Big_Ham
01-20-2007, 08:04 PM
Intended here is to release an idea to the public that, until now, I had hopes of actually finding an investor for in order to patent the idea and attempt to sell to an OEM auto manufacturer(s). BMW is the first I know of to use a similar functioning technology and I have hopes that BMW themselves monitor this forum such that they might benefit from the improvements put forth here.
For those who don't know, BMW (for example) has an "adaptive brake light" technology used on some of their cars. The E46 is one such car, as well as some of the later 5 and 7 series sedans. The principal here is the same for them as was the motivation for me: to display user brake intensity to the car behind you, hopefully shortening reaction time for that driver as (s)he can more quickly assess the brake force used by the driver ahead. BMW has chosen to stage the outer brake lights from a more centered pattern during normal braking and creating a stronger light intensity as well as a larger lit LED brake area under more intense braking.
Mercedes has also attempted to do something similar in function, but they have flashing outer brake lights (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11351634/).
This idea is a fantastic one in theory. The need to reduce rear end accidents is the primary driver, but there are also many peripheral benefits to a well executed system. I will go into my benefits below. Some are shared by my idea and the Mercedes/BMW features, others are unique to my idea.
Problems here are two fold:
1. No popularization of the feature. This is a feature that other drivers must know about. It matters not if the driver of said BMW knows about the technology, the person directly behind them needs to know in order to benefit from such a system.
2. Indicators are weak at best. The human eye has a hard time differentiating small increases in size of an area of light. The human eye also has a hard time recognizing light intensity changes. This is not to say it is not perceived at all, but certainly this is not the best delivery method.
My idea consists of two parts. The switch, which it seems BMW and Mercedes already have, really just consists of 5 states and the ability to take advantage of the robust ABS systems in most cars produced in the US market. You want to monitor the actual acceleration of the vehicle to precise measurements. The switch would be set for certain deceleration thresholds (TBD in -ft/sec) that would divide settings for "tap" braking (on the highway for instance), "normal" braking (approaching a stop light), "hard" braking (coming up quickly on a traffic light that turns yellow and you need more than standard brake force to stop the vehicle in time) and "severe" braking that often results in squeels, ABS engagement, nose dives, etc.
The second part is the readout. The readout is what I believe BMW and Mercedes have wrong right now. The readout, I believe, breaks a rule or two in the NHTSA rulebook, but Mercedes got away with bending a rule (see linked article above), so why can't this? The readout consists of a sectioned LED top mounted third brake light. In this example: the center section would be the width of 32 LED's, and would consist of 28 individual LEDs of three different colors: red, yellow/amber and orange.
As seen in the flash demonstration below, the following would display under each stage of braking:
- Under light braking the very center 6 LEDs of the top mounted brake light would illuminate red. This would alert the tailing driver that there was no intention to brake hard and it is either a small speed correction or perhaps someone who "drives with two feet". This is when someone who drives a car with an automatic transmission and has their right foot on the accelerator and their left foot always in contact with the brake pedal. This can cause the driver's brake lights to always be lit.
- Under "normal" braking, there would be a gap equal to the width of 2 LEDs between the "light" braking display and then 3 more red LEDs on the outside of the small gap. The gap allows the human eye to clearly perceive the level change.
-Under "hard" braking there would be 4 orange LEDs that illuminate immediately outside the first two stages' red LEDs.
-Under "max" or "severe" braking, the final set of 4 amber/yellow lights would illuminate.
The following flash example/demonstration was created by me in July 2001 (date of digital production of the file) to illustrate for how long I have had this idea:
http://www.angryjacks.com/brake.swf (click to show in your browser - I don't think it's possible to embed flash in a forum)
The following would also be assumed:
1. Light color/configuration may change, but the example made was created to maximize the perceived benefit of the system.
2. More or fewer LED's may be used and the shape of the brake light does not need to be universal, it can be customized as a design requires.
3. The light would be somewhat to fully lit up to 1000RPM (or idle speed). Regardless of whether the driver is depressing the brake pedal, the top mounted brake light would be lit to a determined level (I would think the entire red section) to demonstrate to the tailing or approaching drivers that, even though they are not depressing the brake pedal, the car is at a full stop or is merely creeping forward. This is highly beneficial for detecting that a driver of a car with a manual transmission is at a complete stop at a stop sign, stop light, off ramp, etc. even though the driver may not depress the brake pedal.
4. No changes to the outer brake lights. They would function as on/off brake lights as in most current US production cars.
