Congratulations, Mini, you made the stupidest turn signals ever • Hacker News Board

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

#371

Post by thaumasiotes » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 1:39 AM UTC

lmm wrote: post #370

thaumasiotes wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Per miles driven the US has an average number of traffic deaths. > Maybe the root cause is the laughably easy barrier of entry to have a license to drive a death missile? You're saying we should make driver's licenses punitively difficult to get in order to shift American population structure in the direction of dense settlements? The reason America isn't densely settled is much simpler than that; there aren't ver…

> You're saying we should make driver's licenses punitively difficult to get in order to shift American population structure in the direction of dense settlements? I don't think there's anything punitive about proportionately strict regulation for something that kills so many people.

It doesn't kill very many people. We established that several comments up.

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

#372

Post by lmm » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 1:41 AM UTC

thaumasiotes wrote: post #371

lmm wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're saying we should make driver's licenses punitively difficult to get in order to shift American population structure in the direction of dense settlements? I don't think there's anything punitive about proportionately strict regulation for something that kills so many people.

It doesn't kill very many people. We established that several comments up.

It kills a lot of people. Whether the mechanism for it killing a lot of people is a large number of miles driven rather than a high rate of deaths per mile is neither here nor there.

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

#373

Post by dwighttk » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 1:53 AM UTC

Reason077 wrote: post #347

bagels wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's dark, I would assume it is likely that the taillights are also on.

Usually yes. But in urban areas (where there are lots of street lights, and lots of cyclists), people often forget to turn their lights on. I guess it's becoming less of a problem now that most cars have auto lights, but I still see cars driving around without lights pretty regularly.

Yeah I’m astonished at how often people drive with headlights off. Why is it even an option for lights to be off when in drive? I can understand wanting to turn them off sometimes, but not while moving.

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

#374

Post by albert_e » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 1:56 AM UTC

MerelyMortal wrote: post #6

> 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.

> Mini has not heard any concerns from customers regarding the rear turn indicators

So ... zero survival rate?

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

#375

Post by waste_monk » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 1:58 AM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #359

bagels wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's dark, I would assume it is likely that the taillights are also on.

Good enough for now, but in 10 years those cars will be worn with the typical problems of any other 10 year old car. At least a few will have non-functioning tail lights until the owner realized the problem and gets around to fixing it. (I suspect in my past I drove with non-functional taillights for many months before someone told me - it isn't the type of thing you check often)

I make a point of checking at least once a week - I have to get out of my car when leaving the house to close a set of gates, so I grab a big rock from the yard to wedge down the brake pedal and walk around the vehicle doing a brief inspection.

It's annoying at first, but quickly becomes habit.

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

#376

Post by weird-eye-issue » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 1:59 AM UTC

hexa22 wrote: post #292

JDeArte wrote: post #219

California DMV motor vehicle code, in part says 25251. (a) Flashing lights are permitted on vehicles as follows: (1) To indicate an intention to turn or move to the right or left upon a roadway, turn signal lamps and turn signal exterior pilot indicator lamps and side lamps permitted under Section 25106 may be flashed on the side of a vehicle toward which the turn or movement is to be made. If you feel that the mini…

From what I have seen of American cars, this one is completely compliant. The horrible part about this car is that the signals are red and that they are the same light as the rear/brake lights. Which is apparently extremely common in the US.

How is it "horrible"? It's not confusing at all

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

#377

Post by u801e » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 2:13 AM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #366

u801e wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Federal law (FMVSS 108) permits red rear turn signals, either combined with the brake lamp or a separate turn signal lamp. Interestingly enough, they require amber color front turn signals because the white ones were difficult to see when the headlamps were illuminated. It's too bad they didn't use the same reasoning for the rear turn signals compared to the stop lamps.

There would be a huge backlash if they tried. Standard trailer connectors combine the brake light with the turn signal. (the brake like turns on both turn signals 100%) Many trucks just send enough wires (which are expensive these days) to run the trailer and tie the taillights off of those. Thus to require amber to the rear means the standard trailer connector needs to be replaced, then some sort of grade period for…

If they did mandate it, then it would only apply to new vehicles and trailers.

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

#378

Post by jen20 » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 2:27 AM UTC

ashtonkem wrote: post #312

jen20 wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it’s on a British road, said self-driving car will see normal yellow indicators, since red is not a permissible colour. As mentioned in the article.

Yeah, I think the amber horizontal bar in the middle for EU cars is an acceptable design. Cutesy, but no risk to the health and safety of the driver and others. It's the US spec that seems incredibly poorly thought out.

Even though this is a particularly egregious example, poorly thought out indicators are not exactly new in the US though - it is unfathomable to me why people thing that making the turn signals the same colour as both tail and brake light is a good idea...

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

#379

Post by bombcar » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 2:42 AM UTC

u801e wrote: post #377

bluGill wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There would be a huge backlash if they tried. Standard trailer connectors combine the brake light with the turn signal. (the brake like turns on both turn signals 100%) Many trucks just send enough wires (which are expensive these days) to run the trailer and tie the taillights off of those. Thus to require amber to the rear means the standard trailer connector needs to be replaced, then some sort of grade period for…

If they did mandate it, then it would only apply to new vehicles and trailers.

And a diode on the old trailers would let them work with new.

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

#380

Post by u801e » Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 2:43 AM UTC

waste_monk wrote: post #375

bluGill wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good enough for now, but in 10 years those cars will be worn with the typical problems of any other 10 year old car. At least a few will have non-functioning tail lights until the owner realized the problem and gets around to fixing it. (I suspect in my past I drove with non-functional taillights for many months before someone told me - it isn't the type of thing you check often)

I make a point of checking at least once a week - I have to get out of my car when leaving the house to close a set of gates, so I grab a big rock from the yard to wedge down the brake pedal and walk around the vehicle doing a brief inspection. It's annoying at first, but quickly becomes habit.

My 2000 Audi has an indicator light that comes on if one of the stop lamps is not working.

It would be nice if this was a standard feature in every car. Trying to determine whether the lights in the tail lamp cluster are all working without some assistance is difficult at best.