There seems to be a higher incidence of rear end collisions into Prius cars than most other vehicles. In any event I believe brake lights could be improved in all cars by creative signaling lighting displays. It has been my observation that many people obviously have depth perception problems which increases the chance of a rear end accident. I have many times been frightened while riding with drivers that approach a vehicle moving on the road with brake lights on that is decelerating at a fast rate in which the driver approaching from the rear can not judge the rate of deceleration and nearly impacts the car in front. In fact no one can accurately estimate the rate of deceleration of a car in front. I think it should be possible to design a legal signaling program that will display rate of deceleration relative to increased moving LED displays within the tail lights and possibly intense increase of light within legal standards. In deceleration even when not braking there should be some signal indicating to the driver in the rear that the car ahead is decelerating. I believe that Toyota and other manufacturers monitor this forum in which case they may be able to implement a solution to this continueing safety problem.
The simple solution to your perceived problem is don't tailgate. What is your source of data that gives a higher incidence of rear end collisions to Priuses ? BTW the Prius already has a built in safety feature for following vehicles, when braking hard the brake lights pulsate on and off.
tailgating seems to be worse than i have seen it in my 40+ years of driving. people are just not interested in the safety of the people in front of them or the occupants of their own car. it's much more important to them to not leave enough space for someone to pull in front of them. add to that all the technical wizardry occupying their attention in the vehicle and you have a recipe for disaster. or a bumper thumper at the very least.
Toyota reported to me today from customer service, who inquired on my be-half to Toyota Technical Services, about whether any Prius has a safety feature of pulsating brake lights during hard braking. Toyota states that there is no such feature. I suggested that Toyota consider some safety features such as this to be used in future Prius production. My origonal post strongly suggests that I would be in the Prius in front. I COULD HARDLY BE TAILGATING WHEN I'M DRIVING THE PRIUS IN FRONT!
"One potential problem with flashing stop lamps in North America is the regulations that permit flashing stop lamps to be used in lieu of separate rear turn signal and hazard warning lamps." from wikipedia, could be why you don't often see it in US. It's pretty normal here, at least for the third/high level brake light to flash when ABS is activated or deceleration force is high. This is lifted from the UK prius brochure PDF which you can find here: Toyota
I've been driving for 34 years, and I agree- tailgating seems more prevalent than ever. It doesn't help when law enforcement completely ignores the situation either or worse yet- they tailgate too. One other thing I've noticed in the Prius is that it must create a vacuum or magnetic field around it- I've never seen so many cars pass so close to me on the left (yes- I look at their tires- they are on the lane divider or actually partially in my lane) as I have with the Prius. It's to the point where I've actually scooted over to the right side of my lane when being passed in the left lane because they drift so far to the right when passing...
No need to shout. I wasn't suggesting for one minute that you were the tailgater, but why make the suggestion of a device to compensate for the idiots that do. If you think you need this device then I would suggest reading the road ahead rather than looking at the back of the next car in front. It may be different on the US models but the UK brochure for the 2010 Prius states, under passive safety equipment, LED brake lights with emergency brake signal.
I've noticed this too (on the other side in the UK), usually they are on the phone. 3 points on your licence in the UK for tailgating now.
Points here too, but it's never enforced- I've had ppl tailgate me while being passed on the left by a cop. They just ignore it. Is it enforced in the UK?
we hardly ever see a patrol car here in the UK, cut backs etc. mean it's mainly cameras that catch people. I haven't heard of anybody being done locally for tailgating yet.
Thank you. I have asked Toyota to seriously consider implementing this safety feature on US vehicles.
