American Reacts to Something American Cars Get WRONG (But Europe Gets Right) 

There is another situation that is noteworthy. In Germany, when you are driving on the Autobahn and the car in front of you has brake AND warning lights on, you are likely approaching the end of a traffic jam and prepare to come to a halt, not only slow down. This is not mandatory, but something that people started to do, and I cannot estimate how many accidents thts has prevented. You can often see a wave of warning lights moving backwards on the road while the cars slow down. Edit: apparently, you can replace "in Germany" with " in Europe", if you go by the replies. Good to know.

Aussie here. Bizarre's the word, Ian. I couldn't believe it the first time I drove in the US and saw this. WTF are they thinking to make this legal?? Blame the politicians who allow it, not the companies that'll do anything for a buck. You wouldn't be able to register them in Australia.

Interestingly back when these American minivans, like the Chrysler Voyager were sold here in Europe, they had regular amber turn signals, at least the European versions did, while the American versions didn't. This is the opposite of money saving. Why bother having two different tail light designs, when the one with the amber turn signals was clearly safer? Why did they insist on installing the less safe tail lights on American versions?

The blank panel might also be reserved for a rear fog light, which is obligatory in Europe, but uncommon in N. America.

In my country 🇷🇸, it is not even possible to import and register a vehicle from North America without amber turn signals, you have to buy and install them before customs.

Many Euro cars have single colour light units whilst they are off, but still show the correct colours when operated, so that assumption about aesthetic is moot.

And the absurd thing is, that on the front, US cars have to have an amber turn signal and moreover: the glass has to be amber. Whereas the glass can be transparent just as good, as long as the signal shines amber. The ambiguity in these regulations is beyond my comprehension.

Most European cars if you brake really hard, hard enough to trigger the ABS, then the amber hazard warning lights come on

The thing is: the look of Viper backlight wouldn't need to change at all. Just leave the turn signal white (when off) and use amber bulbs or LED when flashing. This is totally fine if you don't want an "always amber" area in your backlight. A lot of european cars actually do it like this. So there's even less reason for not using amber turn signal. And what's totally beyond me are cars that are sold worldwide (like some VW oder Audi) with amber turn signals, that get this changed to "all red" just for the NA market.

I guess it's even more confusing when the odd American car with the all-red setup shows up in European traffic, since we simply don't expect indicators to be red.

The thing is light colors are also indicating the direction: White - forward, towards to observer Red - rear, away from the observer Amber - side, sideways to observer The latter is also important because it could be used in such an astonishing safety feature (for an average American that is) as turn signal repeaters, which could be located on a fender, outside mirrors or (in case of long vehicles) along the whole side, making a your vehicle and intended direction much more readable for those who are driving across.

When you see flashing brake lights in the rest of the world, you better hit the anchors yourself.

Here in Norway, the American brake/indicator lights are not legal. So when you import an American car with ONLY brake/blinker lights, you will be instructed to put on orange blinkers by those to whom you must show the car before you get Norwegian plates on the car. We saw this on American vans that were used as ambulances here in Norway from 1980 to 2010. They had to fit an orange light under the headlight at the back of the car, which was not particularly pretty, it actually looked better in the front. But many US cars had to put this on in order to be approved here in Norway.

There is a solution if car manufacturers don't want to use amber next to red for aesthetic reasons - for the indicators they could use clear (non coloured) lenses with amber coloured bulbs. Unless they also consider red next to clear to be ugly - I don't!

The first car I can remember my parents having was a Morris Traveller. These cars used to have "Traficator's". These were turn signals that "popped" out of the side of the car and were lit by a bulb. Once you had completed your turn they would retract, or fall back, into the side of the car! The other thing notable for the Morris Traveller was the wood down the side of the car giving it its coachwork build effect.

However, the BMW does not have a turn signal installed

The penny has dropped: I was always told that the third eye level brake light was introduced because it reduced rear end accidents in the US studies by the highway institute thingy. Now I'm thinking it was actually the lighting system in the US - that was causing the accidents. ?

