Electric cars prove we need to rethink brake lights

GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE! Consumer reports picked up on this video and did testing which confirmed that this issue affects nearly all Hyundai/Kia E-GMP platform cars (and I very much appreciate them giving a shoutout to this video!) www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-safety/brake-ligh… And now! Hyundai will fix this. They're calling it a "field service campaign" and it will begin in July. Weirdly, Kia hasn't said anything yet at the time of this comment's posting. www.autoblog.com/2023/06/15/kia-hyundai-genesis-on… Now, while I'm glad Hyundai is doing the right thing (and hopefully Kia does soon), I believe we still very much need a clear, unambiguous regulation to unify brake light behavior with features like one-pedal driving. We are still leaving too much up to manufacturers right now.

As a software engineer I feel qualified to say that one man's software can also be the same man's nightmare.

This is a common issue with motorcycles. Because engine braking is so strong, you use your engine for 90% of braking. You learn a habit of tapping the brakes if there is someone behind you just so they are aware.

“13 seconds or 13 seconds” conversion joke got me 😂

At one point about 20 years ago, there were talks of regs that would have had at least two stages of lights, one for braking, and another brighter light for HEAVY BRAKING, or lights that progressively got brighter the heavier they were used, so drivers would know if someone was merely slowing down or slamming on the brakes to avoid an obstacle. It didn't go anywhere in the government, but something that definitely should be revisited.

Got my "optional recall" update done today. Got the notice in the mail a few weeks ago. Pretty sure you are solely responsible for getting the ball rolling on this, and thank you so much for that.

How this guy gets me and 2 million other people to watch a 29 min video about "another brake light problem" is pure magic. 🧙

In 1951/52 my father had a light mouthed on the rear deck and visible from the rear that showed green on acceleration, yellow when decelerating and red when braking. All of this controlled by a pendulum.

Now I want to see a video about why new car headlights are absolutely decimating my retinas.

I love how your videos range from "I'm really bothered by this very small design issue in this very specific product" to "Many people may die because engineers are lazy"

I’m an automotive lighting, safety engineer, and just shared this with my team. Keep up the good work 😇

This brake light problem was one of the first things I noticed out on the road as I learned to drive. I live in an area with a high concentration of electric vehicles. It bothered me that some of these vehicles could be slowly down so rapidly without any light indicator. I remember speaking with my father about it on many of my practice drives preparing for my test. Vehicles should have some software to activate the light if they are decelerating at a certain rate, even if the driver is not engaging the brake pedal.

On a tangent: I found to avoid the braking jerk when (manually) doing a fast deceleration (in any car) the trick is to let off the brakes just a millisecond before the jerk would occur and then reengage to keep the car stopped.

Oh boy new car light episode dropped. Making my lunch break much better.

“May I remind you, I was able to stop my car from 60 miles per hour or 96 and a half kilometers per hour in 13 seconds or 13 seconds” This made my day 😂

Thank you for posting this video. My 52 year old car doesn't stop as well as these new things on the road, so it is important that I be able to plan ahead for a velocity change.

You're channel is addictive! It's especially nice to watch on a cozy cold day inside. Floaters playing at the end with bloopers is the icing on the cake.

"The brake pedal was the only thing that can slow down the car enough to warrant turning on the brake light" My mangled standard transmission would like a word with you

Every time you post a video, I'm like "wow that is a super niche topic, I'm not sure I would find this interesting" and then EVERY SINGLE TIME I am 100 percent enthralled from beginning to end.

I’m definitely checking my break lights when my hybrid is in adaptive cruise control, but I will say that I have watched my break lights at night and I LOVE that they flash a couple times when my foot first touches the break; I have always felt like that got people’s attention better than just coming on.