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Congratulations, Mini, you made the stupidest turn signals ever

jalopnik.com

161–170 of 448 posts

Re: Congratulations, Mini, you made the stupidest turn signals ever

#162

> Mini has not heard any concerns from customers regarding the rear turn indicators I wouldn't expect them to: they cannot see their own turn signal lights while driving. If they happen to be behind another Mini, they already know about it and it may not throw them off-guard like others who aren't familiar with it.

Can one just swap the two lights inside?

Barring that, maybe some sort of diffuser sheet inside?

Re: Congratulations, Mini, you made the stupidest turn signals ever

#163
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got really frustrated when I started to see 3 rapid flashes when a Toyota or Kia driver put on the brakes on the Highway. What had been a common signal for “you’re a little too close” was now shown every time the driver pressed the brake pedal. I guess I could’ve complained to one of the manufacturers, but what do they care? I’m not buying their cars.

I'm reasonably sure this is because in the US the rear brake lights are often also used as the turn signal and the hazard lights. Under hard braking on European/Japanese cars the hazard lights will automatically come on. Because they're overloaded in the US it's hard to tell if it's that, or the brake lights flashing unless you're paying close attention to the middle brake light. Edit: Just seen the comment about the…

> Unless you're paying close attention to the middle brake light

Better hope it's not burnt out, like I see all too often in North America

Re: Congratulations, Mini, you made the stupidest turn signals ever

#164

I’m on mobile so I don’t have ads blocked and Jalopnik is just awful to read. There’s a giant ad every sentence or two. The modern web is a disaster.

I find reader mode helps in such articles. I have set my hacker news app to automatically use reader mode when available.

Re: Congratulations, Mini, you made the stupidest turn signals ever

#165

I’m on mobile so I don’t have ads blocked and Jalopnik is just awful to read. There’s a giant ad every sentence or two. The modern web is a disaster.

It’s free content. If it was in a plain text file with no ads Jalopnik wouldn’t get paid.

Re: Congratulations, Mini, you made the stupidest turn signals ever

#167
post #54

> there should be no trouble at all for a driver to understand, when seeing the full rear of the car, which direction is being indicated. This response from Mini presumes drivers have the luxury of using "system 2" logical/analytical reasoning in a hectic realtime environment where they must most rely on "system 1" intuitive reasoning. There needs to be a name for this type design fallacy, because it's not the first…

>> when seeing the full rear of the car, I suppose the Mini designers have never driven in fog, poor lighting, storms, or at night? (When you might not see the full rear of the car) Imagine if you can only see the car's taillights and you see a blinking arrow move the opposite way it points. What would you think you saw? Or better yet, if one of the taillights is out, what would a driver behind the Mini think?

> Imagine if you can only see the car's taillights and you see a blinking arrow move the opposite way it points. What would you think you saw?

If conditions were that bad and you saw a ‘normal’ indicator flash it would be a 50/50 guess which way it was going. That’s better I suppose but hardly good.

Re: Congratulations, Mini, you made the stupidest turn signals ever

#168
post #162

> Mini has not heard any concerns from customers regarding the rear turn indicators I wouldn't expect them to: they cannot see their own turn signal lights while driving. If they happen to be behind another Mini, they already know about it and it may not throw them off-guard like others who aren't familiar with it.

Can one just swap the two lights inside? Barring that, maybe some sort of diffuser sheet inside?

Diffusers also make the light more dim.

Re: Congratulations, Mini, you made the stupidest turn signals ever

#170

I don’t often say this: someone should be fired for this. That is a shockingly bad choice that might endanger your customers lives.

Just like the capacitive touch turn signal buttons on the new Tesla yet for what ever reason that's OK...
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