I think some sort of variable lighting would be nifty, but in my book it's the wrong solution to what is really a problem of keeping distance. For highway driving the answer for me there has been adaptive cruise control – it's amazing! What I'm missing though is for a way to have the car keep distance, but still leave control over the gas to me. This would be very useful in high traffic situations where setting a cruise control speed isn't really usable, since you'll likely be disengaging it now and then due to braking because someone is cutting in.
I put a lot more faith in sensors to judge the distance to the car in front of me, than my visual perception of brake lights. At a certain medium distance, I'm sure I wouldn't be able to judge the difference between 25% brake and 75% anyway, but my car's sensors would be able to detect that I'm on a collision course, and could adjust gas/braking accordingly.
I put a lot more faith in sensors to judge the distance to the car in front of me, than my visual perception of brake lights. At a certain medium distance, I'm sure I wouldn't be able to judge the difference between 25% brake and 75% anyway, but my car's sensors would be able to detect that I'm on a collision course, and could adjust gas/braking accordingly.