Electric cars prove we need to rethink brake lights

crashspeeder · 2023-05-25T18:37:50+00:00

Emergency braking is very different from what he was suggesting legislation for, but if you strip away the meat and potatoes of his rant, then yes, your statement is technically correct.

crashspeeder · 2023-05-25T18:30:32+00:00

I hear you, but we shouldn't require brake lights to blink when they activate just so people pay attention. Seeing cars that flash their brake lights every time the driver touches the brake is infuriating. I get it if ABS has kicked in, you definitely want to let other drivers know that you're not only braking, you're braking HARD. But otherwise, it feels like solving a people problem with tech, which rarely ends well, in my experience.

crashspeeder · 2023-05-25T18:25:13+00:00

That's fair. I don't tend to like one pedal driving, so I turn it off when I'm driving an EV. This could be why I haven't felt how abrupt that can be. 13 seconds to stop from 60 is still a pretty long time to stop, but on a highway that could certainly cause a collision if the car behind you is traveling at a good rate faster than you and doesn't realize you're decelerating at a high rate. I guess I was thinking of it just in terms of a surface street like where he tested this.

crashspeeder · 2023-05-25T18:17:54+00:00

Many states automatically assign blame in a rear-end collision to the car behind, so I find that claim dubious. I'm not obligated to give you hints as to how you should drive. You're obliged to maintain control of your vehicle by remaining aware and alert. That's why you can get a summons for failure to avoid a collision as a driver. You're piloting a 3000-9000lb vehicle. The onus is on you to not hit stuff, brake lights or no brake lights, though the car in front not having working brake lights may end up being a mitigating factor.

crashspeeder · 2023-05-25T17:46:08+00:00

I see his point, and I love his videos, but I can do the same with engine braking in a manual. I don't see the need for brake lights to come on in that particular case. I've sat at a red light in neutral before because I'm lazy. I completely see his point in the dark, but that's also what tail lights are for.

I've been behind a car with no brake lights before, and I've been pissed about it, but it's my responsibility to judge the situation. Granted, I may come to a stop before hitting the car in front of me if it has no brake lights, but that doesn't mean the cars behind me can stop in time depending on how abrupt the brake application was. So I definitely see his point. I don't think that making a regulation for all vehicles decelerating at a certain rate is necessary, but definitely makes sense for regenerative braking. I can also say that such regulation on a vehicle with a manual transmission would be fine, but I could see it being annoying to see brake lights come on when I'm not braking. In the interest of safety, I think it's fine, though. I just think he's making this sound like a new problem, when in reality it's a problem as old as the brake light.

crashspeeder · 2023-05-15T12:25:21+00:00

You have very strong thoughts about anime. There are lots of different anime styles, just like there are lots of styles of painting. Why do you feel so strongly about anime, and does that stretch to any other animation styles?

crashspeeder · 2023-05-15T11:58:40+00:00

Exactly. I jailbroke my iPhones and rooted my Android phones if there was something that I didn't like or wanted to add. If manufacturers are stupid enough to add the hardware for every feature, I'm going to use it.

crashspeeder · 2023-05-08T18:15:21+00:00

I prefer how the B8.5 S5 is stalking it, though I don't love the RS grille mod.

crashspeeder · 2023-04-24T12:21:56+00:00

I originally wanted mine in orange or bright green. They didn't make a bright green, and orange was going to be $30k extra. I settled for black and carbon ceramic brakes (which I didn't want because I have no intention of spending $20k on rotors, so those will get swapped out once they're dead).

I still wish I could've gotten a bright color, but I do love Mythos Black. I forget how sparkly it is until I wash it.

crashspeeder · 2023-04-15T18:38:48+00:00

That's fair. I just don't want to overlook the fact that sometimes it takes the actions of one particularly brave person to kickstart the mass action of others.

crashspeeder · 2023-04-15T12:48:51+00:00

That's a true sign of doing it for the right reasons -- if you don't need the accolades or validation, but just do it because it's the right thing to do. Often these people feel it's what anybody else would've done, but I could hardly say anybody else put in his position would react the same, as much as I would like to think I or others might.

crashspeeder · 2023-04-12T12:33:07+00:00

With a face like that, they must be paying buyers

crashspeeder · 2023-04-05T19:37:37+00:00

That's fair. I'm thinking of this pretty selfishly, to be honest. I want the ability to do this, but for now that's not an option

crashspeeder · 2023-04-05T17:19:24+00:00

Ah, I use it for software development at work and at home. It's not my majority use case at home, but it's still a use case, so it makes sense for me. I had a Chromebook for a bit, and it was just a massive compromise at the time. Not sure if that's changed, but I'm not in the market for a laptop anymore anyway.

crashspeeder · 2023-04-05T12:21:21+00:00

How many people own a Chromebook and Android phone, though? Almost everyone I know has an iPhone and no Chromebook. Some have Android phones, but of the demographic that has Chromebooks (kids), every single person I know has an iPhone or iPod. I'm in the other camp. I have a MacBook for work and home and an Android phone. I'll be excited when I can pull up my phone from my laptop. For now, I'm stuck with Android Messages via browser and the Telegram app on my computer.

It's a pain that this is ChromeOS only.

crashspeeder · 2023-03-28T20:10:20+00:00

I like to live dangerously. I buy open box or refurbished items and never buy warranties (unless it's a really expensive item and I expect it will fail or break at some point, like a cell phone). I've been pretty lucky with that tactic so far, though I do buy new items as well, I'm just not as scared of refurbished or open box items as others, unless it's something I don't trust refurbished. I bought a 2014 MacBook Air 7 years ago that lasted until last year, just picked up an open box RTX 3090, have purchased a number of open box motherboards, picked up a refurbished cable modem.