Fun fact: why are rear-lights red? It came from the trains. Trains used - still use - a (single) red light in their rear. When someone thought about installing rear-lights in cars, they used the surplus of train lights. It got standardized in red.

the only thing i can think about if i see flashing red lights on the tail of a car in germany is "hit the brakes!" cause that is what newer cars do.. if you hit your brake as hard as you can, the brake lights will flash on many newer cars ...

Mini vans are still fairly dominant in Europe, here they're produced by Mercedes, VW, Kia, Hyundai etc.. The wonky brake light system in North America is stupid and dangerous! Red = stop Amber = turn White = fog/reverse Thank you, Europe 👍 hello from Denmark 🌸

I don't know what the legality of this is, but here in Germany my parents have a BMW Z4 (among other cars) and I found out that if its rear turning light bulb fails, it will instead blink the break light. So you basically get the "American way".... In this way you at least have some level of information output to your surroundings, that you are planning to turn. Normally this doesn't happen, and the remaining turning light bulbs on that particular side flash faster (by law btw, to make the driver conscious of the bulb failure).

the other thing I can't understand is why registration plates are not compulsory on the front of all cars/trucks.

Amber turn signals/indicators are demonstrably better, but it's not completely accurate to say that in the European configuration "red always means the car is slowing down/stopping"; there are of course standard-brightness red marker lights for night driving, and very bright red fog lights (always one, sometimes two). Some vehicles are set up such that a fourth (running lights one, brake lights two, indicators/hazards three) auxillary light fixture is red on the left (inside) side and clear on the right (outside), the former for the fog light and the latter for the reversing light (flipped in the UK for left-hand driving), although many have five in the cluster; for instance, most of my Land Rovers have two rear fogs and two reversing lights (the headlights can be flipped using an under-hood lever from RHD to LHD as well so as not to dazzle the other lane when visiting). Here's another fun feature on the front of the some European vehicles; some illuminate one of the forward white fog lights on the side into the turn when the indicator is on for extra visibility as a cornering light, and if one is using front fog lights as daytime running lights, it will do the opposite and turn off the fog on the indicator side to not distract from the indicator. I drive on the Autobahn a lot, and the convention of hitting the amber hazards when one sees a stopped traffic jam ahead is *very* useful, especially on tight curves and entrance/exit ramps. Also, in some Asian countries, a quick amber hazard flash is a "courtesy flash" when one merges in front that says "I see you, thanks for indicating and letting me know you're going to pull in front of me". Sometimes Americans can be very obstinate, and cook up all sorts of ludicrous reasons ("they're socialism/communism!") to not adopt standards demonstrated to be superior in the rest of the world ... enforcing the illegality of passing on the right, traffic circles, universal car safety inspection (not required in poor/backward states), and the metric system also spring to mind. But I agree with the view that cost ultimately dictates this; rigging four lamps (five with a reverse light) in two-color (and that on only one side) rear clusters has to be much cheaper than 10 lamps in two three-color clusters (running, brake, indicator, reverse, and rear fog ... times two). After all, the Big Three calculated that it would be cheaper to settle safety lawsuits than adopt seatbelts, airbags, etc. for *years* after they were proven, until they finally caved .

There is one hazardous situation where I would painfully miss the separation of break lights and turn signal lights. That’s when you are on the highway getting into a traffic jam. I use to turn on my hazard lights when i see the traffic jam in front of me to have a additional warning for the drivers behind me

In UK, ALL flashing turn indicators were required to be amber/yellow on or before the beginning of 1959, though most cars were being equipped this way by the mid 1950's.

In the 1980-s there was a beautiful black Pontiac Trans-Am in the neighbourhood next to my school. It had black rear lights. When it was on, you coud realitze it had red parts for the ligths and brakes, and amber part for indicator. So the colour of the "glass" doesn't affect the colour of the light.

This is beautiful seeing two awesome channels at the same time!

Car lights in EU and in Europe in general follow the signification of traffic light. That's why there is and never will be any green light. Amber/orange for warning/imminent risk or danger. Red : Immediate danger. That's why stop, parking, etc signals are red and turning and warning amber.

