Automobile Design Advances - Smart Brake Light System

Automobile brake lights have been pretty much the same since they were invented. It’s either on or off.

Now, students in Virginia Tech have updated the outdated design with a horizontal light bar that communicates slowing and stopping actions as well. It can indicate that you are slowing down, about to stop, and how hard and quick you are pressing the pedal.

The design uses a horizontal array of LED lights that work like this: when you begin to slow down the lights in the center glow orange, if you keep slowing down the lights turn red after a certain threshold, and if you slam the brake pretty hard, the whole array flashes red.

If and when the concpet rolls into production, we can expect to see a cool light show on the roads at night!