I recall back in the late 80's, early 90's Nissan had a test car they were driving around Sydney which had all the normal rear lights (no high level stop lamps were mandatory back then unlike now) but it also had a light array on the boot (trunk) lid which housed several different coloured lights (green, amber, red etc.). These lamps would light in sequence depending on the drivers driving actions. When accelerating the green light would illuminate, coasting and the amber light would come on. And the obvious red lamp when the driver was braking. I followed the car for some time in city driving and, whilst the idea might sound like a good thing, I became distracted by the ever changing light arrangement so much that I tended not to be aware of other things around me spacialy. The only thing that is still around is the stop lamp which is now, as
@Lunatic59 notes, becoming redundant as people are so distracted with mobile devices they are not even watching the road ahead.
I have always found it strange that cars built in the USA can have red brake lights and the turn signals are the same red light that just blinks. Even Japanese manufacturers, like Honda, who build in the USA have adopted this characteristic. Always seems confusing to me where the rest of the world has adopted the standard amber turn signal to differentiate it from the brake light. This design may be less used now but I haven't been in the US since late 2018.
Flashing brake lights remind me of the old nodding dog you would place in the rear parcel shelf and they had red eyes that lit up and even blinked when you applied the brakes. If someone can't see the high level stop light then blinking brake lights aren't of any use either. CarPlay in the EC goes some way towards reducing mobile device interactions. I've gone a little further by running one of the centre console USB ports into the centre console box where my phone now lives whilst driving so there is absolutely no temptation to play with it. Especially since our state government has been the first to install mobile phone detection cameras on our roads to pick up on mobile phone use whilst driving. They report they are seeing a very high infringement rate and it may go someway to reducing the use and abuse which is rife.
