Rear brake light bar?

[mini2nut]

Someone needs to offer a mod to illuminate the LED light bar in the tailgate when the brakes are applied. The current brake lights are WAY to small to be seen when driving in fog, sleet, etc. I drove behind an R1T over the weekend and was rather shocked as to how small the brake lights actually are.

I plan on installing a hitch mounted 3rd brake light for added safety.

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[bd5400]

No truck, at least in the US, can use lights on the tailgate as brake lights. This is actually a safety regulation since the tailgate is moveable and the truck can be operated with the tailgate down. They don't want auto manufactures to rely on brake lights that may or may not always be visible while operating the vehicle. Im not arguing that this is the right or wrong approach, but this is the reason why the lights on the tailgate dont function as brake lights.

To clarify, you can’t have your ONLY set of brake lights on a moveable body panel, but you absolutely can have brake lights on a movable body panel. Several vehicles do this by having supplemental lights that work when the body panel is moved (like the Audi Q5 which has its brake lights on the hatch).

 

[Engi_Nerd]

I know the cyberchonk doesn't exist yet but the latest prototype switched to a segmented tailgate light, with some of the segments used for braking. It looks awesome and seems like a much safer and more logical use of the real estate.

 

[mini2nut]

Can you imagine the entire tailgate LED light bar illuminating when braking? That would be awesome!

 

[AltaTruck]

The idea of the entire light bar becoming a brake light is important. To put in aux lights for braking and using the trailer wiring is not enough. The truck will automatically want to put you into tow mode when you plug in. I have been considering LED strips to put on the back but I'm waiting, hoping Rivian will change the function of the existing light bar OTA.

 

[Joints4Sale]

Someone needs to offer a mod to illuminate the LED light bar in the tailgate when the brakes are applied. The current brake lights are WAY to small to be seen when driving in fog, sleet, etc. I drove behind an R1T over the weekend and was rather shocked as to how small the brake lights actually are.

I plan on installing a hitch mounted 3rd brake light for added safety.

As mentioned in other threads, plugging in to the trailer plug causes a popup inquiring about switching to Tow mode. Also, there seems to be some sort of gremlin with the trailer lights when the truck is locked and off. The trailer lights stay on very dim(at least on my LED lights). This could cause an issue with vampire drain.

 

[Mysta]

Yeah not sure why it isn't a brake light, there are definitely cars with brake lights on trunks that move.

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

Honestly I think the rear light bar is a missed opportunity beyond just having as DRL. It should be fully interactive IMO. Brake light, rolling script, etc. Let me type out a message to display to the driver behind me. Have it display "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" when I stand on the brakes. Maybe have a shortcut on the driver display to throw up the double birds emoji.

Come on Rivian dev team. Do better.

 

[OverZealous]

Honestly I think the rear light bar is a missed opportunity beyond just having as DRL. It should be fully interactive IMO. Brake light, rolling script, etc. Let me type out a message to display to the driver behind me. Have it display "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" when I stand on the brakes. Maybe have a shortcut on the driver display to throw up the double birds emoji.

Come on Rivian dev team. Do better.

"Alexa, tell the idiot behind me he should take me to dinner first before trying to get inside my gear tunnel"

 

[JamesPolk24]

The turn signals in the rear are the worst I have ever seen on a vehicle. Yellow/Amber should be legally required due to proven safety improvement but the Rivian are red and tiny. The worst combo.

 

[shumdit]

Honestly I think the rear light bar is a missed opportunity beyond just having as DRL. It should be fully interactive IMO. Brake light, rolling script, etc. Let me type out a message to display to the driver behind me. Have it display "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" when I stand on the brakes. Maybe have a shortcut on the driver display to throw up the double birds emoji.

Come on Rivian dev team. Do better.

I want it to automatically detect and put up a message that says “turn of your high beams grandpa”. Then if he doesn’t oblige I want a green laser to pop out of the roof spoiler and blind him. Does the FMVSS prohibit this?

 

[mini2nut]

I wonder if enabling the tailgate LED light to become a brake light is hardware, software or both.

 

[crashmtb]

The turn signals in the rear are the worst I have ever seen on a vehicle. Yellow/Amber should be legally required due to proven safety improvement but the Rivian are red and tiny. The worst combo.

Thank DOT regulations for allowing combined stop/turn lights, and by extension, red turn indicators on the rear.

Curious what they’ll do for turn signals if they sell r1 in EMEA.

 

[kneebuster]

As an aside, the RTT mounted on my bed rack blocks the 3rd brake light. I tried wiring in an auxiliary light directly to the passenger rear light assembly, but it was a fail. It's not an analog signal, but rather digital. I since found out it's not even simple digital, but a modified version of CANBUS (thanks Robert). LIttle hope of adding an aux

light until someone decodes the digital logic.

 

[Mathme]

I don’t have a Rivian (yet) so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong…

but..

it seems the truck knows when the tailgate is up (you can tell it to lower) so one would think they can OTA that light bar (provided it has two settings in the LEDs) to be brighter when brakes are applies AND keep the high SL enter stop light.

as for small light vampires when a trailer is attached, my last two trailers twinkled the clearance/tail lights when parked (and this is over 3 different tow vehicles). I always chalked this up to a canbus system in the tow vehicle, going to an old school analog system. On a bright note though an old neighbor said he noticed the twinkle when the trailer was parked on the street and when he unplugged the trailer, it set the car alarm off.

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