Technabob » brake

Naruse Pedal Puts the Breaks on Accidental Acceleration

Lambert Varias — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:31:41 +0000

Japanese inventor Masuyuki Naruse believes that the current two-pedal system for braking and accelerating in vehicles is “dangerously flawed”. His point is that in situations when quick reactions are needed, sometimes people panic and press down on the gas pedal instead of the brakes, or sometimes press down both. He himself was almost involved in an accident because he hit the gas pedal instead of the brakes. So he invented a modified pedal, where the motion needed to brake is different from the one used to accelerate.

That’s the aptly named Naruse pedal in the picture. Using this pedal, drivers still press down to brake, but in order to accelerate they have to push the lever on the right of the pedal to the side.

It’s not complicated at all, but it will definitely take some getting used too, especially if you’ve been driving for years. Naruse says that it costs about ¥100,000 (about $1,156 USD) to retrofit a car with the pedal. He’s tried to contact Toyota to present his pedal, and possibly have it installed by default in new cars, but so far they have not responded to his request. What do you guys think? Is the Naruse pedal a good alternative to the current set up?

[via New York Times via Neatorama]

The License Plate Frame That Could Save Lives

Technabob — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 02:00:30 +0000

How many times have you been driving down the road, when some dufus in front of you slams on their brakes to take an “important” phone call or yell at the kids? If only that guy would install one of these on his car.

The SuddenStop is a high-tech license plate frame with motion sensors built into it. It calculates the G-force of the vehicle it’s mounted on, and if your braking force measures more than 0.7Gs (normal braking produces around 0.3Gs,) it immediately flashes super-bright LEDs to alert the driver behind them. This extra warning could seriously reduce the likelihood of accidents, since it might give drivers just a little more advance warning that something is wrong in front of them.

The $29.99 purchase price seems like a worthwhile investment if you don’t want to be rear-ended, but it’s too bad they haven’t invented something you could put on the front of your own car to detect the deceleration rate of the car in front of you. That way, you’d be protected from not just the handful of cars with one of these, but from all the people who don’t bother to buy one.

Seriously, this is a good idea, and maybe auto manufacturers will think to license (no pun intended) the technology to incorporate into their own vehicles.