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Comment by rconti | Hacker News Reader

Had to look up "yuppie button" to figure out what they were on about.

Sounds like a fun fellow. Lights up all of the lights on the back of the car for funsies. Oh they're all DOT-approved, so it's probably a good idea. Definitely a safety feature. Their manifesto makes them totally believe that everyone else on the road is the problem.

https://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/yb/

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The techno fandom page is actually quite measured and reasonable. It's not a crazy idea to prevent dangerous behavior of those behind you.

30+ paragraphs is not “measured” or “reasonable” and I’m glad I’m not stuck behind this miserable guy on the highway as he huffs his jenkem going 56 in a 55 trying to blast all his rear lights at people.

If someone is tailgating me I just slow down gradually until they get mad and pass

To a degree this is sensible, if someone is tailgating you and you need to perform an emergency stop there's more likely to be a collision, so you need to increase the space in front of you for more gradual braking.

Same. I start driving at a speed that is safe for the distance they're keeping (in stead of what should be the other way around). That is usually quite effective.

That distance is also a function of their speed though.

You'll just have to lower it more if they start getting closer again. Eventually they'll get the courage to pass instead of hugging your rear bumper, and at safer speeds too

But it doesn't really matter; you just add a buffer in front of you that allows you to slow more gently so they don't rearend you.

I found the "wave damping" link inside that article a very interesting description of why not only some traffic jams happen but how we can actually drive to prevent or fix them. Thanks for posting.

This is the wave damping articl http://amasci.com/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html

It's not a terrible idea, but not a great one either. The lights on the back of a vehicle don't simply serve as attention getting lights. They also exist as signals. Lighting all of them up might get attention, but at best it conveys no information, and at worst, it may confuse observers or obfuscate the signals that those lights are supposed to be conveying.

“immediate communication is needed to make any impression on our cellphone-addicted, TV-culture populace with zero attention span nowadays”

Dude sounds insufferable tbh

    [...] pulling this wouldn't let handsfree Bluetooth phone stuff work either, but I've never had much need for that [...]

Sounds like a fun fellow indeed.

Why?

I also don't have any need for that, because I never answer or even use my phone while driving.

Well I guess it depends.

While I appreciate your purist take on driving and aspire to be such a disciplined driver one day, there is still a myriad of reasons why one could want to have a functional mic.

I find even the single line: "Hey, I'm driving, call you back later." much better than just ignoring incoming calls.

Also the ecall thing might come in very handy if an accident happens, but that is a very big IF.

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