby.

Good times.

These exist. I used to deliver pizza and one of my coworkers installed one of these on their car.

They'll likely give those front brake lights an amber color

Yes, and an oil slick button that drops some oil on the road for the hard of hearing tail rider.

Nah not at all tbh, you can get very smooth deceleration with it and it doesn't feel floaty or whatever, it does take a tiny adjustment to how you drive, you don't coast anymore but rather you can finely control your deceleration by how much you lift the accelerator, it's quite nice to be honest I always drive it in that mode (even if it's not real one pedal).