Directional hazard warning brightness, why so low??

[Race3]

The GEN2 vehicles have a feature where you can have a directional hazard warning using the front and rear light strips. It will flash yellow in a left, right or both direction pattern. But it’s extremely dim! Rivian even acknowledges that it’s dim and suggest it’s mostly for night time. But even at night time, it’s not that bright. Why?

These are meant to be emergency lights, so you would think they would be at maximum brightness. When they light up in green showing charging status, they seem even brighter than when they’re being used in a hazardous situation. I wish Rivian would give us more control over these lights, flashing patterns and especially brightness. It’s such a unique feature, but should be implemented better.

To be honest, I’m not sure if it’s better to use the regular hazard lights or these directional lights when pulled over on the side of a highway. The regular hazard lights flash faster and might grab more attention but if these directional lights were brighter, they might be more visible.

Does anyone know why they are so dimly lit??

Sponsored

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Who knows? Just guessing... Brightness requires what? more energy. If you needed to use this feature, you might not know how long you need it for before help arrives. It might even be an energy related fault. While not daylight-bright, they are probably plenty bright in dark and remote environment.

 

[shamoo]

Who knows? Just guessing... Brightness requires what? more energy. If you needed to use this feature, you might not know how long you need it for before help arrives. It might even be an energy related fault. While not daylight-bright, they are probably plenty bright in dark and remote environment.

If LEDs though, wouldn't they literally last for weeks even if you had only a little battery left?

 

[Race3]

Who knows? Just guessing... Brightness requires what? more energy. If you needed to use this feature, you might not know how long you need it for before help arrives. It might even be an energy related fault. While not daylight-bright, they are probably plenty bright in dark and remote environment.

thanks, but this has nothing to do with energy, these LEDs would use almost nothing compared to the motors or headlights or any other system. They would last for a very long time in this scenario. It’s a little mind-boggling why they would be so dim if they are meant to be used for awareness.

 

[ElGuano]

Does anyone know why they are so dimly lit??

Good Q, I've actually wondered the same thing. I wonder if there is some kind of non-intuitive safety requirement that applies, where these kinds of accessory signaling lights can't be as bright as the stop/hazard lights, or something like that...

 

[usulio]

If you're asking me, Rivian knows this feature is a gimmick and nothing more.

A normal driver is not going to see these lights flashing and think "oh they're telling me where to go, I should follow them instead of using my own situational awareness and judgement"

 

[Race3]

If you're asking me, Rivian knows this feature is a gimmick and nothing more.

A normal driver is not going to see these lights flashing and think "oh they're telling me where to go, I should follow them instead of using my own situational awareness and judgement"

perhaps, but with such a nice line of LEDs in the back, they truly could provide more visibility than just the small hazard lights at the edges. They could flash quickly or in different patterns to help alert other drivers… But they should be of similar brightness to the hazard lights and they aren’t even close.

Sponsored