Revelations From a Visible Brake Light

I've found that my driving/braking style puts the needle juuuuust in between the ready "gap" & the first regen block - regardless of driving mode - but that just makes it more confusing. Is the brake light on, or off, or flickering? I'm not ready to cut open the wiring on a week-old car to put in an LED indicator to clarify, but there's gotta be a more granular way to tell exactly when exactly the needle is in the regen zone.

 

My tests with camera mounted to the car were consistent - as soon as that needles barely touches the first regen yellow block - your brake light is on solid.

 

I keep exploring my new MINI everyday and today I learned that there is graphical view on center console that shows exactly when power is being used, vs when you are coasting and when regeneration is active (break lights are on).

Go to "Menu" -> "MINI" -> "Technology in action" -> "eDrive" ... then as you drive you will see MINI in graphics display various states

For example:

Driving:



Coasting:



Regen:

 

Interestingly I discovered that if you one pedal drive up to a stop, the brake lights turn off until you depress the brake pedal. Not sure that is a good feature… I guess it makes the people behind you think you’re driving manual haha


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The car can activate the brakes without the brake lights when using them for stability/traction control but I agree the brakes aren't being used to hold you on a hill.

When the SE uses the brakes during one pedal driving (when the battery is at 100% and can't accept regen power) you can feel a difference in the brake pedal. It feels a bit harder than usual. I haven't felt the same thing when stopping on a hill.

 

ICE cars with automatic transmission always creep forward (I refer to it as "impulse power"), that's a reason everyone is in the habit of keeping the brakes depressed when stopped. MINI (as well as others) has the "green" shutoff mode that stops and starts the engine, but you need to depress the brake pedal for it to activate. I had this in my 2015 Hardtop.

I personally don't feel any need to worry about brakes when stopped. When I drove manual transmission I'd have to put the clutch in to keep the engine from quitting, and never bothered with the brake except to keep from rolling. Drivers should see the obstacle in front of them, although I'm always watching my six...

 

They should but will they? There is almost no excuse for rear ending someone but it's extremely common. To be blunt, a large portion of the population is bad at driving, stupid (distracted driving), or both.

If your brake lights are off, it may take someone long enough to realize you are not moving that they can no longer stop in time.

I also watch my mirror while stopped and leave a large space between me and the next car but I make sure my brake lights are on too so there are no excuses if I get rear ended.

 

This is why I also put my signal on while stopped and waiting for a turn, even if it's a minute or two away. The percentage of distracted drivers must be close to 100% these days.

 

FWIW, I've been rear-ended at least five times... always when braking (and brake lights illuminated), never when stopped (hence no brake lights).

 

That you have a manual transmission and 1) are riding the clutch, or 2) are using the parking brake to keep from rolling backwards?

 

+1

Automatic transmissions are also why most people don't actually stop at stop signs, but instead do a slow-and-go.

 

Not a rear end story, but some idiot almost made a lane change right into me. I'm thankful for the real horn. My Clarity horn sounded like a kid's toy.

We both had to stop at the red light soon after. By that time he was on the other side of me. I shouldn't have, but I couldn't resist rolling down my window and talk to him. He was a 20-something in a pimped out Civic. He reluctantly rolled down his window. I asked him if he saw that he almost hit me. He thought for a second or two and said, "YOU almost hit me."

I said, "You were the one who changed lanes." He replied, "YOU changed lanes." I said, "I'm in the same lane." He said something else unremarkable, so I laughed and rolled up my window.

I let him try to show off his off the line speed when the light turned green. Then he changed lanes back to the original side of me he was on, for reasons I still don't know.

It made me think that if I get in a wreck, I'm going to be without a replacement for months, which makes me want to be even more careful.

 

This is exactly why I have front and rear dashcams! Either people lie or they weren't paying attention enough to even know what happened and assume you did something wrong

 

A few good habits to reduce the chance of being rear-ended which I’m sure we all know but just in case:
1. Always keep your foot in the brake when stationary
2. Always leave a couple of car lengths between you and the stationary car in front to give yourself some extra space to accelerate into or go around if needed
3. Keep your eye on your rear view mirror when you come to a stop until it’s clear the person behind you is stopping.
4. Activate your brake light early (even if barely braking) when you expect to come to a stop so the idiot behind you has as much chance to see it as possible.
5. Slow down gradually, again so that the idiot behind you has a chance to catch up, see you and brake. If it seems they’re not seeing you and not braking you can punch the gas last minute.

I got rear ended when sitting at the back of a traffic jam in wet conditions. 40mph road, I had been stationary for at least 10 seconds. Looked in my rear view mirror and saw the minivan not even trying to stop until the very last second and bam. Pushed my wrangler forward about 3 feet even though my foot was on the brakes.
On the upside the only damage was a broken license plate light on my aftermarket steel bumper. Didn’t even scratch the powder coat. The minivan had $8k of damage to the front end according to the insurance company who just couldn’t understand why I wasn’t claiming. It had to be dragged into a flat bed whereas I just drove to work…

 

My dad got rear ended on the highway a while ago in his Leaf. Dead stop traffic in all 4 lanes. Full size pickup wasn't paying attention and ended up totaling 4 cars (probably didn't slow down much from 70mph). My dad was in the back of those 4 cars but thankfully he was watching his mirror, saw the pickup, and had started to turn and accelerate onto the shoulder, reducing the damage.

Even with that, the leaf ended up completely crushed up to the rear seats and collapsed the drivers seat back into a fully reclined position. He would have almost certainly ended up in the hospital if he wasn't paying attention...

 

That is scary.
Honestly, there should be much stiffer penalties for those kinds of accidents.
There is no excuse for running into the back of another car. Not ever.
The standard of driving in this country is scarily low. Drove a few times in Germany and while you can find an idiot anywhere, the general standard was so much higher it was depressing to think about.

 

Sounds similar to what happened to me in my first MINI Clubman. My Clubman ricocheted off the center wall and into another vehicle. The car that hit me had a crushed frontend but the Clubman's unibody didn't collapse and it seemed almost drivable. Fortunately everyone walked away, and I knew after that MINIs are extremely safe.

 

Another approach to getting an internal indicator, hot glue a fiber optic cable to the 3rd brake light and fish it through the molding, then tape it to the roof. Took about 5 minutes and works great!

 

Great job! I'll see if my wife will approve of this mod.