Aside from benefits demonstrated above, the following are also benefits:
1. Tailgating. Many drivers are guilty of tailgating from time to time. Given sudden speed changes, it is inevitable that it happens to everyone from time to time. This system would allow a tailgater to have a better idea of how hard the driver in front of them is braking to help them to avoid a crash or an overreaction that could trigger a crash.
2. Everything is bigger. As the driver of a 3 series coupe, I am relatively low to the ground. Many years ago, there were nothing but cars on the road for the most part. There were few trucks (pickup or otherwise) driven by consumers. Drivers could see through the windshield of the driver in front of them, which gave drivers in those days far more visibility even when following close. Today, SUVs rule the roads in many parts of the country. Drivers of sedans and coupes have much more limited visibility of the road ahead of them. This braking system gives them more "virtual" visibility and would aid greatly in accident avoidance and perhaps road rage due to the high level of communication the brake light would give.
3. On-ramps. Here in the Tampa Bay area, there is a particular on-ramp on I-275 where backups sometimes occur. The backup is preceded by a blind hill and drivers have been known to get rear ended because they were at idle moving forward ever so slowly as they wait in line to enter an on-ramp leading to the Veterans Expy (no brake lights showing). If all cars had this brake light, you would know immediately that the driver is idling forward and would not assume the driver is moving at a rapid pace.
Benefits of a system like this are quite obvious, thus some manufacturer's attempts to provide similar systems. I simply believe that their execution of their systems is still not robust enough, nor marketed as strongly as they could be, and could benefit greatly from some of the ideas presented here.
Again, I'm posting this here in hopes that someone somewhere with some power at an OEM sees it. I would love credit for it, but really I have a feeling I'm not the only one with this idea. I'd most like to just see it implemented on today's cars. Ideally, it would be great for the NHTSA to make this top mounted braking system required on all cars as they did in the 80's with the third, top mounted brake light. Surely, Europe may soon follow if success is demonstrated here in the US.
Comments are welcome. I have had this idea for well over 10 years at this point. I conceived of it shortly after I started driving and I took a real stab at getting myself in front of OEM's 2-3 years ago with zero luck. They have their own engineers to think things up, so they certainly have no interest in talking to a third party with no patent. I also considered it for the aftermarket, but as stated above - this idea doesn't benefit anyone if it is not marketed properly and it doesn't really benefit the consumer directly like an airbag would. You'd have to just cross your fingers and hope the driver behind you knows what this "modification" was. Not really as useful as I'd like.
Sorry it's so long, but I wanted to make sure I was thorough and got all my points down.
For those who don't know, BMW (for example) has an "adaptive brake light" technology used on some of their cars. The E46 is one such car, as well as some of the later 5 and 7 series sedans. The principal here is the same for them as was the motivation for me: to display user brake intensity to the car behind you, hopefully shortening reaction time for that driver as (s)he can more quickly assess the brake force used by the driver ahead. BMW has chosen to stage the outer brake lights from a more centered pattern during normal braking and creating a stronger light intensity as well as a larger lit LED brake area under more intense braking.
Mercedes has also attempted to do something similar in function, but they have flashing outer brake lights (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11351634/).
This idea is a fantastic one in theory. The need to reduce rear end accidents is the primary driver, but there are also many peripheral benefits to a well executed system. I will go into my benefits below. Some are shared by my idea and the Mercedes/BMW features, others are unique to my idea.
Problems here are two fold:
1. No popularization of the feature. This is a feature that other drivers must know about. It matters not if the driver of said BMW knows about the technology, the person directly behind them needs to know in order to benefit from such a system.
2. Indicators are weak at best. The human eye has a hard time differentiating small increases in size of an area of light. The human eye also has a hard time recognizing light intensity changes. This is not to say it is not perceived at all, but certainly this is not the best delivery method.
My idea consists of two parts. The switch, which it seems BMW and Mercedes already have, really just consists of 5 states and the ability to take advantage of the robust ABS systems in most cars produced in the US market. You want to monitor the actual acceleration of the vehicle to precise measurements. The switch would be set for certain deceleration thresholds (TBD in -ft/sec) that would divide settings for "tap" braking (on the highway for instance), "normal" braking (approaching a stop light), "hard" braking (coming up quickly on a traffic light that turns yellow and you need more than standard brake force to stop the vehicle in time) and "severe" braking that often results in squeels, ABS engagement, nose dives, etc.
The second part is the readout. The readout is what I believe BMW and Mercedes have wrong right now. The readout, I believe, breaks a rule or two in the NHTSA rulebook, but Mercedes got away with bending a rule (see linked article above), so why can't this? The readout consists of a sectioned LED top mounted third brake light. In this example: the center section would be the width of 32 LED's, and would consist of 28 individual LEDs of three different colors: red, yellow/amber and orange.
