The Ford Motor Company recently tested its experimental “Electronic Brake Light” system, as part of the 4-year Safe Intelligent Mobility - Testfield Germany (simTD) joint industry research project. The technology causes a dashboard light to illuminate in your car, when a vehicle in front of you applies its brakes.
It’s human nature to pay more attention to one’s immediate environment, than to the world that’s “out there.” Unfortunately, this doesn’t always serve us the best when driving – it’s the other traffic in that outside world that we have to be aware of. That’s where the Electronic Brake Light comes in.
When a car using the system applies its brakes, it sends out a wireless signal that is received by other vehicles following behind. Even if those cars are around the corner or blocked by other vehicles, they will still receive the signal. As a result, an indicator illuminates on their dashboard, alerting drivers to take action.
The technology, along with various other car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure systems, was tested last year near Frankfurt using 20 Ford S-MAX automobiles. According to Ford, the trials demonstrated that “the technology could enable drivers following behind to brake earlier and potentially mitigate or avoid a collision.”
Source: Ford Motor Company via IEEE Spectrum
Here I am driving along the road, eyes on the road. Car in front of me brakes causing me to be briefly distracted by a light flashing on in my periphery vision, then next thing I know, I crashed into the car in front of me.
Nice! The very moment my attention is required on the road it is distracted by a stupid light on the dash.
Looking at the dash/instruments is potentially dangerous. Why do combat aircraft (and my car) use Head-up displays?
So someone, somewhere touches the brake pedal - they could even be parked - and a light comes on? Not very clever.
Auto manufacturers are clearly leading us to self-driving autonomous vehicles and are adding odd bits of technology as it is available.
No thank you - I'll trust my own senses and judgment based on years of experience and knowing what stupid things some drivers are likely to do. I can anticipate - the car cannot.
This has also been done several years ago, along with several other compelling safety applications, in the U.S. by a group of automakers as part of continuing research under the U.S. Department of Transportation. There is even a current field trial, http://www.its.dot.gov/safety_pilot/, which involves close to 3000 vehicles demonstrating this technology. And the engineers that developed it drive the roads like you and me and designed it to minimize or prevent false alerts while getting the best performance possible.