I commented in a previous Video that my Murican mate, in Millwaukee, argued with me because I said that I didn't understand why he only had stop lights that doubled as Indicators, he said they didn't and got out to see and got back in very, very quite, yes, I know, it's very unusual for a Murican to be quite but he was dumbstruck as to how he had never noticed before! It was only when he came to London and we were flooring it through the London Traffic, in my Wife's 2.8 Ford Capri, did he see the sense of Amber Indicators, and head high grab handles, he used those a lot on our journeys!

I am in UK and I have never had a car with indicators in with brake lights. This is over 50+ years.

I the topic of clear look - everything red... SAABs 9-3 had all their back lights "frost white"... but they had correct coloured bulbs working as blinkers, position, fog and stop lights ... and y'all guess what, i never heard that anybody ever had a problem with this setup. I remember, that many old cars at the occasion of facelift, had their blinkers swapped out from amber to clear with amber bulb inside, and it wasn't a problem back than. Now many cars have their front lights all clear and back lights clear (reversing lights and blinkers) and red (position and brake lights), some others have amber lampshade as a design choice... To add up to the mix, some european cars have automatic hazard lights firing up, when the emergency braking is done, like "I'm not just braking, i'm dropping anchors!!!" So the driver behind will see not just three stop lights, but also hazards firing up...that means he must "drop the anchor" also. It's a stark contrast to the US brake/blinker setup...

In France, we had Renault Espace. Fourth generation was the best.

There isn't a law in Europe that say direction light "glass" have to be amber(yellow) as long the bulb is it is ok. That's why you can see some cars with no coloured (and even darkened) rear light assemblies. But it is mandatory to have blinking direction lights on the side of the car, either on the from fender or some have on the side mirrors. That eliminates the problem of not seeing the rear (or front) blinkers when at an angle.

Fun fact german motorcyles before the middle of the seventies used amber breaklight and red taillights

In Europe the red light being on doesn't always mean the car is braking. During the night you have both front and rear lights on so there's a red light on at the back. When applying brakes the brightness increases along with the third light coming on.

I've seen people who had put US-Style tail lights on their vehicles here in Germany. Of Course red indicator lights are not allowed, so the "semi-legal" solution to put green light bulbs in. The red housing filters the green light in the way that it turns amber.

The Porsche 968 (1991 to 1995) that was brought out to replace the 924/944 was noted in car magazines of the time for the trick it's rear tail light design had. It was an all red design, but had a trick filter system so when lit the indicators flashed amber, and the reverse lights lit white.

In Australia we've had separate amber turn and brake lights since 1960 that I remember,come on America catch up!!

2:09 Before the pandemic in the Balkans, middle aged dads were falling in love with used french (and german) minivans and crossovers. (Citroen C4, Peugeot 5008, VW Touran etc.) I still see them everywhere, but now the newest craze is bosses and managers importing F150's and Silverado's and Toyota Tundra's.

When there is a traffic jam in The Netherlands we warn other drivers with the hazard lights. I wouldn't do that if it switches my brake lights off as I want to warn people I am slowing down.

European cars even have flashing blinkers/indicators built in their mirror, so you can see someone tries to turn when you're aproaching this car from an angle... (My mom was driving a 2005 VW Polo and that car had indicators in the mirror (bottom of it)

damn i love the vibe of your videos man, the subjects are depending on people taste but is always so nice, chill and friendly. Big hug from Portugal and all the best!

On some models of UK and European cars the red lights can be used for two purposes. They are used as the standard tail light and they are also used as the brake lights. The difference being that it is a 'twin element' bulb. The tail light element is a lower brightness compared to the brake light element. Basically when you touch the brakes the light gets a lot brighter. The Equinox and Cruze are sold outside the US under the Daewoo and Holden brands.

Minivans were extremely popular here in Germany about the same time as in the USA. They never really looked exciting, they never were designed for having fun on the road. But on the other hand, they offered an elevated seating position like a SUV, they were highly versatile, offered extremely large internal room with removable seats and often had a continous cabin floor front to back. Another benefit is their low fuel consumption due to favorable aerodynamics. They usually offered all that extra room without needing more fuel than a big sedan. Usually they were bought by families but they were in commercial use too. Young guys often inherited them from their parents as their first car and quickly found out how useful the large internal room is for all kinds of activities. Some German fast luxury cars have "emergency brake lights" that work normally when you are just casually driving, but they change to fast flashing when extreme brake force is applied in an emergency situation. That's totally street legal here because the law accepts them as an optional, additional safety feature. In the USA a flashing red brake light would cause massive confusion. Clean look is certainly one of the reasons for using all red tail lights. It's basically the same with the front turn signals in Europe. Until the 90s they had amber glass with a clear light bulb behind it. Today, for clean looks only, front turn signals usually have clear glass and only the light bulb (or LED) is amber. Subaru uses clear glass in the back too.

