Brake lights during regen must annoy following vehicles!

[Pannett]

Our Octavia PHEV used to apply the brake lights when regen braking was operating. I only found out about this during a late-night drive when I saw red reflections in road signs viewed from the rear mirror. This must have been annoying for following vehicles, because when i used cruise control the regen regularly operated to maintain speed. I only had one bad reaction, when a young driver in a Golf overtook, slowed then flashed his brake lights a few times. I suspect that the Corolla does the same. Keeping to a constant speed set on the cruise control does mean that the regen breaking operates to maintain a constant speed. Sometimes, I also sense that the brakes are being applied as well as regen if I approach a speed limit sign and slow down by setting the cruise control speed to the approaching limit. So bear this in mind if following a car whose brake lights flash without slowing down: it may be me! At least the annoying drivers who used to have their rear foglight on permanently have disappeared.

[Corollanutter]

4 minutes ago, Pannett said:

At least the annoying drivers who used to have their rear foglight on permanently have disappeared.

Until the first light mist of the Autumn....

[TonyHSD]

No brake lights in normal regen even on Tesla cars . Unless is in cc and the car needs to apply brake force the lights aren’t active even in full regen slow downs. For brakes to apply you need to see regen is at its max and then feel the car is progressively slowing down even further then the brake lights will be ON. 
Yet to see that on any car. 
Golden rule when following a car is to leave more space and maintain this distance regardless of speed or brake lights been ON. And for the following cars they need to do the same and not get annoyed. They can’t control how I drive but they can control better their cars and take into account what is happening on the front . 

[forkingabout]

Only Toyota's I've seen fitted with brake lights under regen braking are the electric counter balance forklifts & that started about 15 years ago.

[Bernard Foy]

I have noticed that going down a long steep hill that when I lightly apply the brakes the car will slow down as normal and after a short period the brakes seems to release a little even though I'm applying the same pressure, what's going on there can someone explain. 

[Cyker]

I forget the value, but brake lights will only come on during regen if the braking rate is above a certain amount; Virtually all hybrids don't regen brake anywhere near that level of force so the brake lights don't come on for them, as it's analogous to engine braking.

Even on e.g. the Kona EV, the first 2 levels of regen don't trigger the brake lights, only the the last 2, which are strong enough to simulate 1-pedal driving.

 

[Red_Corolla]

1 hour ago, Bernard Foy said:

I have noticed that going down a long steep hill that when I lightly apply the brakes the car will slow down as normal and after a short period the brakes seems to release a little even though I'm applying the same pressure, what's going on there can someone explain. 

A hypothesis: The generator feeds a high current initially to try and recover maximum energy from short braking periods but, after a period of time, has to ease off to protect the electrical system and the Battery. What I'm suggesting is that it starts off with a higher rate of regeneration than it can safely sustain. It would make sense as a strategy as many periods of braking are short-lived.

[sportse]

There’s no brake lights if you use B mode, I’ll occasionally slip into B for a short time to slow off some speed if I don’t want the brake lights to show. You get a reasonable amount of engine braking in B mode. 
 

however you’re wasting economy doing this as there is no regen, it’s an engine brake roughly similar to what trucks have. 

[Cyker]

...and any other ICE with a restricted throttle!