Brake lights that light up more intensely in proportion to how hard you’re braking

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zinic53000@reddit

I'd rather have additional bars light up with intensity over it becoming brighter.

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OkMode3813@reddit

I’d like an external visual indicator of being in cruise control. If the CC light is on, stop tailgating me, moron.

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My guess on why this isn’t a thing is because it introduces complexity. An on/off switch is stupid but safe. I could see it becoming a thing if it was somehow wired in a way to mechanically default to on/off in case whatever sensor is being used to measure the brake intensity fails. Kind of like how flashers are wired to blink twice as fast if one side fails to notify the driver.

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jaysaccount1772@reddit

You could design a row of vertical bar shaped lights across the back bumper.

When you press the brakes, the bars towards the center light up last depending on how hard you are braking. You can have the far left and far right bars light up no matter what like a traditional brake light, and the center lights can be wired up to the new pressure switch.

That way, if the pressure sensor breaks, the brake lights function as normal.

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Dont-ask-me-ever@reddit

Considered this myself many times.

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trickertreater@reddit

I'm not sure if the principle would apply to brakes, but with other notifications, gradual increases/decreases are much easier to ignore and postpone action. Drivers would probabaly not want to postpone action (braking) when they are driving.

In this case, binary is probably better. I'd like to see some testing, tho, I could be wrong.

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proverbs17-28@reddit

The center brake light would be best...it could start with one bar for a light tap and go up to 10 bars (or whatever) for the "oh shit" brakes

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Erlend05@reddit

Max oh shit it should be blinking

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proverbs17-28@reddit

If the light goes off, it could be interpreted as you released your brake...if fractions of seconds matter, I'd rather not have any confusion

I think bigger or brighter lights would be better for what you have in mind.

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42ndCole@reddit

Brake lights already flash for harder stops in most newer cars

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SaysReddit@reddit

Coming soon: LED tail lights! Just as bright as your headlights!

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proverbs17-28@reddit

😆

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Probable_Bot1236@reddit

I like the "more bars" for harder braking over scaling the brightness.

Sometimes tail lights get dusty, or grimy in winter, or get mud, or maybe it's foggy, raining super hard etc... point being, just there are things that can affect the actual and perceived brightness of the light other than the intended braking pressure.

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TheGuyThatThisIs@reddit

Honestly both are bad options because the brake lights only work if they are visible. Both options reduce visibility. The current option maximizes visibility. It’s an issue of do you want nuance in your message or do you want to make sure the message is delivered? When the message is “I am braking, don’t fucking hit me,” you want it loud.

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GrandmaForPresident@reddit

I don't think having to determine how hard someone is using the brakes is a good idea

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Berkamin@reddit (OP)

Precisely. By having the lights indicate how hard they're braking, it removes the need to determine how hard they're braking.

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GrandmaForPresident@reddit

Except when you have to decide if you should brake at 5 blinks, because the car in front of you is at 7 blinks. If anything this just increases traffic

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third-try@reddit

A variation that was tried was having the lights blink, slowly for slow stops, rapidly for quick ones. The problem was that people could see the light off between blinks. The obvious fix is to have one half the light stay on and the other half encode the deceleration rate through blinking.

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ObjectiveOk2072@reddit

Either that, or have it alternate between two lights

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Anon761@reddit

Fuck that we need brake lights in the front.

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ObjectiveOk2072@reddit

We need a small green light on the front that only works when you press a button on the dashboard while fully pressing the brake, to let pedestrians and other drivers know you're not going anywhere. Perfect for parking lots, crosswalks, and 4-way stops

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Lord_Skellig@reddit

Why?

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MxM111@reddit

So that your last thought would be “at least he is breaking”.

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chattywww@reddit

They should blink with varying frequency based on how hard the break is applied not .

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Berkamin@reddit (OP)

This is actually a better idea. I like it.

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ShellfishJelloFarts@reddit

Imagine a sensor reading this chain of flashes and in turn, communicating that velocity with the car behind and so on. It would cancel out the pulse detonation wave affect automatically from a stop at a red light for example; all the cars rolling simultaneously would allow for more throughput

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Designer_Fun137@reddit

BMW has done this for nearly thirty years.

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faz712@reddit

a lot of cars have had this for years

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ReturnoftheSnek@reddit

Crazier idea: give enough distance between you and the car in front of you to accommodate “oh shit” breaking

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HonzaSchmonza@reddit

Some newer cars flash the brake lights intensely when full braking.

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Quirky-Plantain-2080@reddit

It does already exist, at least in Europe.

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CoderJoe1@reddit

I've rented many cars and can tell you the brakes feel different on most of them. I can't imagine the technical hurdles to ensure they were all calibrated to feel the same proportionally to how hard they are pressed and indicated by brightness or some kind of brake progress bar.

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GrayDonkey@reddit

Every time I've been rear-ended it was while I was at a dead stop.

I want giant rear flashing lights that activate using a rear facing collision sensor.

Mandatory auto braking would be nice too.

I just added a trailer hitch with a step that acts as an extra bumper.

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Jaxis_H@reddit

At least one year of Mustang actually did this.

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Kooky_Ad7130@reddit

NICE. good idea.