Front Brake Lights Could Drastically Diminish Road Accident Rates
The concept of a front brake light has been floating around the automotive industry for some time now. However, no vehicle manufacturer has yet embraced the idea and turned it into a reality on the
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.bestiver.se/post/424410
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By signaling to oncoming traffic and vehicles approaching from the side, a front brake light provides an essential visual cue that a car is slowing down or preparing to stop. When the light is extinguished, it indicates that a stationary vehicle might initiate movement. According to Tomasch, this visual feedback can significantly truncate the reaction time for other road users, leading to shorter stopping distances and consequently diminishing the likelihood of accidents.
Sounds reasonable. Personally I just want front turn signals to be visible from the opposite side again.
And also like, used at all.
Here's an idea. How about we zap the drivers after they make a turn if they didn't use a turn signal beforehand? 😀
Can we do this in the same bill as the popup spikes that take out your tires if you stop across the crosswalk? The guided RPGs replacing red light cams can wait a little longer.
Cars with lane-keep assist with vibrate the steering wheel and beep at you. It's at least something but I think most people turn it off if it gets annoying
Anyone complaining about lane keep not letting them change lanes or make turns is telling on themselves
There are a couple situations where it's annoying and I turn it off. My truck has the "steer back into lane" style assist, but it's tried to push me off the road before while I was towing a trailer on some narrow 1-lane roads. Some of the corners it's just not possible to get around without touching the center line.
The vast majority of the time it stays on though and is quite helpful.
Okay Verstappen calm down there
It means they're not indicating for their lane changes or turns.
Couldn't we just use the point system from 5th element? The car noticed you did something illegal and dedicated from your point pool.
Personally I just want front turn signals to be visible from the opposite side again
Not sure if I read that correctly, but I don't think this has ever been the case?
I mean when a car is coming at me from a cross street, I want to be able to tell if they're turning or just an asshole not using their signal. On some cars, the turn signal is mounted so far to the side that if they're approaching from my right and turning right onto the same street as me, I can't see that turn signal. Sometimes combined with the roundness of the nose exacerbating the problem.
I think what he wants is the front turn signal to wrap around the front, so I can see the left signal from the right quarter.
I'm not aware that this is not the case, but I don't know that I would have noticed if it was not.
Isn't that the case for pretty much everything? Newer cars alternate blinking their headlights and the signal indicator, and even cars w/ the turn signal on the side will have some light bleed through since it's all one assembly. In the majority of cars, I can see their turn signals when they're perpendicular to me. The larger issue is that most people in my area don't bother to use their signals in the first place.
Yea, that's part of why I don't know for sure if they make cars the way the guy at the top of this thread is describing.
Same. I don't think I've ever seen a car that can show me the signal on the opposite side of the car, but I have seen a lot of cars where I can see the indicator while stopped at an intersection and the car is perpendicular to me, since I have a little bit of angle to see the edge w/ the indicator.
99% of the time, it's not an issue, and the other 1% of the time it doesn't really matter if I can see the indicator (I.e. they're already halfway turning, so they're angled away from me).
Yes that's all I want, to be able to see the indicator again. A lot of newer cars have moved them too far to the side of the vehicle.
I encounter this pretty often because a Boston area streets are terrible and the drivers are worse, so a visible indicator helps all drivers make traffic flow more smoothly.
i don't think that was ever required in the US. it is elsewhere though.
Can't speak to "required." But I know it used to be done.
I'm pretty sure most cars have a turn signal near the headlights, and one on the mirror or on the side for that use case, no?
Actually I think I remember watching a technology connections video about how card in the US can use the headlights as a turn signal, or something like that. I don't think that's allowed in Europe or the EU or whatever.
Theres a saying in computer stuff that applies nicely here. PEBKAC, problem exists between keyboard and computer...turn signals have to be turned on, no amount of engineering can fix bad driving.
Heads up, it’s actually keyboard and chair, not keyboard and computer
Dang it, sometimes I just type stuff and dont think about what I typed (the irony of what I was writing out)
I've always heard it as "PICNIC"
Problem In Chair, Not In Computer
And never forget about the I-D ten T error.
ID10T for those who didn't get it.
Layer 0 obfuscation error.
Oh, you think I need a new chair? Will the Internet come back then?
I've actually always found it weird with all the automation vehicles have, that blinkers aren't linked to the wheel. it already automatically disengages when turning, it shouldn't be too hard to have it auto engage as well when turning
The thing is, you want the turn signal to turn on before the start of the turn, so other drivers, pedestrians, cyclists can react.