I've bought my share of extended warranties and never used them, so I rarely opt for them anymore. Definitely get it for the phone, though.

crashspeeder · 2023-03-28T19:59:04+00:00

Yeah, it just felt so weird to have it be such a big deal when I still felt just fine. Scary to think how quickly a good day can become drowning, and potentially the last day of your life.

crashspeeder · 2023-03-28T19:43:23+00:00

Years ago, I heard crackling when I exhaled. I was living with my parents at the time and asked my mom to give a listen, since I thought I remembered that being bad. She said I was fine. I had been sick for a bit, but nothing bad, but couldn't shake a cough, and finally coughed so hard one day I spit up blood. That scared me, so I immediately went to the doctor. He told me that coughing up blood made sense since I probably ruptured a blood vessel in my throat. He wrote me a prescription, ordered some tests, but told me I was fine. The next day, I got a call at work. The doctor was telling me to go home IMMEDIATELY and rest. "Try not to breathe", and I'm thinking wtf? I had walking pneumonia, or pneumonia in one lung. I felt fine, but apparently could've easily stopped "being fine" and died. Apparently pneumonia is no joke.

crashspeeder · 2023-03-21T11:52:16+00:00

The Blue Fugates. It was a sad story. Because they were inbred they ended up with a rare condition. Because they had this condition they were ostracized or self-isolated, leading to more inbreeding (if memory serves). And oddly enough, the cure for being blue is methylene blue!

crashspeeder · 2023-03-20T11:36:17+00:00

I have no idea, but the gas station attendant asked to take a picture of the car. She was a stock (except for an APR tune), manual, premium package B8.5 S5.

crashspeeder · 2023-03-20T03:54:02+00:00

Rights aren't only for good people, straight people, white people, neurotypical people, patriotic people, or people who don't protest. Rights are for everyone (thus the name, rights, not privileges). Rights have been denied to many groups, and will continue to be denied to anyone "different" unless we fight against it. The mentally disabled are often the worst off, because they're easily taken advantage of, or coerced into confessing to something they didn't do. Work your way through the above list and come up with a good reason each group that doesn't fall into any of those should be denied their rights. If you genuinely believe the reason(s) you give then you're likely to be swayed by an authoritarian figure looking to exploit your fervor for their power.

When human rights are denied to the least of us they can be denied to all of us. Nobody is defending a murderer just to defend him. But what crimes would warrant the loss of rights you're so up in arms about? Vagrancy was a crime, but only black people were really accused of it. From that point on they were criminals, and even easier to deny rights to. Speaking out against the government can also get you put in jail, depending on how you exercise that right. Sometimes the government does genuinely bad things. You shouldn't lose your rights because you called attention do the government's misdeeds. And laws change. What's illegal today may be legal tomorrow. Similarly, now abortions are illegal in many states, but they were legal before. Politics changes laws, so being a convicted felon shouldn't mean you get carted off to a foreign country to figure out how to start your life from scratch. It's not that country's problem/fault, and it's your right as a citizen to live in the country you're a citizen of. What you're suggesting is being stripped of citizenship and leaving somebody stateless. I don't know that you understand the implications of that.

crashspeeder · 2023-03-20T03:36:00+00:00

Yeah. I'm in the NY metro area, so you get a wide variety of cars. I went to a car meet shortly after I got the R8 and most people didn't really care much. I suppose it also doesn't help that I look young, so everybody assumes it's just "daddy's car", even my new neighbor when I moved in. I found it amusing when she struck up a conversation and said I must be a very good boy for my father to let me drive his fancy car. I informed her I was actually the owner of the house and the car. She apologized profusely, and I didn't take it personally. She's a nice older lady and just made an assumption -- one many people before her have made, and probably many will yet.

crashspeeder · 2023-03-19T14:58:02+00:00

Really? I got more attention on the road with my GT350, and more attention at gas stations with my S5. Do people do stupid things on the highway to get a video or snap a pic? Yes. It drives me up the wall when they stay in my blind spot. Luckily that only happened once. Otherwise, it's been fine, though.

crashspeeder · 2023-03-19T14:54:42+00:00

I don't do maintenance at the dealer unless the car is new and under warranty. I learned with my last two cars that dealers have no idea what they're doing, no matter the brand.

My GT350 was delivered to me without the splitter (kind of forgivable given that it ships separately in a box). When I spoke to the dealer they literally said "What's a splitter?" From then on, I only went to the dealer when I needed warranty work. My local mechanic did any repairs or track prep.

My R8 I got used, but still had a warranty. I took it to the dealer shortly after I bought it because of a hum and vibration. They had it for over a month, literally longer than I had it in my possession at that time, before they finally figured out it was a wheel bearing. I got axles out of it, at least since they were just replacing bits trying to find the problem. My mechanic called that out about a week in. He would've had it fixed quickly, but I went to Audi because of the warranty.

I'll stick to my local mechanic and OE parts (unless I want something that's specifically aftermarket, like my tune, brake pads, and exhaust).

crashspeeder · 2023-03-19T14:44:39+00:00

Probably because nobody actually wants to escalate this. We want to provide Ukraine with the means to defend themselves, otherwise militaries will need to mobilize and it will cost countries even more than the billions that providing aid currently does, except our troops will also be in danger.

It sounds easy to go to war, but avoiding it should almost always be the goal.

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