The standard following distance I've always been told is one car length for every 10 mph you're travelling. What this device would do is simply send an automatic signal to the fuel governor of the vehicle directly behind you until it falls back to the calculated distance.

Obviously police cars would be shielded from this and it would not operate under speeds of 25 mph, only because in high traffic or at stop lights this would cause stalling.

This would not only save my brakes, as I have a nasty habit of dropping 20 mph on the interstate if I'm being tailgated, but it would also cut back on insurance scams in which someone cuts you off and slams on their brakes to cause an accident, then claims false injuries. Also, police could easily stop a vehicle using the same technology, only mounting their sender on the front.
-- jc112704, Apr 27 2008

WIBNI
-- evilpenguin, Apr 27 2008


How would you make sure it only affected the vehicle immediately behind you, and not the ones to either side or, indeed, in front?

And what would happen to the car tailgating the car behind you? Instant pile-up, methinks.

Now, if you could build in a device that didn't allow *your* car to approach within a certain distance of the one in front at high speed, *that* might be appropriate.

But then we might as well let robots drive our cars all the time, and kick back and take out our murderous rage on crossword puzzles.
-- DrCurry, Apr 27 2008



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