Buried fiber optic cables connect highway divider bumps around a curve so that the headlights from your car are transmitted ahead, around the curve to show any oncoming vehicle that you are approaching. Works further than mirrors, needs no power.
-- stringstretcher, Oct 30 2003

Adaptive Headlights http://www.bmwworld...nology/lighting.htm
Something completely different. [Laughs Last, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Botts Dots on Snopes http://www.snopes.c...igins/bottsdots.asp
Yes, he did develop them. No, he didn't get any money per dot. [waugsqueke, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Cat's Eyes http://www.design-t...nventors/page14.htm
Percy Shaw got there first [goff, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Lexus 2004 LS 430 and RX 330 http://www.lexus.co...003/pr_12_29_d.html
...also have adaptive headlights as mentioned in first link [krelnik, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Excellent.
-- bristolz, Oct 30 2003


From the title, I was thinking this involve speed bumps. By "highway divider bumps", you mean the cats' eyes along the medians of some roads?
-- DrCurry, Oct 30 2003


Yes, we used to call them "alligator eggs." Sorry to be misleading.
-- stringstretcher, Oct 30 2003


Can't you see the halo of light already ?
-- SystemAdmin, Oct 30 2003


The highway divider bumps are called Botz dots, after their inventor. He used to get $1 for every one installed on American highways.
-- Katesma, Oct 30 2003


Expand your perspectives! I can send a message around a corner to a car that cannot see my halo yet...It may not be for every road, but if it saves a single life?!
-- stringstretcher, Oct 30 2003


I though that the Japanese included a feature like that in their cars, where a sensor in the front bumper would detect the road ahead curving and adjust the headlights accordingly, and besides, wouldn't the oncoming vehicle be able to see the field of light from your headlights? Apparently BMW, not the Japanese. (link)
-- Condiment, Oct 30 2003


The ill-fated Tucker automobile, which had a limited production run in 1948, had a center headlight that turned with the steering wheel. (WTAGIPBAN)
-- krelnik, Oct 30 2003


Ooo, if the reflectors on the streets of San Francisco light up as vehicles approached, it'd be much safer to cross the street near the crests of steep hills.
-- beland, Oct 31 2003


Those haloes (hali?) could be coming from ufos (ufi?)
-- stringstretcher, Oct 31 2003


wow, [Katesma], that sounds like a classic hoax. Have you got a link to support it?
-- swamilad, Nov 05 2003


The dollar per dot thing is an urban legend (link).
-- waugsqueke, Nov 05 2003


[Katesma] Percy Shaw patented Cat's Eyes in the UK in 1935. Also, his are more sophisticated than Bots Dots, as they are sprung in a rubber housing which means that when a car drives over them, the are pushed down into the housing. This then wipes the glass lenses and so cleans them without any maintenance. Sadly, these are a bit bumpy, and on british roads, have generally been replaced with plastic "non-self-cleaning" varierties. Sorry, but yet another invention that the American's think is theirs, and isn't.
-- goff, Nov 05 2003


Canada now has recessed reflective squares on roads in certain areas.Recessed so snow plows ca'nt rip them out.
-- python, Nov 05 2003


Thanks for the link waugsqueke. I should have said: I didn't doubt the invention part, just the $1 per dot.
-- swamilad, Nov 07 2003



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