By now it may be apparent that I spend a fair amount of time on the way of the free, commuting to and fro. San Diego is a freeway town, and getting just about anyplace involves one or more.
My fellow road warriors fall across a range of of observation capabilities, and an unfortunate number of them drop into the oblivious category.
When attempting to merge into the lane ahead of these persons, sometimes turn signals are useless. The person who you are requesting to let you in has their head in the clouds, or on their cellphone, or in their radio, etc.
This is why when I order my Linux automobile, I will select the Escalating Turn Signal option.
When you first flip the little lever to activate the turn signals, they pulse brightly in the traditional manner. But after ten seconds, the secondary bulbs light up and the brightness level goes up.
That failing to garner the attention of your lane neighbor, the shielded bulbs are uncovered and complex patterns form and dance wildly up, down, and all around your quarter panel.
If this fails to attract the attention of the visually-perceptive challenged needlessly-occupying-molecular-structure psuedo life form next to your car, the linkage mounted solenoids engage and the fender begins lunging away, then back towards, then away again from your car.
If by now they haven't let you in, begin thinking of Halfbakery ideas.-- normzone, Jul 04 2008 Toyota's Emotional Car http://query.nytime...5A15754C0A9629C8B63 [mylodon, Jul 05 2008] I like it. I'd rather have intensity linked to pressure on the indicator lever.
I think I've read about something like this before, probably a part of 'emotional car' development.-- mylodon, Jul 05 2008 + good idea. I must say those freeways are some of the worst places I've ever driven. (If all else fails, a giant arm can shoot out to point where you want to go! like the old days before turn signals... hey that's old!)-- xandram, Jul 05 2008 I love the "way of the free" phrase and I'd bun for that alone, but the idea is good too (+).-- MisterQED, Jul 05 2008 "I'd rather have intensity linked to pressure on the indicator lever." I believe BMW has multi-level brake lights on the 1 series.-- kevinthenerd, Jul 06 2008 random, halfbakery