Using the Turn Light means communicating. Many have a serious communication problem. And that applies worldwide. Greeting from Germany.

There is no law that says it should be amber turning lights, so the law needs to change this.

In my youth when I rode motorcycles, on occasions I would break my rear light cover I would simply paint the bulb red instead; got pulled over a number of times and ‘threatened’ with prosecution for faulty lights, I stated “if you read the code, it simply states the rear light must be operational and must show red, and I was in full compliance with the code”. This is in the U.K. Not once did I get prosecuted! I did always replace the lens cover, but being an older model (1968 Triumph Bonneville) replacements were rarely held in stock and normally took 2-3 weeks to arrive once ordered.

I'd much rather we had minivans everywhere instead of giants oversized lifted blocky pickups with empty beds and blind spots that can easily accommodate 17 children

Another problem is when you import a car from the US, i got here in Sweden an imported Camaro. The problem is when you need to change it from red to orange, on some cars like on my Camaro you can change your reverse light in to indicator. But thats because reverse light isnt legaly manditory here in Sweden. But on many cars that is not an option because the placing of the reverse light. But then there are many cars here in Europe that has a red tail light but it flashes orange when you indicate. Looks good and is functional. Reading this make my head spin... but i hope you get what i mean 😁

Some cars sold here in Europe have started doing the 2 for one too, the turn signal is in the same place as the brake light, it just starts flashing yellow

that Chervolet Volt was sold in Europe, we had 2 versions 1 as Chervolet Volt and 1 as Opel Ampera both the same car, but both come with amber turn signals and red breaklights.

17:42 BMWs are assembled in the US, with 70% of them exported to 120 different countries. So I guess the choice of taillight/indicator assembly depends on the country of destination reflecting both regulations and customer preferences.

I'm glad you touched on this because I literally do not understand why they do that in the United States! It makes absolutely zero sense especially when it's illegal to use hazards in some states.

My 2022 Mustang here in Australia originally had the inner 2 stripes as red brake lights, and the outer stripe as a blinker/turn indicator. $1200 later it now has an "animated" brake where the center turns red, then about 1/2 second later the outer 2 turn red. When the blinker is initiated it scrolls an amber light inner, center, outer for about 0.3 seconds each and then all off for about 0.8 seconds in turn, and if you have the brakes on then that 0.8 seconds of no indicator it turns red again. Works really well and loads of people love it as it's different to the standard 2 red 1 amber lights that come stock

In Croatia, and most of the Europe it is quite common to turn on hazard lights if driving on a highway and coming to traffic jam. It indicates drivers behind you that you might have to brake much harder and come to full stop from high speed. hazard lights are also a signal to thank driver behind you who yield in a city during traffic jams when he had a right of pass.

The first and second generation Dodge Viper DID indeed have amber rear turn signals! In fact, they where physically separated from the main brake lights! The 3rd gen also had a clear piece inside the red lights that flashed amber. EDIT: I commented before the end!

I would have thought the brake light/indicator was a 1960s-1980s thing (thinking of all the movies and TV show cars that did it) and it would have gone out of fashion by now.

So does Front and Rear Number plates makes a lot of sense

Hi Ian i have a 67 Firebird in Australia, I had to cut out the red plastic and glue in amber plastic to the rear tailights for the indicators.

The cost cutting only gets funnier when you see multiple red bulbs being used. For the record, the objectively best tail lights can be found on the Mini Cooper 🇬🇧

What's also strange and impractical is that the US has still not switched to the much more practical and less error-prone metric system. It's also such an anachronism with electricity: 110 V and huge, clunky sockets.

