Early Brake Alert, collision avoidance, brake light invention

Brake, LLC is the owner of the patented EBA (Early Brake Alert) technology. It is our intent to either license the
patented technology or sell the patent rights.
EBA senses when brake lights ahead turn-on and turns on your own brake lights which, at 70 mph, provides a one second
earlier alert to the driver behind you.
According to a Daimler-Benz study, quoted by the National Traffic Safety Board, "An extra second of warning time can
prevent 90 percent of rear-end collisions".
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2007 there were 1.5 million rear-end collisions, resulting
in 2700 fatalities and 560,000 injuries in only the US.

		The auto industry now recognizes the wisdom of focusing on collision avoidance rather than just collision survival. This is evidenced by the number of "hi-tech" collision avoidance systems being researched. Because of their complexity, their cost is high and reliability is questionable. But, now, there is a low cost, high reliability solution. A Jan. 26, 2011, Wall Street Journal article mentions a Ford system: "--- that could warn a driver at the back of a line of cars when the first car in the line brakes suddenly". This patent does precisely what the Ford system aims to do. However, it has several crucial advantages: - EBA is more effective because the response is faster. The alert occurs as soon as the brake light turns on instead of after the space between vehicles is already decreasing. At 70 mph, every 1/10 sec is over 10 feet. - Because of it's inherent simplicity, the EBA system is more reliable and much lower cost. - Not all vehicles need to have the system for it to function effectively. Those that have it protect themselves from rear-end crashes. (The simulator shows how even if some vehicles don't have it, the system quite effectively prevents rear-end crashes.) - The development costs would be very low with much value added and many lives saved.
Copyright 2011 Brake, LLC. All rights reserved.