I guess it's widely accepted that a 3-second following distance is almost always the least distance you can safely follow another vehicle by and have time to come to a stop if fecal matter contacts the other driver's rotary impeller and they have to stop suddenly. Well that may be the case *if* you see their brake lights in time.
The problem, as I see it, is that brake lights are almost never standardized among various makes and models. On some vehicles, for instance, the only indication that they are braking is a slight brightening of the already-lit tail lights, which is often difficult to discern for a variety of reasons, such as worn-out bulbs, dirty lens covers, glare on a sunny day, or fog.
My proposal here is for a system to combat this often-fatal road hazard. A system, ladies, gentlemen, and Bakers of other persuasions, that I call BrakeSync.
BrakeSync is a revolutionary safety system that can be easily installed on any vehicle. It consists of 2 main components: a short-range radio transmitter, and a radio receiver.
The transmitter is connected to your vehicle's braking system and speedometer, and whenever you tap your brake pedal, it sends out a directed radio signal to the rear of your vehicle which instantly alerts other BrakeSync-equipped vehicles following within 3 seconds of your vehicle, and maintains communication until you release the brake pedal. The receiver receives the same communication from BrakeSync-equipped vehicles that are ahead of you.
When your receiver receives a radio signal from the vehicle ahead of you, it alerts you to the fact that the other vehicle is braking with a pleasant-sounding chime and a bright, flashing red light on your dash display that keeps flashing until the other vehicle's brake pedal is released.
If you are driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic, you can increase the range up to a half-mile to alert you well in advance of an impending pile-up. There are a total of 5 lights on the dash display. If all 5 light up, you know that 5 vehicles in front of you are all braking at the same time. If the brake lights of the vehicle in front of you are not lit, then it may be a warning that everyone in front of that vehicle is braking and he's about to, and you can begin braking well in advance to avoid a collision.-- 21 Quest, Apr 01 2009 Good idea.
It's never been baked, but you could say it has been rendered obsolete by "adaptive cruise control" which will brake if the car ahead of you does, but it does it via radar so there is no need to have communicating devices installed in all cars.-- DIYMatt, Apr 01 2009 That adaptive cruise control is a little scary, isn't it? I can't speak for everyone, but I'd rather retain control of the vehicle. But then, I've never used adaptive cruise control. Does it have some sort of indicator to let you know when it's braking or re-accelerating? The thought of my car making decisions like that scares the Hell out of me. It's just begging for a lawsuit, too, when it malfunctions.-- 21 Quest, Apr 01 2009 I don't believe it tells you what it's doing. But there are other systems such as the new Lexus HUD that tell you your closing rate, etc.
If you ever rear end anyone at least you have a good excuse - it was the car, I swear!-- DIYMatt, Apr 01 2009 That might actually fly the first few times it happens. After that, Lexus will end up recalling this fancy system and it'll be lost to antiquity.-- 21 Quest, Apr 01 2009 As not every car on the streets would be equipped with this, you'd have to look out for two indicators, minimum: the car in front of you, and the brake-lights on your dashboard - dividing attention is bad, as there is only so much to go around.-- loonquawl, Apr 02 2009 Adaptive cruise control is great, just get on the motorway in your E55 AMG set the speed to 120mph and you never need touch the throttle or brake until you exit.
21Q if you are worried about the differing effects of brake light display just think what the differing effects of worn out/new, drums/vented floating discs with ABS and Emergency Brake Assist would do with this idea (not to mention differing mu values at the tyre/road interface). You would have to put everything on a LCD braking force (just like the early Ford ABS that came on if you so much as looked at the brake pedal.)-- eight_nine_tortoise, Apr 02 2009 If you were stuck behind an idiot that's never heard of engine braking or smooth driving, you'd be ready to throw the system in the bin, and would ignore any future beeps anyway. A better system might be for the system to detect 'emergency' strength or prolonged braking and only signal that. perhaps a 5 scale braking indicator for the car in front would be better.-- Skrewloose, Apr 02 2009 halfbakery