Technology Connections is a American as far as i know... and he makes a really good amount of cool videos about lots of differences and common things all over the world. ;) The web says he is located in Chicago, Illinois. ;) Maybe it's worth to look into them ...... to extend your channel beyond cars and beer.... just a bit, for the horizont... You might like it. ;) Like .. do you have a electric kettle in your home? If not, _why_? ;) Ask alec, he can tell you why it makes sense, still. ;)

Not to mention that in the old cars replacing a burn out bulb in indicators or other light costs pennies compared to dead led lights which require sometimes to replace the whole lamp (when the broken led is embed in an irreplaceable manner - which is usually the case).

the NHTSA should force ALL the manufacturers to use the safest version, so then is no question about on how to save cents/pennies on this

Don't forget I Europe we now have advanced brake lights. They flash under extreme breaking.

The "American" system used to be the international standard before amber turn signals were invented and integrated into the tail light system. Many people seem to forget that. It's just that the Americans retained the original system while the rest of the world switched to the amber system. New Zealand is possibly the only country outside of North America that allows the US system, but only on American designed cars (even those that were assembled here retained the American tail light system), everything else is amber. I've owned several American cars here, 64 Fairlane (NZ assembled RHD), 69 Chevy Caprice, 73 Cadillac Coupe De Ville, 75 Cadillac Coupe De Ville, 84 Cadillac Sedan De ville, all with the combination brake/turn signal and a 07 SRX, and currently a 98 DeVille both exports to Japan and both with amber turn signals factory built into the tail light system (the 98 is ex-US embassy car and LHD, the SRX is RHD). Euro cars built for the US market have to be built to US spec, and often built in the US so have no amber rear turn signals. Japanese cars built for the US I think it depends on where the model was built. If built in Japan will have amber, if built in a US factory won't have amber. i don't know. One I always thought was unusual was the Firebird/Camaro. Basically the same car but the Firebird never had amber, yet the (later) Camaro only had amber turn signals. Incidentally to tell where a Ford F100 was built down here back in the day, if the reverse lights where orange and wired to be turn signals it was built in Australia, if the reverse lights were not modified and the brake lights flashed as turn signals it was built in NZ. Same with square body Chevys.

I like it when the whole tail lights are red. Especially the big old American cars with the humongous taillights. You cant miss it when An 60's or 70's AMerican car turns right or left.

I'm in Australia, The new Chevy Silverado and the Dodge Ram trucks are sold here. When new LHD vehicles are sold here, they have to be converted to RHD and modified to comply with local laws. It doesn't matter for classics. They change the indicator lights over to amber ones when they come over. Interestingly this is done in the old Holden HSV plant where I live.

Sorry I don't have telegram but Jan de Rooy 1988 Paris Dakar. And he is a fake Doug DeMuro

His argument is correct, as the Chevy Volt is actually an Opel - in Germany: Opel designed and engineered this car, so it is European ! Australia's version was called a Holden. Therefore, Chevrolet DIDN'T save money on CHANGING the lights from European style to the US, but cost them money, as they had to modify them. The mind boggles.

You know, now that you mention it, as 50 yo Canadian, I remember amber signal lights as a kid but never even noticed them disappearing.

In Australia we received the Chevrolet Cruze sedan and Chevrolet Equinox, but they were sold as the Holden Astra sedan and Holden Equinox and yep, those clear indicators flashed amber over here! It's crazy that they would not do the same for the North American market! In Australia, rear indicators have to flash amber. The remanufacturing from LHD to RHD American pickups by RAM, Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota in Australia, all have rear flashing amber indicators and separate reverse lights as well. When Holden decided to import the Chevrolet Suburban back in 1998 as the Holden Suburban, the rear indicators flashed amber. This was helped by the fact that it was built in Mexico. It was the same case with the Ford F-250 and F-350 when Ford Australia began importing them from Brazil and again, they came with rear amber flashing indicators straight from the factory. MPV's or Minivans have never really been big sellers in Australia, but thanks to the Volkswagen Kombi, that was the van that started the whole van craze in our part of the world. After that, the Toyota Tarago took over, which was called the Toyota Van in the US and then the Toyota Previa. We did receive the Honda Odyssey in Australia, but we received the Global model, only sharing the first generation with the US. The Kia Carnival is now the king of the MPV market in Australia.

