Patent ID: 7893823

Claim:
A sequential brake light system for a road vehicle having a brake pedal with a pedal position proportional to a deceleration of the road vehicle caused by braking, the system comprising: a brake light array comprising a plurality of individual lights in a series; a slave controller connected to the array for lighting the lights in the array in sequence in a number of the lights, said number of lights being proportional to a deceleration of the road vehicle upon braking; the array being mounted to be visible to a driver of a trailing vehicle to the road vehicle; a speed sensor for sensing an instantaneous speed of the road vehicle; a brake position sensor for sensing a position of the brake pedal; an accelerometer for measuring deceleration of the road vehicle; a master controller connected to the speed sensor for receiving a signal corresponding to the instantaneous speed of the road vehicle, the master controller being connected to the brake position sensor for receiving a signal corresponding to the position of the brake pedal and to the accelerometer for receiving a signal corresponding to the deceleration of the road vehicle; and a connection between the master and the slave controller, the master controller, when active, controlling operation of the slave controller for lighting lights in the array in sequence in a number of the lights proportional to the deceleration as measured by the accelerometer and by the brake position sensor; the master controller being programmed to be inactive below a selected threshold speed as sensed by the speed sensor, no sequential lighting of the lights in the array occurring when the master controller is inactive.