SafeBright

red dot
red dot award: design concept 2008

company:

Radius Product Development

design:

Damon Ahola, Kieron Tse, Tom Wozny and John White

 
SafeBright aims to increase road safety and reduce the fear held by car drivers towards larger vehicles. It provides increased visual signalling and integrated motion sensing that detects changes in lateral movement and speed, then activates the appropriate signal.
 

SafeBright is the result of an on-going probe into improving the highway experience for drivers of both cars and industrial vehicles. To that end, the designers interviewed motorists of varying backgrounds in the greater Chicago area to learn where opportunity areas might exist to make for a better shared driving experience. Aside from long traffic delays and too much on-going construction, sharing the road with tractor-trailers was a common issue for many motorists. SafeBright provides an increased visual signalling area proportionate to – or better than – most cars, increasing visibility distance and clearly communicating the truck (and driver’s) intentions to other vehicles.
 

At the core of the system is an integrated motion-sensing cluster that detects changes in lateral (or lane changing) movement and changes in speed (i.e. braking). When these changes are detected, the cluster activates the appropriate signal – either one side for turning or lane changing, or both sides for braking. The motion-sensing pod retrofits into existing braking systems, acting as a control centre for both the existing brake lights and the SafeBright system. The detection and signalling aspects are automatic, removing responsibility from the driver to use their signals. Driver signalling is still encouraged/ required, but the SafeBright system acts as a redundant failsafe. This guarantees proper signaling from the truck, which over time will reduce the fear associated with sharing the road, and improve the car/truck road relationship.