I work as an automotive sparky in Germany. Here we need to modify the lighting system of all cars imported from North America, that are built after 1970. There is a way of keeping the all red look, but having amber turn signals. I just disable the red turn signal and use the reverse light as the turn signals, of course fitted with an amber bulb. For the reverse light, i just fit a small white LED bar under the bumper.

For me, its also weird to see the third break light so low on the vehicle. Here in The Netherlands they are supposed to be on the top of the vehicle, so at the top of the back window. In this way, the light is visible through cars, so I can see the car ahead of the car in front of me breaking.

Quite a few cars have clear indicators here in Australia but run an Amber globe. That could be the case for the newer viper

UK here. I’ve noticed the brake light flash in various films for years and have been over to Seattle and Chicago and also over into Canada (Vancouver). At first I thought I was imagining it! I’d never considered the effect on reaction time for drivers following. Oh - minivan - here in the UK the Renault Espace launched in the 1980’s (maybe 1984) and that dominated that market sector here, followed by the Scenic (a smaller “compact” minivan). Great video! Nice to discover your channel 😊

As an aside, Australia also mandated for rear amber turn signals. For this reason, I bought new tail light assemblies from Australia for my 1984 Mazda B2000 project so that I wouldn’t run the red brake light/red turn signal setup.

Just FYI ^^: Since the end of 2019 EU-regulation 2019/2144* is in force. one of the changes that brought is: An emergency brake light as an assistance system that indicates to the road users behind the vehicle that the vehicle is braking with a strong deceleration (iirc: 6m/s², over 50km/h) rate for the given road conditions. When a driver brakes hard, the brake light flashes + is brighter than in a "normal" braking and are therefore more visibly than usual, so other drivers behind are warned and can react earlier. Beginning on July 6, 2022, it applies to all new car models in the EU. As of July 7, 2024 the system must be standard issue for all newly registered passenger cars in the EU. * "Regulation on the type-approval requirements for motor vehicles and their trailers, and systems, components and separate technical units intended for such vehicles as regards their general safety and the protection of vehicle occupants and vulnerable road users ..."

Two youtube content creators I enjoy in one video

9:57 I was indeed wondering about this. Here in the Netherlands we have the habbit to turn on the emergency/hazard lights when approaching and slowing down for congested trafic (keeping an eye on the rearview mirror and saving enough distance to prevent a potential chain colision) signalling to drivers behind us that there is an upcoming congestion and should moderate/lower their speed. In a different scenario like an emergency hard stop, cars in Europe automatically turn on their hazard lights and the third breaking light starts flashing rapidly, indicating an abrupt emergency stop. I've driven in South Georgia for a little over a year and seeing breaklights blink to indicate a turn signal baffled me at first (still does). I mean, yes it works, but it's far from safe or clear enough to accidentally misinterpret the light.

Amber lights don't mean that the glass design is amber. In the 90 they begin to be black with amber light inside, then in the 2000 most of the cars have red and white. Some have all red design, like the Peugeot 206, and inside all bulbs with the rigjt colors (for amber they use green glass under red to make it amber when the light is on)

It´s funny how the industry introduces lots of airbags, ESP, adaptative cruise control, cross lane alarms, etc, meanwhile a single turn signal in a different colour represents a drastic budget raise and does not look "cool".

Up to 7:10 => I think the issue with only one brake light left that also is turning signaling is that if the driver in front brakes by small amounts at a time (it help with your brake disks' longevity), it could even "blink like a blinker" and confuse people even more.

Ah, Technology Connections. Alec Watson is a fantastic content creator. His RCA CED "trilogy" is a real saga. 1:48 I love _this_ Doug deMuro parody.

I also just learned that white reversing lights aren't (or recently weren't) mandatory in the in some places, which is perhaps even weirder.

Technology Connections is a great channel that makes mundane topics interesting enough to sit through a 20-30 mins video 😄 great casual entertainment. Anyway, with LED lights getting to be the norm, they could basically have two colour LEDs in a section of the brake light, and then "borrow" that section for amber while turning. Then it would be invisible while not in use.

