Patent ID: 8841999

Claim:
A method for providing deceleration rate information of a user operating a vehicle, the method comprising: providing an apparatus including an accelerometer, a processor coupled to the accelerometer, and a lighting mechanism coupled to and controlled by the processor; initializing the apparatus, wherein initializing the apparatus includes: sampling a deceleration rate of the vehicle while the engine is on and the vehicle is stationary to obtain a first data set; sampling a deceleration rate of the vehicle while the vehicle maintains a predetermined speed to obtain a second data set; sampling a deceleration rate of the vehicle while the vehicle decelerates to a stop to obtain a third data set; and storing the first data set, the second data set, and the third data set in the processor; sampling a deceleration rate of the vehicle; comparing the deceleration rate of the vehicle to a threshold value stored in the processor; and varying operation of the lighting mechanism if the deceleration rate of the vehicle is greater than the threshold value.