Patent ID: 7162369

Claim:
A device for alerting the driver of a vehicle trailing a host vehicle when a forward traveling vehicle forward of said host vehicle is decelerating comprising: (a) a radar device, mounted integrally with said host vehicle, with means to continuously measure a relative speed of said forward vehicle relative to said host vehicle; (b) a CPU, mounted integrally with said host vehicle, with means to ascertain a relative acceleration from said relative speed, with further means to ascertain said host vehicle's acceleration relative to the road from data provided by electronic connection to said host vehicle's speedometer system, with further means to derive an absolute acceleration of said forward vehicle relative to the road by computing the mathematical sum of said relative acceleration plus said host vehicle's acceleration, and with further means to continuously monitor said absolute acceleration for significant negative values; (c) a CPU controllable luminous display, mounted integrally with said host vehicle, sufficiently bright and strategically positioned to be visible to the driver of a vehicle trailing said host vehicle, activated whenever a significant negative value in said absolute acceleration of said forward vehicle occurs.