Weird pulsating brake lights
Discussion
Morning PHers
I'm just wondering if what I've seen is the latest in a line of daft lighting "fads" (along with silly DRL patterns, hazard flashers that come on when you brake firmly and foglights that come on on one side when you are turning
).
Twice in the last couple of weeks I've seen cars (indeed it might have been the same car) on the M62 in the rain and dark - looked something like an A3 or Astra - had back lights that were those sort of rectangular neon light effect - and when it braked hard (it was in lane 3 so it was doing this lots) the brake lights sort of "pulsated" from the outers to the third brake light.
It was all a bit 70s disco/Close Encounters and was not only naff but a bit distracting.
It this the latest manufacturers thing, or just some dodgy customising fad? Googling "pulsating brake lights" suggests the latter.
I'm just wondering if what I've seen is the latest in a line of daft lighting "fads" (along with silly DRL patterns, hazard flashers that come on when you brake firmly and foglights that come on on one side when you are turning
).Twice in the last couple of weeks I've seen cars (indeed it might have been the same car) on the M62 in the rain and dark - looked something like an A3 or Astra - had back lights that were those sort of rectangular neon light effect - and when it braked hard (it was in lane 3 so it was doing this lots) the brake lights sort of "pulsated" from the outers to the third brake light.
It was all a bit 70s disco/Close Encounters and was not only naff but a bit distracting.
It this the latest manufacturers thing, or just some dodgy customising fad? Googling "pulsating brake lights" suggests the latter.
Dog Star said:
when it braked hard (it was in lane 3 so it was doing this lots) the brake lights sort of "pulsated" from the outers to the third brake light.
It was all a bit 70s disco/Close Encounters and was not only naff but a bit distracting.
It this the latest manufacturers thing, or just some dodgy customising fad? Googling "pulsating brake lights" suggests the latter.
It's the same system as the flashing hazard lights you speak of, just a different approach.It was all a bit 70s disco/Close Encounters and was not only naff but a bit distracting.
It this the latest manufacturers thing, or just some dodgy customising fad? Googling "pulsating brake lights" suggests the latter.
It's supposed to alert the following driver(s) that you've just mashed the pedal and that they should expect you to be coming towards you quite rapidly.
If you were distracted, I might be so bold as to say it worked!
The Wookie said:
If you were distracted, I might be so bold as to say it worked!
That did occur to me but just wait until every single car has got either this or the hazard flasher thing - god help you if you have an epileptic in the car.I'm not convinced by this kind of thing - it's like a sort of "arms race" at the moment with silly lights - for example Xenons are ok if you're the only person who's got them, but now every t
t just dazzles everyone else.Why we need crap like this is a mystery to me - normal brake lights on the car in front seem to have worked fine for me for many years.
Dog Star said:
Why we need crap like this is a mystery to me - normal brake lights on the car in front seem to have worked fine for me for many years.
With braking systems as effective as they are now, you need some way of the driver behind knowing you're not just slowing, but on the EBA. If you've ever triggered EBA, you'll know a car stops quick. Very quick.Its called Dynamic Brake Lighting and you'll find most German developed vehicles have them. It was developed as a safety aid for high speed braking , such as autobahns, where the stats showed that if there was a means of alerting following drivers ,also travelling at high speed, that the car in front had activated its ABS or had needed sudden deceleration, then it would benefit the following driver.
Stu
Stu
It's like standing up in the cinema to get a better view. It works well until everybody else does it too, then you're all standing and all less comfortable but can see no more than you could sitting.
Brake lights have become less effective with the universal use of fog rear lights under only mildly adverse night-time conditions. If you travel southbound down the M1 approaching the M6 junction where that road sweeps in from the left, there's aoften a sea of brilliant red lights suddenly visible as you breast a rise in the road. The first reaction is to feel the grip of panic - "what the..." touch the brake pedal and start a wave of panic running back up the road behind you until the inevitable rear-ender finishes the job. More trouble than they're worth, rear fogs in my view.
Brake lights have become less effective with the universal use of fog rear lights under only mildly adverse night-time conditions. If you travel southbound down the M1 approaching the M6 junction where that road sweeps in from the left, there's aoften a sea of brilliant red lights suddenly visible as you breast a rise in the road. The first reaction is to feel the grip of panic - "what the..." touch the brake pedal and start a wave of panic running back up the road behind you until the inevitable rear-ender finishes the job. More trouble than they're worth, rear fogs in my view.
Dog Star said:
That did occur to me but just wait until every single car has got either this or the hazard flasher thing - god help you if you have an epileptic in the car.
I know what you mean, but at the same time you've only got to spend 10 minutes on a UK motorway to see how many people don't look further than 20 feet in front of their bonnet.Perhaps if the whole road is lit up in front of them like a Christmas tree they might notice people are actually stopping, and not cause the prolific rear-enders that plague our roads.
In terms of Epileptics, believe me there are some far more obscure and less obvious issues with this sort of system that would have been raised and investigated in the safety analysis, I suspect the rate of pulsing is chosen to avoid triggering seizures.
Also, personally I'm never convinced by the 'cars were fine before xenons/electric windows/electronic control systems/etc' argument, progress is progress, and if something doesn't work it dies out and becomes a fad while the real improvements endure.
motco said:
It's like standing up in the cinema to get a better view. It works well until everybody else does it too, then you're all standing and all less comfortable but can see no more than you could sitting.
Perfect analogy I can see the point behind them as mentioned above - they are indicative of harder braking. But it is yet again compensating for people being stupid and following too close. Oh well - I guess it's the future.
Time to trot out an idea I had years ago but realised it would take a world war for it to happen. If red lights mean presence (rear lights) and amber mean signalling an intention to change state (indicators), then is it not logical that brake lights should be amber (braking is a change of state after all) and rear lights (including fog rears if we really must have them) should be red. That way there would no confusion between rear fogs/rear lights and brake lights. Yes there might be a confusion between indicators and brake lights but you might argue that indicators aren't SO urgent that a single visible brake light (the other obscured by a vehicle ahead) coming on would cause panic - it would be apparent in a second that it was not flashing anyway. Or else the old US system of indicators, when in combination with brake lights, could cause the brake light to go off and on (inverted logic to normal flashing). Of course both would be amber not red as in the old US system. Imagine the sudden view of a field of red lights interspersed with amber ones. You'd KNOW there was braking happening. Just a thought...
Gassing Station | General Gassing [Archive] | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff