ELECTRONIC SYSTEM FOR ADVANCED ACTIVATION OF AUTOMOTIVE BRAKE-LIGHTS AND ITS CONFIGURATION

Abstract: Automotive braking technology has made significant advances over the past 35 years but, while these improvements resulted in considerably reduced braking distances, the electrical system for activating the vehicle's brake-lights has remained static. The aim of the present invention is to have the brake-lights of automotive vehicles in general activated as soon as the driver takes his foot off the accelerator. This configuration gives the driver of the vehicle following a lead-time to react not currently available. To implement this new configuration, the invention introduces a small microprocessor driven device called ABLA (Advanced Brake-Light Activator) which causes the brake-lights to go on as soon as the accelerator is released. This device has the added advantage of being able to be installed during the vehicle's normal assembly process and can likewise be retro-fitted on millions of vehicles presently on the road. Furthermore, the new configuration introduces two additional road-safety features: parallel electric circuits to activate the vehicle's brake-lights, and the standard of automatically activated brake-lights whenever a vehicle is temporarily stopped in traffic.

Description: Electronic system for advanced activation of automotive brake-lights and its configuration The invention concerns the configuration of the electric circuit existing in all automotive vehicles, for the purpose of activating the brake-lights thereof. The brake-lights of automotive vehicles play an important role in overall road-safety, as their task is to alert the driver of the vehicle following, that the preceding vehicle is slowing down or coming to a halt. Ideally, the configuration of this circuit and its activating elements, should be such, that the driver of the vehicle following has sufficient time to react, thereby contributing to a smooth traffic flow. At the present time, the universally adopted method of activating the brake-lights of automotive vehicles in general, is to use a "dumb" brake-pedal and to incoφorate somewhere along the hydraulic circuit that activates the brakes, a pressure-sensitive switch. This contact-switch will cause the brake-lights to glow, as soon as, but not before, pressure has been created in the hydraulic circuit, due to the driver's activation of the brake-pedal. The result of employing this classical configuration is, that the vehicle's brake-lights will go on simultaneously with the actual functioning of the vehicle's brakes. Consequently, the driver of the vehicle immediately following, is only made aware of the deceleration of the preceding vehicle, once braking is already in progress. This forces him to apply a greater pressure to his brakes than the driver of the preceding vehicle and in many instances, the second vehicle is actually unable to "catch-up" with the deceleration of the preceding vehicle. This, of course, results in the all too common rear-end collision, not only of the single variety, but also of the chain or multiple variety, in such situations where road and climatic conditions are adverse and/or a higher speed is permitted on the road or highway. The last 35 years have witnessed drastic improvements in automotive braking technology, such as the power-assisted brake, the disk-brake and the Anti-lock Braking System, all of which have resulted in considerably reduced braking distances. Meanwhile, the electrical system activating the brake-lights, has remained essentially static, paralleled only by an unchanged human reaction-time. Therefore, it is the aim of certain prior art documents (Appendix A, Page 10) and of this invention to overcome the human handicap, through introduction of new electronic devices, that will give drivers following another vehicle, up to two seconds of additional reaction-time. Prior art documents (Appendix A, Page 10) have already introduced the concept of activating the vehicle's brake-lights, as soon as the driver takes his foot off the accelerator-pedal. Not only is the release of the accelerator-pedal the first motion towards stepping on the brake-pedal, but in actual fact, a release of the accelerator-pedal causes by itself a deceleration of the vehicle, of which the driver of the vehicle that follows, should be made aware of instantly. Secondly, prior art documents (Appendix A, Page 10) have already introduced the concept of activating the vehicle's brake-lights through "live" or "intelligent" command-pedals, which either have pressure-sensitive contact- switches built into said pedals, or have such pressure-sensitive switches or electronic sensors attached to said command-pedals. These pedals do provide an instant response to the absence or presence of the pressure exerted thereon by the driver's foot. To accomplish the aims of prior art documents (Appendix A, Page 10) and of the present invention, we must distinguish between automotive vehicles equipped with automatic transmissions and those with manual gear-boxes. Because the driver of a vehicle equipped with an automatic transmission has his right foot either on the accelerator-pedal or on the brake-pedal, such a vehicle would, "a priori", require only its accelerator-pedal to be of the "intelligent" variety, in order to have the brake-lights activated, as soon as the driver's foot comes off the accelerator-pedal. Notwithstanding, a higher degree of reliability and hence, overall safety, is achieved, by using concurrently also an "intelligent" brake-pedal, which activates the vehicle's brake-lights in parallel with the accelerator-pedal. In contrast to this, the driver of a vehicle equipped with a manual gear-box, may take his right foot off the accelerator-pedal, not only in order to initiate the braking process, but also in order to change gears. Consequently, to prevent the emission of a false or spurious braking signal, the manual gear-box vehicle will also be equipped with "intelligent" clutch-pedal and "intelligent" brake-pedal. In this configuration, the driver takes his foot off the accelerator, and this would normally cause the brake-lights to turn on, as intended. However, if his aim is to change gears, he has already placed his left foot on the clutch-pedal, which in this configuration incorporates a "defeat-switch", that overrides and cancels the signal from the accelerator. Hence, during gear-changes the brake-lights are not activated at all, as usual. On the other hand, if the driver has to decelerate, his right foot leaves the accelerator-pedal, which instantly activates the brake-lights. His right foot now depresses the "intelligent" brake- pedal, which then also activates the brake-lights in parallel with the accelerator- pedal. At this point, the driver may realize that he has to come to a halt, and therefore he also depresses the clutch-pedal. This overrides and defeats the signal emanating from the accelerator-pedal and, were it not for the parallel feed from the brake-pedal, the brake-lights would go out. However, as these lights are also activated by the brake-pedal, which is being depressed, the vehicle's brake-lights will remain on, as required by universal traffic legislation. In addition, the new configuration, described above, has the advantage that any automotive vehicle which is temporarily stopped in traffic or on the side of the road, but not parked, will automatically have its brake-lights on, because the driver has taken his foot off the accelerator. This improves other driver's awareness and hence overall road-safety. While prior art documents (Appendix A, Page 10) have attempted to accomplish the aim of an advanced brake-light activation system through a complex array of electro-mechanical switches, the present invention, as claimed, introduces a small electronic device called "Advanced Brake-Light Activator" or "ABLA". This device can easily be fitted to all automotive vehicles during their normal production phase, without disturbing the assembly-line flow, because it is complementary to, and fully compatible with, the conventional brake-light circuit and its conventional control switch, which should be installed as usual. In addition, ABLA can easily be retro-fitted to practically all automotive vehicles presently on the road, as it does not interfere with the already existing brake-light circuit. The ABLA device consists of a simple on-off switch which is controlled directly, or through a conventional or a solid-state (transistorized) relay, by an integrated or separately located micro-processor. This micro-processor receives its impulses from two electronic sensors or micro-switches that signal the presence or the absence of pressure exerted on the accelerator and the clutch pedal. The first of these two sensors or micro-switches may be located at the linkage point between accelerator cable and carburetor (or fuel-injection unit, as the case may be), at any other convenient point along that linkage system, or inside the fuel-control unit itself This sensor or micro-switch will signal to the micro-processor that the accelerator pedal has been released by the driver and as a result the ABLA-switch closes, with the vehicle's brake-lights glowing, as intended Once triggered by ABLA, the vehicle's brake-lights remain switched-on until the driver steps on the accelerator again. The second sensor or micro-switch, which is only required for vehicles featuring a manual transmission, may be located at any convenient point along the vehicle's clutch linkage, serving to signal to the micro-processor that the clutch is being activated by the driver and hence the micro-processor will ignore the signal emanating from the first sensor or micro-switch connected to the accelerator linkage This configuration prevents the spurious and unwanted glowing of the brake-lights during gear-changes, as discussed earlier (Page 3, Line 21) Consequently, the integrated ABLA-Switch Unit will require only 4 (four) wires or leads for connection to the manual transmission vehicle Two wires go to the dedicated sensors or micro-switches, one goes directly or indirectly, via the vehicle's ignition switch to the battery, and the fourth connects to the existing brake-light circuit (see Drawing 1) The installation in automatic vehicles is even simpler, as it dispenses with the second sensor or micro-switch due to the absence of a clutch Therefore, only 3 (three) wires are required for connecting ABLA to automotive vehicles equipped with an automatic transmission (see Drawing 2). Notwithstanding, it is clear that ABLA may also be connected to a set of "live" or "intelligent" pedals containing integrated pressure sensitive switches, as discussed earlier (Page 3, Line 2), depending on the vehicle manufacturer's design preferences APPENDIX A Prior Art Document Publication Patent family Publication cited for ref . purposes date member (s) date FR-A-2004128 21/11/69 AT-A 311814 15/10/73 DE-A.C 1808794 9/6/71 GB-A- 1213964 25/11/70 US-A- 3710315 9/1/73 US-A-3921750 25/11/75 US-A- 3911394 7/10/75 FR-A-2656576 5/7/91 None GB-A-1098817 None FR-A-2651189 1/3/91 None

