strider
Active Member
I guess I consider this a tempest in a teacup. We have had accordion-style traffic jams LONG before EV's have had regen-activated brake lights.It's not about being polite to tailgaters, it's that it sends mixed messages to even normal drivers who use your brake lights as an indication that there is something going on in front of you. A brake flash is annoying no matter how far back you are behind someone. If I can't see through you and your brakes flash momentarily, I'm thinking there could be a massive slowdown and so I'm likely to be ready to tap my brakes. When this happens for a few cars in a row, backups and traffic jams start for no reason (and probably one of the biggest reasons for traffic jams is this situation).
In my and Tesla's opinion, if you are regenning more than 30kW then you are slowing at a sufficient rate to warn others behind you. As I've said to numerous people, regen is not the same as downshifting an ICE. My last car was a C6 Corvette w/ a manual transmission. It's a 6.2L V-8 which meant lots of engine braking but regen on a Tesla is more and so the lights should come on.Strider-- even with barely moving my foot, regen can hit up to 30 and flash the brake lights on. There is no level of smoothness that can fix this.
I think you are one of 5 people on the planet that think that way. No one else thinks to maintain "some pressure to keep the lights on." They jump on and off the brakes as they deem necessary with no regard for what the lights are doing.It seems the situation is worst when slowing down and starting regen too soon, then coming off of it as you realize you're stopping too soon... and back on it and off.... which is expounded by people who aren't using regen around you that are on different braking rhythms. This is different from brake lights when you use the brake pedal because it is easier to modulate brake pressure while maintaining some pressure to keep the lights on. Also, you are more likely to find yourself needing more brakes than less in an ICE if you just wait long enough (and with the engine idling, that helps too).
At the end of the day (and we've talked about this in numerous threads here), I think we need a slightly different system for brake lights and I don't think Tesla can solve it on their own. Some have proposed amber lights for regen and red for friction brakes. I have video of a bust (one of the infamous "tech"buses) that is set up this way. Or we could have a system of multiple levels of brake light intensity based on how quickly the car is slowing. The first one Tesla could do on their own and hope others figure it out and adopt it, like the aforementioned bus. The second one would require a dialog with other manufacturers, governments, drivers, etc to agree upon a different system. I think Tesla has already bitten off more than they can chew without trying to rewrite long-established driving norms. I'm glad they erred on the side of safety