Have you ever been driving behind a car which does not have working brake lights? Kinda dangerous, especially in KL traffic at 6:30 pm on a rainy evening. It is possible that the driver might not know that his lights have gone kaput, and causing distress to his fellow drivers.
How’s this for an idea. The brake light indicator on the dashboard should provide positive feedback that the all brake lights are lit upon activation of the brakes (in Malaysia that’s at least 3 lights). Maybe it should flash when one or more of the lights do not light up, and be continuously lit when all lights are working.
I got this idea from the oil and gas industry. Compressor startup sequences are notoriously finicky processes. Various steps must be executed within a certain time frame, or the process is aborted. A number of these steps involve opening or closing valves. A command to open or close is sent to the valve through the compressor control panel. Positive feedback is provided via limit switches on the valves. If the valve receives an instruction, say to open, but the limit switch indicates otherwise (valve still closed or partway open), then the whole startup sequence is aborted.
Side note: some organizations keep a record of attempted starts to successful starts. 30 is considered normal.
Note that confirmation of the startup sequence valve position is separate from the control signal sent to the valve. I believe that this idea was taken from the nuclear industry, where they need to know the position of control rods in reactors. I take took this idea, and have applied it to car brake lights, i.e. the brake light status is independent of the brake demand.
Basic engineering question: what is the cost threshold to implement this in cars? Is Proton (Malaysia’s national car manufacturer) interested in the idea?
Posted by Wata 
Wata - Malaysian Oil and Gas Engineer 