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hturnerfamily

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Do your LIGHTNING's 'brake lights' work while under regeneration? There is now an OFFICIAL answer:

12/7/2022 10 a.m. west central Georgia...

A Georgia State Patrol car was behind me for several miles, in heavy traffic, thru 6 to 8 traffic lights,
with semi trucks in the right lane next to us, so no where 'else' for this trooper to go, other than to
stay on my bumper.

He could certainly clearly see my "240 V" Georgia tag the whole time.

Heading thru the lights, and never stopping by simply letting 'regeneration', in the 'Sport Mode', slow me to the point that I never got close enough to the vehicle in front of me to have to actually 'stop'... and even though this was through 6-8 traffic signal that WERE Red, it just so happened that none of them stayed Red long enough that I had to actually come to a COMPLETE stop. I never hit my brakes, not a single time.

Heading out of town, and knowing that I would have to turn LEFT to my home's road, I stayed in the left lane of a divided highway.
Traffic was heavy on the right, so I knew the trooper had no option but to follow me, or, so I thought. He actually WAS following me, and intentionally.

When I arrived close to my road, on a long downhill stretch, I stayed in the left lane, of course, and let regen do the 'slowing'. The trooper now stayed right on my tail, and was now FLASHING his roof lights. He even started beeping his 'pull over now' ALERTS. He even started his REAL SOUNDS when he started to get the idea that I was NOT stopping, or so he thought.

When I finally slowed, almost to a stop, to turn left, in the left TURN LANE, there he was, right on my tail in the turn lane with me.
I then knew he was after ME.

I stopped, by applying my brakes, and, while I had the 'brake hold' on, the truck stayed stopped, and was never put into 'Park'. He finally opened his door, after a pause, and started walking VERY meaningfully toward me. I had my window down. I had my arm out the window frame. I was relaxed. I had done nothing wrong.

"sir", he said, "I see that your brake lights are not working, matter of fact, so you know, I have been following you for the last 3 miles, thru 6-8 traffic lights and stops, and never once have your brake lights worked."

"sir', I started to say...but before I could get another word in, he intentionally interrupted me - "no sir, listen to me sir, your brake lights are not working, and you need to have them seen about, never once have they worked, I have been behind you thru more than 6 stop lights"...

"sir" I said, gingerly, "I respect what you have stated, and while you would be correct with most any other vehicle, this truck is an all-electric truck.
I don't always apply my physical brakes to come to a close stop, I simply let the regeneration of the motors to the slowing for me.
It's actually the way I prefer to drive, hardly EVER actually having to apply my brakes.
When I slow, I slow much quicker than other vehicles, even without applying any braking. What you saw today was me intentionally trying NOT to apply my brakes.
If you will walk back to the rear of the truck, I will now apply my physical brakes and you can check them."

"sir, apply your brakes several times", he said as he poked his head around the back of the truck.

"sir" he said as he walked back to my window, "I apologize for the inconvenience, as you are ABSOLUTELY CORRECT, your brake lights are working just fine.
I have LEARNED SOMETHING TODAY THAT I WILL TAKE MY TO MY PATROL OFFICE AND OFFER TO THE STATE'S EDUCATION DEPARTMENT AS A LEARNING TOOL FOR ALL STATE PATROL OFFICERS GOING FORWARD." " I appreciate you understanding my concern, and you have a great day!" he stated with a smile.

He promptly put his ticket book back into his pocket. : )


We had a few last nice words, and then I was off to my home to plug in for a long trip.

Ain't life Grand? : ) Now we have an official answer.

over 9,000 miles, and loving it.
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XLT Jeffy

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So Sport mode alone doesn't engage brake lights but 1PD does?
 

Sealevel

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Seems like this may become an issue if the Lightning slows faster under regeneration than with brakes applied - others may not be alert to their closing the following distance and run into your back end. I use regenerative braking when I coast to a light or stop sign, just use the brake for the last few yards - good information if I see the vehicle behind me closing too rapidly. :cool:
 

s_c

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No offense to anyone but I would hesitate to call this official
However, it is definitely a good data point and thanks for sharing

That said, I agree with @theblunden it seems like it would be an oversight not to alert nearby following drivers that a vehicle is slowing. Perhaps a periodic blink to differentiate from hard braking
 

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brewski

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I wondered about this on our S. While I can't confirm by viewing the tail lights, I do know the graphic on the instrument cluster of the S shows the brake lights coming on when you are one pedal driving. I don't drive the car enough to know if there are times where the brake lights do come on vs times they don't.
Sounds like an OTA update for the lightning.
 

VTbuckeye

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Funny, I have seen my brake lights go on and off in regular - 1pd. I guess if you want to use Regen and have the lights work, then 1pd should be selected?
 

lancersrock

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would we expect them to work in sport mode? I mean if i engine break in an ICE car theres no warning to the car behind me either.
 

queuewho

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They work in 1PD for sure. The rears stick out to the side and I can see them in my side mirror and they come on when I release the acceleration pedal (no braking). 🤷🏻‍♂️
Yep, they absolutely work in 1-pedal mode. Maybe there's a bug OP encountered in their instance, but I check all the time to see if they come on when I reduce the pedal for slowing, and I have never seen them not come on.
 

sotek2345

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would we expect them to work in sport mode? I mean if i engine break in an ICE car theres no warning to the car behind me either.
I was thinking the same thing! This seem to be operating as intended.
 

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Surfnturf

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The brake lights on the Lightning work just fine. They only active when there is sufficient deceleration and this is not possible in sport mode. Driving in sport mode is no different than driving in a slightly lower gear in any ICE vehicle. Do the brake lights in ICE vehicles activate when people lift their foot off the gas? No. Same goes for my old Pacifica hybrid. It has a lower drive mode setting that never activates the brakes. In fact my Pacifica in "L" mode decelerated much harder than the Lighting in sport mode and the brake lights on the Pacifica never activate.

Many people prefer sport mode because it's a very slight deceleration compared to one pedal. And I don't want anyone behind me thinking I'm brake checking them all the time since driving in sport mode does require you to fully pull off the accelerator far more often than one pedal driving. This will end up being far more of a hazard as it will surely incite road rage. There is far more than enough of this on the roads as it is.

And to the OP, you can easily check for brake light activation simply by looking in your driver side rear view mirror. And you will notice that even in one pedal mode the brake lights don't always activate. It only does so when you pull off the accelerator enough to trigger sufficient deceleration.
 
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lancersrock

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The aggressive 1 peddle is my only real complaint so far. I wish they had a user adjustable system like the Kia EV6.
 

TaxmanHog

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I always get brake lamps, always use 1PD in normal and sport modes, I prefer the more aggressive regen deceleration in sport mode.

I conscientiously pay attention to tailgaters, making sure to give a brake-check to message to back-off.

I can imagine hype milers ever so gracefully controlling deceleration to defeat the calibrated tolerance of the decelerometer, any OTA tweaks to it might creep up on a mode of operation where it is overly sensitive with premature signaling.

Adjust driving style to make the equipment work safely and keep your head on a swivel.
 

F150ROD

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They work in 1PD for sure. The rears stick out to the side and I can see them in my side mirror and they come on when I release the acceleration pedal (no braking). 🤷🏻‍♂️
Same here, there is a point where they engage and you can see the bright rear lights come one. Which is why I go all the way to the Right lane with all the Big Rigs going downhill.
 

Rob G

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Tesla, Porsche and Genesis all light up the tail lights when coming to a stop while one pedal driving
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