Brake lights sensitive to braking force

http://blog.pedro.si/brake-lights-sensible-to-braking-force

by pedrokost • 16 years ago

9 18 16 years ago

blog.pedro.si

Had this discussion with a friend 13 years ago in college. Didn't know how get it to market and IIRC my friend found someone else had a patent on it.

tejaswiy• 16 years ago

It exists already -

http://www.usautoparts.net/bmw/technology/brake_force_displa...

http://www.google.com/search?q=break+force+display+bmw

nodata2• 16 years ago

s/sensible/sensitive/;

pedrokost3• 16 years ago

Thanks for the notice. I fixed it.

pilom• 16 years ago

Best one I ever saw was at Carnegie Mellon. They integrated this onto a CAN bus and were in talks with Bosch.

http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~ece549/spring10/team7/index.html

sambeau• 16 years ago

If you are close enough behind to really tell the difference you are probably already too close.

pedrokost3• 16 years ago

That's what the blue 'max deceleration' border is necessary. At least it makes it easier to see it from further away.

Maximum deceleration values of a car are about up to 1G for normal cars (found the data on an unofficial forum, so it may not be right)

Suppose a car in front of you brakes slowly, but for some reason you press harder the pedal, say to a deceleration of -5ms^-2 (1/2 G). Suppose a town with speed limit of 50km/h, and you and all cars drive at max speed. Suppose an initial car separation of 20m. If you do the calculations, you'll see that it will take less than 3 seconds for the back car to crash your car end. 3 secs sounds like a lot in reaction time, but the driver may be distracted, which may make him notice your braking a bit later, but not too late to apply appropriate braking and causing a car on his end.

duck• 16 years ago

I've seen some semi-trucks that have something like this (except it was simpler in that it was a straight light that would grow from the inside out), but do you really need them? If you just leave enough space in between you and the person in front you will never have a problem. Plus, it already is a pain to change out bulbs in some of these newer cars... I would hate for it to get harder (and more expensive).

pedrokost3• 16 years ago

Many crashes are caused by the lack of such lights. And if such a system can be implemented at low cost (which it is), then why not use it? A saved life is worth more that the implementation cost.

Maybe it can be at least partially be achieved with LED lights that last many years and don't break easily, if at all. Anyways I have the impression that the quality of light bulbs has increased a lot since the burst of the auto industry.

J3L2404• 16 years ago

It could be implemented by only replacing the bulbs by using a bulb that registers g-force. I could go on but I have to get to a mailbox to send these certified letters to the big automakers ;)

robinhouston• 16 years ago

Funny, a very similar idea was discussed here a couple of months ago, when jgrahamc mentioned it was idea 999 in one of his ideas notebooks: http://blog.jgc.org/2010/10/1000-bad-ideas.html

Here's the discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1779339

micheljansen• 16 years ago

I completely agree. In 2008, some students actually made this already: http://www.physorg.com/news125773212.html

I wrote about it back then (in Dutch, http://micheljansen.org/blog/entry/471) and at that time, there were some laws preventing this from really catching on. I guess those have been changed in the mean time?

afshin• 16 years ago

This is a really useful idea and gives useful more fine-grained information without compromising the overall message: "I'm slowing down."

Along a similar vein, I want car horns to be as loud inside a car as they are outside, to ensure they're only used for emergencies. I live in a city and car horns dramatically reduce quality of life because "no honking, $350 penalty" are never actually enforced by the police.

hallmark• 16 years ago

Re: honking. Don't travel to SE Asia; you'll be horrified.

goldenthunder• 16 years ago

The new Ford Mustangs have a kit you can install that does just that. I thought about this a few years back and want it so bad!

nodata2• 16 years ago

Strong braking normally == hazard lights + brake lights on new cars.

It's quicker to recognise than a graded red brake light.

osf10• 16 years ago

I remember reading about a similar concept by Citroen I think about 15 years ago. The brake lights would be a much pinker shade if the brakes were applied sharply.

mbyrne• 16 years ago

I suspect this is one of those cool ideas that in practice doesn't work so well, unfortunately.

But increasing brake light intensity overall on new cars or replacement brake lamps would increase safety even though old cars might have weaker brake lights. Essentially an "Omigod!" mode.

Brake lights sensitive to braking force

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