A video about brake lights and how these days they don't always work right

Probably your most important video. Great work!

Mark Lefler

Consumer Reports picked this up based on your video, great work! https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-safety/brake-lights-can-fail-to-provide-fair-warning-on-some-evs-a9533519285/

Compliance with the law is absolutely not the most important part of a vehicle!! Laws change all the time when legislatures realize the current requirements are inadequate, and safety laws in particular are major motivation of these changes. See, for example, the EU updating its regulations on this issue specifically. Further, most vehicles have safety features above and beyond the legally mandated minimums, because safety is far more important than compliance with the enforced legal minimums. The whole purpose if automobile safety laws is to establish a minimum below which the vehicle cannot be considered safe to operate. Which this sort of unsignaled rapid deceleration as a standard mode of operation absolutely qualifies as a major, major hazard.

Ace

I disagree a little on the premise of recall. Wether we like it or not, Compliance with the law is the most important part of a vehicle. Engaging breaking lights with anything that is not engaging the brakes means that a function and sensors in the vehicle may interfere with a safety critical function. Hence a DFMEA will have that function as critical. Now I do agree that the deceleration achieved is such that the following drivers ought to be warned. And this situation is possible on combustion vehicles by agressively shifting down,again without brake lights. The difference with an EV is the occurrence, as it will be much more frequent. And I believe that might the problem on the law side, as it would conflict with the "state of the art". At this point is just politics, I'll be the first one to say and also insist that is not an acceptable course of action. But it is far from granting a recall or harshly critizising engineers who, basically,have to follow procedure. A great video nonetheless, you really highlight the issue and I wholeheartedly agree.

Raul Ramos

As an aside, why is it that we Millennials always stop short of putting an exhortation and instructions on nagging congresspeople in things like this video? ("Like, comment, subscribe, click the notification bell, and visit the URL on the screen to contact your legislator!") If you had included this explicit call to action with clear instructions on how your viewers could contact their representatives, you might actually get someone in power to notice this problem! If you've ever wondered how certain buck-wild legislation happens, it's quite often because the people who wanted it actually organized a significant number of constituents to nag their legislators about it. Anyway...

Elsie Hupp

I don’t see anyone else having suggested this, but have you considered contacting your congressional representative about this? Any given congressperson may not be the best person to alert about any given federal issue, but the difference with *your* representative is that they’re more likely to listen to *you*. I don’t know if your representative’s aides would watch this video all the way through, but they’d almost certainly pay attention if you sent them a nicely formatted copy of the script as a letter in the mail! You (or any other Americans here) can find your congressional representative through the House website: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative For instance, my parents’ congresswoman in north suburban Chicago is Jan Schakowski: https://schakowsky.house.gov/ The “Contact” link on her page points here: http://schakowsky.house.gov/contact The contact link for my congresswoman here in Brooklyn, NY, follows the same format, so [surname].house.gov/contact will probably work in most cases (unless two representatives share a last name). But the main "Find Your Representative" portal is probably the easiest place to start.

Elsie Hupp

Brake light and turn/lane change indicators are to tell other drivers what you're GOING TO DO as well as to show you DOING it. So many drivers use their indicators as they make a lane change. That's NOT what the driving codes say! They say to apply your indicator some SECONDS BEFORE making your movement therefore telling others what you are GOING TO DO which is WAY MORE VALUABLE to those around you than using any indication of what you are doing. You might as well not use your indicator at all if you are just going to use it to show what you are doing! I can see what you are doing. Other drivers need to know what you are GOING TO DO! Now, I know most learned that fact when learning to drive and did read the driver's handbook. Many stopped using their indicators because there are JERKS who will try to cut you off when they see you telling them with your indicator that you need or want to make a lane change. If that happens, they are the JERK, not YOU! Your option is to be satisfied that they are being way too aggressive and not decent human beings. Brake lights are the same, other drivers need to know you ARE or INTEND to slow down.

Donald J Arndt