Really, it’s not much different than downshifting with a manual transmission (which doesn’t illuminate the brake lights either). With most cars you can get the tires to chirp on an aggressive downshift.
Heavier REGEN as a safety feature?
- Thread starter Fast Eddie B
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Tek_Freek
Active Member
Don't what?
Don't.
I would not discredit you that much.
I never use the paddle for slowing in heavy traffic. I’ll touch the brakes even when only moderate slowing is required. It’s best to give the dimwit on the phone who is about to rear end you every opportunity to become aware of the predicament developing in front of them.
I am always very conscious of this when using the paddles. I try to use the pedal instead of the paddles when there is a driver close behind me, since I can never expect them to be paying attention. However, I will still use the paddles on downward slopes when maintaining speed, even if there is a driver directly behind me, because if my brake lights come on I would assume that they would react more to the light flash when I am actually slowing rather than if I were riding the brake pedal all the way down. But perhaps that is too much credit.
You could use a combination of both. Use the paddle to slow down and touch the brake pedal just enough to make the brake like come on. I do that sometimes if there’s someone close behind me.
Fast Eddie B
Well-Known Member
Xox
I just Googled and came up with this:
With the complexities of modern vehicle electronics, it might be “non-trivial” to wire such a device into our existing brake systems. But it wouldn’t be hard to hook up an “auxiliary” brake light or lights in one of the rear windows if one were so inclined. I’m not, because I agree with the “downshifting analogy”. But it might be an interesting experiment nonetheless.
I just Googled and came up with this:
With the complexities of modern vehicle electronics, it might be “non-trivial” to wire such a device into our existing brake systems. But it wouldn’t be hard to hook up an “auxiliary” brake light or lights in one of the rear windows if one were so inclined. I’m not, because I agree with the “downshifting analogy”. But it might be an interesting experiment nonetheless.
I’m not sure but I would think the brake light is still wired up to a physical switch that resides on the brake pedal. If that were the case it might be pretty easy to implement on of those gadgets.Xox
I just Googled and came up with this:
With the complexities of modern vehicle electronics, it might be “non-trivial” to wire such a device into our existing brake systems. But it wouldn’t be hard to hook up an “auxiliary” brake light or lights in one of the rear windows if one were so inclined. I’m not, because I agree with the “downshifting analogy”. But it might be an interesting experiment nonetheless.
Agreed. However, on lesser slopes the built in low level of regen, which I find to be moderately annoying, actually slows the car. My hair brained theory is that this allows the car to only recapture a portion of the energy that is stored at the crest of the hill. Say we reach the summit at 65mph and the first level of regen gradually reduces speed to 55. We’ve recaptured some energy but now must use energy to get back to 65. If the car were allowed to gain speed, up to 75mph, we could then use regen to slow to 65. This would be, dare I say, “free” energy because we’ve increased the kinetic energy stored in the car without using energy from the batteries.
Yes, I could play the shift to neutral game to gain speed going downhill.
Too much work for me. I’ve always been light on the brakes. If there is slowing ahead, I’ll tap or press the brake pedal lightly for a second, as an early warning for those following. From that point, the built in regen is often sufficient for slowing or I’ll give the brake pedal another press. This is when driving in heavy traffic.
In light traffic or more open roads I will use the paddles. Although, I believe as much or more regenerative braking is available from light to moderate brake pedal use than from the 4 levels provided by the paddles, even if the brake pads lightly touch the rotors when using the brake pedal. In all, I’d say we’ll get the same amount of regen using either method or combination.
As a side note, the highest level of paddle regen doesn’t equal the low Jake brake setting on our motorhome. The high setting provides significant braking power. Neither setting illuminates the brake lights. So, I follow the same practice of touching the brake pedal when lifting off the accelerator.
Fast Eddie B
Well-Known Member
Can't you modulate, or even cancel out, any REGEN by simply "feathering" the throttle to achieve whatever level is desired?
Sure, but I’d rather it was easier. I don’t want the driving experience to be like a damn video game. I’d like to achieve zero regen by taking my foot off the gas.
If any of you can come up with a hack to do that, I’m all ears.
You can, but for me it is too tedious. I’m like Landshark. I’d just like to have the option of zero regen when you lift your foot off the accelerator.
Tek_Freek
Active Member
This. I think drivers who are too young to have driven stick shift don't realize that this was very common and caused few accidents. I did it for 40 years with no rear end accidents.
When I use regen I'm always aware of vehicles behind me, and if they are too close I don't use regen I use the brake pedal.
It's up to us to be defensive drivers. You cannot rely on anyone else paying attention to what's going on around them.
turtleturtle
Active Member
I mean use regen to mess with tailgaters because it slows you down without triggering brake lights.
joethebeekeeper
New Member
scenario 1 of infinite what if situations:
Assume that a generally safe driver finds themselves in a situation where a teacher is walking her elementary school class across the road to the local botanical garden, you look up from picking lint from your shirt soon enough to see that emergency braking is required (Not in OP's case, clearly slowing down was all that is required). A habitual one pedal driver would crash in two the children with slightly less kinetic energy by lifting off the pedal and getting 60% of the breaking performance and a two pedal driver would stop in time.
In this use case lets assume that ADAS was rendered non-functional, and just to egg people on, because they accidentally cut the wiring trying to disable the low speed pedestrian warning system.
We also assume no free will, this situation will occur no matter the situation. What If's like "But I woke up 2 minutes early?" "But I drive 5 under the speed limit to mitigate these situations" would all controlled by the teacher leading the children in perfect sync so that you have to use your brakes no matter how perfect of a person you are.