As seen in the flash demonstration below, the following would display under each stage of braking:
- Under light braking the very center 6 LEDs of the top mounted brake light would illuminate red. This would alert the tailing driver that there was no intention to brake hard and it is either a small speed correction or perhaps someone who "drives with two feet". This is when someone who drives a car with an automatic transmission and has their right foot on the accelerator and their left foot always in contact with the brake pedal. This can cause the driver's brake lights to always be lit.
- Under "normal" braking, there would be a gap equal to the width of 2 LEDs between the "light" braking display and then 3 more red LEDs on the outside of the small gap. The gap allows the human eye to clearly perceive the level change.
-Under "hard" braking there would be 4 orange LEDs that illuminate immediately outside the first two stages' red LEDs.
-Under "max" or "severe" braking, the final set of 4 amber/yellow lights would illuminate.
The following flash example/demonstration was created by me in July 2001 (date of digital production of the file) to illustrate for how long I have had this idea:
http://www.angryjacks.com/brake.swf (click to show in your browser - I don't think it's possible to embed flash in a forum)
The following would also be assumed:
1. Light color/configuration may change, but the example made was created to maximize the perceived benefit of the system.
2. More or fewer LED's may be used and the shape of the brake light does not need to be universal, it can be customized as a design requires.
3. The light would be somewhat to fully lit up to 1000RPM (or idle speed). Regardless of whether the driver is depressing the brake pedal, the top mounted brake light would be lit to a determined level (I would think the entire red section) to demonstrate to the tailing or approaching drivers that, even though they are not depressing the brake pedal, the car is at a full stop or is merely creeping forward. This is highly beneficial for detecting that a driver of a car with a manual transmission is at a complete stop at a stop sign, stop light, off ramp, etc. even though the driver may not depress the brake pedal.
4. No changes to the outer brake lights. They would function as on/off brake lights as in most current US production cars.
Aside from benefits demonstrated above, the following are also benefits:
1. Tailgating. Many drivers are guilty of tailgating from time to time. Given sudden speed changes, it is inevitable that it happens to everyone from time to time. This system would allow a tailgater to have a better idea of how hard the driver in front of them is braking to help them to avoid a crash or an overreaction that could trigger a crash.
2. Everything is bigger. As the driver of a 3 series coupe, I am relatively low to the ground. Many years ago, there were nothing but cars on the road for the most part. There were few trucks (pickup or otherwise) driven by consumers. Drivers could see through the windshield of the driver in front of them, which gave drivers in those days far more visibility even when following close. Today, SUVs rule the roads in many parts of the country. Drivers of sedans and coupes have much more limited visibility of the road ahead of them. This braking system gives them more "virtual" visibility and would aid greatly in accident avoidance and perhaps road rage due to the high level of communication the brake light would give.
3. On-ramps. Here in the Tampa Bay area, there is a particular on-ramp on I-275 where backups sometimes occur. The backup is preceded by a blind hill and drivers have been known to get rear ended because they were at idle moving forward ever so slowly as they wait in line to enter an on-ramp leading to the Veterans Expy (no brake lights showing). If all cars had this brake light, you would know immediately that the driver is idling forward and would not assume the driver is moving at a rapid pace.
Benefits of a system like this are quite obvious, thus some manufacturer's attempts to provide similar systems. I simply believe that their execution of their systems is still not robust enough, nor marketed as strongly as they could be, and could benefit greatly from some of the ideas presented here.
Again, I'm posting this here in hopes that someone somewhere with some power at an OEM sees it. I would love credit for it, but really I have a feeling I'm not the only one with this idea. I'd most like to just see it implemented on today's cars. Ideally, it would be great for the NHTSA to make this top mounted braking system required on all cars as they did in the 80's with the third, top mounted brake light. Surely, Europe may soon follow if success is demonstrated here in the US.
Comments are welcome. I have had this idea for well over 10 years at this point. I conceived of it shortly after I started driving and I took a real stab at getting myself in front of OEM's 2-3 years ago with zero luck. They have their own engineers to think things up, so they certainly have no interest in talking to a third party with no patent. I also considered it for the aftermarket, but as stated above - this idea doesn't benefit anyone if it is not marketed properly and it doesn't really benefit the consumer directly like an airbag would. You'd have to just cross your fingers and hope the driver behind you knows what this "modification" was. Not really as useful as I'd like.
Sorry it's so long, but I wanted to make sure I was thorough and got all my points down.