Claims: Claims 1. The introduction and use of a small electronic device called ABLA (Advanced Brake-Light Activator) which can be fitted to all new automotive vehicles during their production run, as well as to most vehicles already on the road. This device consists of a switch, controlled by a micro-processor, which receives its impulses from two electronic sensors or micro-switches. One of these is connected to the accelerator, or to its linkage to the fuel control unit, or directly to said unit, and the other sensor or micro-switch is connected to the clutch pedal or to its linkage. ABLA causes the brake-lights to glow as soon as the accelerator is released by the driver, except during gear changes, when its activation is canceled by the signal emanating from the clutch-sensor. Once triggered by ABLA the brake-lights remain switched-on until the driver steps on the accelerator pedal again. This device can be installed in manual-transmission vehicles through 4 (four) wires and in automatic-transmission vehicles through 3 (three) wires only, in both cases without altering or interfering with the conventional brake-light circuit and its conventional switch, activated by hydraulic pressure. 2. The use of ABLA in conjunction with the "intelligent" or "live" command pedals, as described in prior art documents (Appendix A, Page 10), where the sensors or micro-switches are built directly into the command pedals themselves.

Inventors: STILLE REINHARDT, STILLE, REINHARDT
Applicants: STILLE REINHARDT, STILLE, REINHARDT
Application year: 1996
Main classification: B60Q1
IPC codes: B60Q1