When you use regenerative braking, that means you can slow the vehicle down without applying the brakes. Not applying the brakes means the brake lights won't go on. No brake lights while slowing down is just asking for trouble.
Today I was tempted (several times) to ruin a perfectly good Prius and its blond, cell-phone using driver. If only there were loopholes around the "failure to yield" laws.
Huh? Braking is braking and the brake lights should go on. In a Prius, the only way to use the regen braking is to press the brake pedal - and then brake lights go on. On a Vectrix motor scooter, the regen braking also activates the brake lights - at least I certainly hope so, I've never actually checked. The Vectrix brake pads should last forever because it's rare to need to use anything other than the regen brake.
Tim
Maybe this person just had all three brake lights out?
She would go and slow, go and slow - I figured the regen activates when you completely let off the gas pedal. If you press the brake pedal, it squeezes the brakes and activates regen at the same time?
I Googled "Prius rear ended" and found a few images - enough to get my attention. ;)
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In a Prius, the driver doesn't know when regen is used and when the brake pads are being used. I think the computer engages the regen initially and then adds in the standard braking as required. of course, there's no regen braking when you're stopped on a hill!
I made a mistake in my first post. There is another way to engage the regen brakes. The "gear stick" in the Prius has a setting labeled "B" (?for braking). It can be used when coasting down hill and will slow the car slightly - the same as selecting a low gear in a regular car to use the engine to reduce speed when going down hill. Maybe she was playing with this control? Maybe she deliberately uses it instead of the brakes, perhaps believing she regenerates more energy that way (which she wouldn't).
Tim
The Vectrix and Prius both employ signal indicated regenerative braking, and frankly, I'd be surprised if that's not a DOT mandate. Any form of motion braking (not parking brake) would and should require an indicator signal.
My guess is that you were behind a "pulse" driver. The Prius can gain a considerable fuel range by the annoying use of "pulse" driving, whereby the driver will lightly apply accelleration, then coast, then light accelleration, then coast, etc. etc. Not only is this dangerous on a busy street, it's annoying as hell to other drivers.
Don't blame the car, blame the blond on the cell phone. ;-)
Where I live, it apparently has become an unwritten law that all cell phone users must use the left lane while on the phone. :-(
In normal vehicles, many have, or can activate, compressive breaking. Also most vehicles have enough drag to slow noticably when the foot is taken off the "gas" pedal. Most begin slowing whenever the foot-pressure on the "gas" pedal is reduced.
Currently, there are no warning lights required for any of these situations, but there SHOULD be!
Simple off-pedal regen-braking, and compression-braking, both appear to be un-regulated functions.
Cheers, Gary
XM-5000Li, wired for cell voltage measuring and logging.
My Force Selectria Electric car puts on the brake lights when the regen braking is on. I find it is a little bit annoying when I go down a long hill. People behind me must think I am about to burn my brakes up. This means the light is on a lot more that other cars and leaves the driver behind me not knowing if I suddenly when into a heavy braking mode. On my gas car I can down shift and that can cause a pretty good deceleration and not brake lights.
Eric Fisher
www.SiliconeBatteriesUSA.com