Category: Interesting

Yesterday I drove behind a Chevrolet Malibu for about 30 seconds and noticed something that seemed strange and dangerous. Here’s what the Chevrolet Malibu 2006 rear side looks like:

The Malibu uses, as many other cars do, the same lights on the left hand and right hand sides for both turn- and break-signaling. Additionally it has another middle light only for break-signaling. Let’s call these lights L (left), M (middle) and R (right).

For example, what happens when the driver both breaks and signals that he’s about to make a right turn? As expected, L and M are lit (to signal the break) while R is blinking (to signal the turn). Only the timing is what’s wrong in the Malibu. For the following diagram, let’s assume that:

1. turn signaling is on and off in one-second intervals (for simplicity, but I think it’s pretty close to reality, as far as the Malibu goes);
2. the driver starts turn-signaling right at the 1.5 second mark; and
3. the driver starts breaking at the 2 seconds mark.

Here’s what the lights look like in this case:

   |     driver starts signaling right
   |     |
R  | 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0
   |       driver starts breaking
   |       |
M  | 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
   |             L lights up
   |             |
L  | 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1
   |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+------------>time(sec)
   0   1   2   3   4   5

As you can see, when the driver breaks, M is immediately lit (thank god) but L “waits” and stays dark until R is lit again. Only then L is lit to signal the break – 1.5 second after the driver hit the breaks. While this is happening, only M is an indication that the car is breaking.

I think that’s dangerous, as the middle light is an auxiliary break light and the standard is for right and left (at least one of them) to signal the breaking action. In any case it’s weird because what the driver behind the Malibu sees is the blinking right light, then the middle light turning on and then the left light turning on. This is irregular and potentially confusing.