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Comment by bostonvaulter2 | Hacker News Reader

I've always wanted front brake lights for cars, that way as a pedestrian (or other driver) you can tell if a car is actively stopping as it's approaching you.

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That's actually a really awesome idea. I wonder what the threshold of adoption would have to be before that signal is widely understood. Maybe that should become a necessary safety feature of driverless cars to replace the "feature" of being able to see what the driver is paying attention to through the window.

Also, it looks like there are multiple (??) patents on that idea: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=pts&hl=en&q=vehicle+front+...

As a cyclist, I sometimes see cars approaching crosswalks at a crawl, just creeping along at a few feet per second. I do that on my bike too, because I'm hoping the light will change before I have to come to a complete stop and put my foot down, but I have no idea why drivers do it, and it definitely doesn't feel safe crossing in front of a car like that.

Not very safe, but a tiny bit more fuel efficient.

Brakes are a great way to turn momentum into heat. Then you have to spend fuel to regain momentum.

But, far less safe to move slowly when everyone else expected you were at a standstill.

Coming to a stop and just sitting there can warp the brake rotors. The area under the calipers doesn't cool off as fast as the rest of the brake rotor, and the localized heating causes the metal to bend.

You're supposed to creep forward a little, but some people might be overdoing it.

In an automatic car, it's just about fuel efficiency and wear/tear. In a manual, it's that plus it's extremely annoying to stop and go at each semaphore.

Driverless cars won't do this... at least until we teach neutral networks frustration.

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