I cannot stand how in some vehicles if I turn on the signal to indicate I am planning to change lanes, it will beep at me that there is a car there. I'm indicating I plan on it. Not that I'm turning the wheel right this second. I know there is a car to my side, I'm going to change lanes behind it, but am indicating mostly to the car behind them.
agreed, I don't think the blinker switch should be removed, but a late indicator is better than no indicator.
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.
it wouldn't indicate for slight turns only standard turns. Normal turns on the road may engage it but It's meant as a "hey this person is actively turning" or as a "this cars wheel is turned that way" so you know the direction it will go if it started moving
but honestly even if it did, it isn't hard to see "oh that car is on a curve obviously it's not turning"
How would you do that so it isn't ugly as hell and isn't prone to misunderstanding?
How would you do that so it isn’t ugly as hell
same way we do with lights now, design them attractively. It is not always successful and that's on the manufacturers.
and isn’t prone to misunderstanding?
what about it is confusing? green = not coming at you so it's okay to turn left (or whatever).
This wouldn’t really be helpful to those who are colorblind.
Somebody better tell traffic light designers
Red is always on top (at least in Europe) so even color blind people know what the signal is.
Same here in the US, though I’ll say as someone actually colorblind, it’s not the easiest to decipher the red/yellow when at speed until you’re somewhat close. Normally not an issue since anything resembling red=start slowing down, but there are situations where a standard light may start acting as a single flashing red or yellow, and that can be tough to figure out at speed. Flashing reds are supposed to have stops signs here as far as I know, but there’s been at least one intersection that hasn’t had them, which certainly gives me some anxiety about taking that as a rule. The system works alright enough, but it’s definitely frustrating that we settled on red/green for things when that’s the most common color blindness. I have some strong opinions on bathroom indicators, particularly in airport bathrooms where the lighting is often sub par too
okay, pick a different color then. it's a solvable problem.
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.
sliding light or arrows
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.
sliding lights: it depends on the bulb but i imagine it would easy to see move
arrows: i dont know why you think they would point fowards or backwards they would just towards the side youre on or not
If you're looking at the side of the car, you don't see them the same way as from the front. Which this whole discussion is about.
If you can see both turn signals from your point of view, current design works well enough.
i found a video to help you picture it better (https://youtube.com/shorts/ZD_34DxW_uI)
it really isnt that difficult
I know how flow lights work. But they still don't help you see better that a car is turning away from you, which is what this discussion is about.
Imagine a crossroad where a car is coming from your right side. You have no way of knowing whether they turn right or go straight, regardless of the way the lights work, because you won't see them.
we can put the lights on the bottom of the mirror so you can see from that angle then
And then they'd flash no matter which direction they'd turn?
So basically hazard lights all the time? Not sure if you still don't understand what this discussion is about and how I could make it any more clear.
I've seen newer cars turn the headlight off while the turn indicator is on, so you get a sort of double-blink effect.
I don't see any reason why we can't just have the whole headlight blink yellow as well with the turn indicator. LEDs are everywhere and can handle changing colors really easily, so it's not hard to require that for all new cars.
I've seen newer cars turn the headlight off while the turn indicator is on, so you get a sort of double-blink effect
Those are typically DRLs. Chrysler did this for a while in the 2000s-2010s (maybe still, idk), where the high beam - in DRL mode - turns off while the turn signal is doing it's thing. Other manufacturers do this with dedicated DRLs, sometimes integrating the DRLs and turn signals into one multicolored unit (Kia Telluride, for example).
No manufacturer shuts off a headlight for a turn signal when the headlights are intentionally turned on (whether by light sensors at night, or by the driver).
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.
When am I ever looking at the side and needing to see the other side's turn signal? The best I can think of is (using right side driving) a car turning right into my lane of travel as I'm going straight, but I'll be a bit offset to the left and should be able to see the right headlight. If I can't, that means the car is angled to the right, making it obvious that they're turning.
Because this is what the discussion is about?
Personally I just want front turn signals to be visible from the opposite side again.
And I'm saying I can see them most of the time, and when I can't, I don't need to because their intention is obvious.
< and > for turns. X for brakes.
Honestly, we should focus on functionality rather than aesthetic.
That doesn't answer the question. The question is how you would design it so you can look at the left side of a car, know that it's turning right and isn't prone to misunderstandings.
Up and down arrows? Up is away from you and down is towards you.
So it sounds like you're checking to see when the light turns off, to know that the car is going.
Sounds like what we actually need is a green accelerator light on the front of the car.
Some of the new Kias have the rear indicators in the bumper. Why are they hiding them?
Because the designers and marketers were given priority over the safety engineers.
And anyone that drives cars ever, apparently.