Because that isn’t when you are supposed to turn on your turn signal?
When making a turn at an intersection, you are supposed to turn on your signal as you approach. (When and where I took my test, it was 8 seconds before turning.) Ditto for lane changes: it is supposed to signal your intent to change lanes, not that you have already begun doing so.
Also, the system you describe would often be activated by curves, so in addition to not coming on when it is supposed to, it will come on when it isn’t supposed to.
Back when all third brake lights were aftermarket accessories, there was one that contained an accelerometer and got brighter under hard braking. I thought that was brilliant.
Another good signal I’ve seen: many city buses include a yellow light on the back to signal neither the brake nor gas is being pressed. Some include a green light for when the gas is pressed. I often wish cars had those.
Even if it’s at the last second, it does take a moment for a car to get from the middle of it’s lane to the edge where a collision could happen. If a blinking light starts in that moment I could totally see it helping to avoid a lot of accidents.
Of course people should signal BEFORE they do anything, but since that’s not happening why not do this? Unless it leads to everyone just not signaling.
It seems like this should be an easy feature to implement in cars with built-in GPS (satnav). Now that we have self-parking cars, and cars that prevent dangerous lane changes, and auto braking, the trajectory is to self-driving cars so there will be probably be no more significant enhancements to driver assist modes.
I don’t remember off-hand where I read it, but that’s already been tried.
Counter-intuitively, it actually increased accidents. People got so caught up in trying to determine how fast the car in front of them was slowing, that they forgot to actually brake themselves.
You are astoundingly incorrect.
Half a second of advance warning is far better than no warning at all, and very well give you just enough advantage to avoid a collision.
“Watch the front wheels” is the advice I got in driver’s ed–and I went to a school that was founded by a former professional race car driver. Those guys know how to drive, whether you like their advice or not.
Back in the 80s, there was the Voedesky(I know I’m spelling it wrong) Cyberlight. It had varying flashing rates depending on braking force-faster and brighter the harder you were braking. it was not a primary brake light rather an additional light.
The claim was it was tested on NYC cabs and reduced rear-enders by 60%. A local PD had them on their motorcycles which prompted me to buy one for my bike. Cars did tend to stop further back than before installation.
The Catch 22 clause says a driver continuing to drive without asking for relief is regarded as insane, but is considered sane enough to continue driving if he does make such a request.
Half a second of advance warning is useless based on the reaction time of the average driver (PDF file). This might not be true of a highly trained professional driver, but the vast majority of drivers get just the minimal training needed to make a car go somewhere and obey most of the laws. The bar for passing a driver’s test is pretty low. It sounds like you are making a case that turn signals are unnecessary.
In Virginia, on roads where the speed limit is 35 MPH or greater you must signal for a turn 100 feet in advance. That’s a hair under 2 seconds at that speed.
If you are going to change the behaviour of brake lights, it would have to be universal, and probably regulated. And you would need a public information campaign to teach people about it.
Varying the brightness is a terrible idea. First, people are not good at seeing brightness changes. Second, brake lights vary in brightness already because of dirt buildup. So are those dim brake lights ahead because th pe guy is barely braking, or is he panic stopping but his car is dirty?
I can imagine one system that might work… If you brake hard enough to activate ABS, have the brake lights flash in sequence. Once people get that flashing brake lights mean “I am slowing as fast as I can!”, It would be a rather intuitive interpretation. Smart cars could even detect the flash frequency and start auto-braking accordingly.
The problem now is that if you don’t retrofit all cars, a car without the system might panic stop, and the person in the car behind might get fooled into thinking that it’s mild braking because no flashing is happening.
As others have said, that system would be activated by curves in the road, and other things that cause any kind of swerve. Drivers will be constantly seeing automatic turn signals that do not apply to turns and will learn to ignore signals until they see some evidence that a turn is happening. That will make driving less safe.
Use my turn signal?!? Why? Everybody who lives around her knows me and they know my car. They know I live on this street and that it’s time for me to be coming home from work. They should expect me to turn.
When I rode a motor cycle, I was grateful for small mercies: if their turn signal turned on after they changed lanes, at least I knew they intended to change lanes, they weren’t just drifting across.
In the U.S. some people do put on custom brake lights that flash. The ones I’ve seen flash when first applied to grab your attention. I’ve seen them on both cars and motorcycles, and I do not think they are stock. So it doesn’t have to be universal.
I read the pitch of the car to see a car braking as hard as they can. Doesn’t leave much time to react, though, if I’m too close to start with.
All of these problems with brakes and turn signals can be solved by people leaving a safe following distance, which almost nobody does because they underestimate the time needed to react to a surprise.
Yeah, it could also be solved if people would learn how to use their freaking turn signals. I see people signalling AS they are turning all the time, if they bother to signal at all.
The rule of thumb is that your signal light should be activated early enough that it blinks two or three times minimum before you start whatever turn you are signalling.
Plainly audible turn signals need to return. Back in the day, you rarely saw anyone driving for miles with a signal left on because the dink-dink-dink of the loud thermal flasher would let you know it was on. Now too many cars’ signals are silent or nearly so, inaudible beneath road noise and the radio.