Next Generation Tail Light
Ian Veenstra
Austin Stiers
Dirk Homewood
Cedar Falls High School
Project Volume: about 63 in3
The Next Generation Tail Light is a redesign of the modern tail light design used every day
by millions of people worldwide. However there are some pretty substantial problems with the
design used today. The primary function of a tail light is to convey the intentions of the driver to
other drivers on the road. When the light is on the driver is braking, when its off the driver is not
braking. This is simple enough to remember and up until recently that's all people have really
needed from the tail light. Times are changing though, as cars become easier to drive, in car
distractions start to take over, and general attentiveness decreases the simple “on, off” system just
doesn’t perform nearly as well as it used to. Think back to a time when you’ve been in a fender
bender, when the person comes out to talk to you chances are the conversation started with
something along the lines of “All of a sudden you were just... there, and I couldn’t stop in time.”
Even if they didn’t say exactly that, the problem was probably caused by inattentive driving. It’s
time the tail light gets a 21st century update. The tail light needs to better convey the intentions of
a driver so that today’s drivers can pay more attention react sooner and ultimately save lives.
The Next Generation Tail Light does exactly this using simple, inexpensive, common sense
solutions. The first of which is a Progressive Brake System. The Progression System takes the
amount of pressure being applied to the brake pedal and translates that information to a series of
bars on the tail light. When a driver first puts his foot down on the brake pedal, the outside ring of
the tail light lights up using highly efficient and earth friendly LED tower bulbs. As the driver applies
more and more pressure to the brake the bars continue to light up accordingly. This then leads to
the next major feature.
Contact Information
Ian Veenstra (Team Leader)
1113 Walnut st.
Cedar Falls, IA 50613
stealth2235@gmail.com
(319) 290-9289
Austin Stiers
1506 West Ridgewood Dr.
Cedar Falls, IA 50613
akstiers@cfu.net
(319) 464-2183
Dirk Homewood
1015 Division St.
Cedar Falls, IA 50613
Dirk.homewood@cfschools.org
(319) 553-2500
Next Generation Tail Light
Ian Veenstra
Austin Stiers
Dirk Homewood
Cedar Falls High School
Project Volume: about 63 in3
When a driver slams on his or her brakes, drivers behind them have no idea of how severe
the situation could really be. The current taillight design only lets the driver know that the person in
front of them is indeed slowing down but in low light, bad weather, or even just inattentive driving
situations other drivers on the road could fail to notice how fast they’re coming up on another car
until it’s too late. The progression bar helps to avoid this situation giving drivers an exact meter of
how hard someone is applying their brakes. To further improve safety and communication with
others on the road, the tail light will also strobe at a high rate of speed when a driver slams on the
brakes and maxes out the progression bar. this high speed strobe is more than enough to snap an
inattentive driver out of his or her daze as well as communicate a clear message of “Not only am I
slowing down, but for one reason or another I’ve just slammed on my brakes!” Given this
information a fellow driver can then react accordingly to prevent any further damage to property or
families. This feature alone would undoubtedly have saved lives in the major Florida highway crash
that happened just recently.
The final feature of the tail light focuses on and fixes the problem with cruise control
slowing down. Currently the tail light of a car does nothing to signify when a driver is slowing down
via cruise control. The Next Generation Tail Light fixes this problem by simply implementing a gentle
pulsating strobe effect along the outer ring of the tail light. This clearly communicates to drivers
that the car is indeed slowing down even though the car isn’t using the actual brakes.
Contact Information
Ian Veenstra (Team Leader)
1113 Walnut st.
Cedar Falls, IA 50613
stealth2235@gmail.com
(319) 290-9289
Austin Stiers
1506 West Ridgewood Dr.
Cedar Falls, IA 50613
akstiers@cfu.net
(319) 464-2183
Dirk Homewood
1015 Division St.
Cedar Falls, IA 50613
Dirk.homewood@cfschools.org
(319) 553-2500