In Europe drivers driving on the highways use hazard lights to warn others behind them that there is a sudden traffic jam, an accident or any other unsuspected thing on the road. Drivers turn hazards for a moment while breaking for a dangerous situation. Also in some countries drivers use hazards as "thank you" or "I am sorry" sign to other drivers.

This is a great video. Combined brake light/indicator is a silly an idea as being allowed to turn right on a red light (Left turn of course for us Brits). I have seen enough video clips on here which prove that this is a silly idea.

u guys should see the superfest glass story , they invented them in 1980 as a purpose , durability , glass cups that when fall to ground dont break, but they were soon turn down because companies make more money when people buys dozens of cups during life because they break so easy

Just for information, isn't european standard, amber lights are a world standard, of course not in north america. But, here in Switzerland, you can import and register cars with north america standard lights.

If I remember correctly, someone in the comments of the original video said that in North America there's a minimum size (area) for the rear signals. That's why adding large enough non-obligatory separate signal lights could expand the light clusters larger than what would fit nicely with the rest of the design. And that could be why some cars that originally were designed with separate signals end up having brake lights used instead in North America, if the signal lights weren't large enough but the brake light would be, either direcly or after combining the area of the original brake light and signal light into a larger dual-purpose light. After reading that comment I paid attention here in Finland that there's at least one (French?) car model around that has really tiny rear signals that make me wonder if there should be a requirement for the minimum size here as well (though, could be that there is by now -- the cars with the tiny rear signals are all a bit old). A related observation of mine is that in the recent years cars have emerged with the rear signals consisting of line of tiny amber leds that make a smooth animation of a line extending towards the side. Perhaps it's just me, but I think a signal that switches on and off instantly would be better noticeable than the smooth animaton, which also usually consists of a _really thin_ line. I think it's a design that probably is supposed to look cool and modern, but in my opinion is dumb and not practical. I have no idea how the North American variants of tose cars would be like (if such exist).

Actually the all-red solution is not really simpler/cheaper to implement. The flasher relay switching has to be changed over from normally off under steady driving to normally on when the brake light switch is operated. Thus requires either an extra relay or extra contacts to accomplish. With separate ambers, the relay is always off when not flashing.

In Germany the VW Sharan was one of the most sold Mini Vans in the '90

some cars have all red tail lights in Europe (ex. older Peugeot) but have separate indicator for turning that has an extra lair of green glass or green light under and when it flashes it is amber

Some of the things that i sell in Poland are car bulbs, LEDs, DRLs and so on. A lot of ppl that buy cars from USA buy green bulbs so with red lamps they will look yellow.

In European regulations there is a clear line with the colors of the lights: white in the direction of movement, red in the opposite direction and amber for warnings. That is why all the front lights and markers are white, all the rear lights and markers are red (except the reverse ligth which is white because it illuminates in the direction of movement) and all the direction lights and warning lights are red. amber color (they are the same devices). In recent years there is a small exception, when a vehicle is stopped, a very strong regulation allows all the brake lights (or warning lights) to flash for a few seconds.

I imported a Dodge Ram into Germany, and the very first thing I had to do, in order for it to be allowed to be driven here, was change out all the lights of the vehicle. It's not only the fact that we have the red/amber system, but also the brightness and height/angle of the front lights are very different.

Now it's getting really funny. I live in Germany close to the US Airbase Ramstein. There are a lot of US models (also from European manufacturers) driving around there and even the European manufacturers use red indicators. When I saw the models (BMW or Mercedes) for the first time I thought they had an electronic fault. But because of the side markings I knew, ah... US model... So confusing here.

I’m from Portugal, if you are on a higway and you notice that the traffic is stoping ahead you slightly brake and turn on the azzard lights to warn the cars behind you that you are about to stop or slow down considerably. With the US scheem of lights this houldnt work.

I'm German and have been to several European countries. Brake lights are red, turn signals are amber, that's so much in my brain that driving in the U.S. sure would be confusing to me in the beginning. The two different colors communicate action and intention at the same time: The guy in front of me brakes because he's preparing for a turn. There can be no misunderstanding.