On the motorvehicle of your choice, mount a directional radio receiver facing forwards and a low power directional radio transmitter facing backwards. Link the transmitter to the brake system and the receiver to a warning system in the cockpit (a buzzer would do fine).

When you brake hard your car alerts cars up to about 10 places behind you allowing them to slow down before they can see your brake lights and warning them that they may have to brake hard too.

When a car ahead of you brakes hard their car alerts you allowing you the opportunity to slow down before you can see your their brake lights and warning you that you may have to brake hard too.
-- st3f, May 18 2001

Sounds like this, to me... http://www.halfbake...20close_20indicator
<toot, toot> [StarChaser, May 18 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Emergency Stop Signal https://en.wikipedi...op_signal_.28ESS.29
This real problem is now solved. [notexactly, Feb 10 2016]

No, your car only detects the heavy braking if the braking car has a xmitter fitted. This is another of those car safety ideas that will never catch on because of the poor incentive for early-adopters.
-- gravelpit, May 19 2001


gravelpit: you're looking at the marketing before the idea's even baked. But while we're on marketing, I agree that you would never shift these boxes as after-sales units (catch22). I could envisage a major motor manufacturer fitting this as standard in an effort to raise their safety profile. Once there is a quantity of these units out there you would be able to sell units to retro-fit to existing cars. But...

I'm really more interested in the technology. Would this work? Would it prevent accidents? Could a unit be cheaply made? Could a radio- transmitter/receiver combo in this configuration serve other purposes?

<in a bit of a mood - it is monday after all>To say at this point, "No-one else has got one so there's no point" is an attitiude that would have prevented the creation of the radio, the telephone and possibly even the internet.</in a bit of a mood - it is monday after all>
-- st3f, May 21 2001


Let's go an extra step and have the receiver linked directly to the brakes, eliminating the follower's reaction time. So when you brake hard, you slow down the people behind you whether they notice the buzzer or not. (Not recommended for motorcycles.)
-- ejs, May 21 2001


But the receiver is already baked... Sonar-brake system. The military use it to navigate high-speed convoys at night without using lights. You can get them for regular truck fleets too.
-- kschang, Jan 29 2002


I like this idea. Especially if I can choose the warning to be sent back to the drivers. Like, "whoa nelly!" or a midi version of La Cucaracha.

That'd be neat.
-- rapid transit, May 18 2003


The problem is real.

The propose solution is too easy to play with and annoy others.
-- popbottle, Feb 03 2015


The proposed solution is easy to play with and annoy others. [+]
-- Voice, Feb 04 2015



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