Vehicle-to-Vehicle Synchronization Saves Lives

[@timtom7097]

When I was a truck driver, The lights would completely blind me to the point i was getting the cops angry. This product evolution is very necessary, The lights are so bright you cant see past them at night.

[@chpman2013]

Quite a long way emergency lights and light functions have come in the last 3 decades.

[@fier23]

You can see past them. You keep your eyes on the ROAD and not the emergency. I’ve been with our dept 28yrs here in KC and this new light fading fad needs to go. They have no attention getting patterns and allow rubber necking worse than ever before and has resulted in more back-up wrecks and closer calls with motorists positioning themselves closer to the scene. When it’s bright it keeps you from seeing the scene, forcing the driver to look at their path of travel rather than seeing sun spots.

[@timtom7097]

@@fier23 Thanks, Glade you were in the truck with me..., Shocker gramps does not like new technology. I COULD NOT SEE THE ROAD>I SLOW DOWN BECAUSE SOMEONE IS SHINING A FLASHING SPOTLIGHT IN MY EYES> STILL MAKE POLICE MAD

[@automation7295]

I guess you all wish this technology existed in the 80's and 90's?

[@automation7295]

​@@timtom7097Some people don't like flashing lights, even if they don't look at it.

[@adamhenry5791]

This is what the LED bars needed. It’s nice to have the brightness while moving, but the bars are just to bright while at scene. Sync was probably the best idea and fix for today’s LED Bars.

[@automation7295]

I guess you now wish that LED lightbars existed during 80's and 90's?

[@automation7295]

It's funny when people see new technologies, they sudden wish that emergency vehicles had LED lightbar during the 70,'s, 80's and 90's.

[@adamhenry5791]

@@automation7295 LED bars are certainly superior to the old rotators but I like what we had in the 90’s.

[@automation7295]

​@@adamhenry5791 Yes LED lightbars are superior to the old rotators, but nobody suddenly wish LED lightbars on emergency vehicles existed back in the 70's, 80's and 90's.

[@TheRealWadeW]

They have a dim function. Also beneficial

[@Croissinate]

This is the weirdest and coolest idea I've heard of in a long time.

[@PeterLGଈ]

Long-time firefighter and when the trucks have their lights going at night, it can be a bloody nightmare trying to move around a scene safely. This will be a huge help. Thank you, Whelen.

[@I_Am_Your_Problem]

Awwww... They fuck it up... Then solve it and charge the public for the privilege.

[@PeterLGଈ]

@I_Am_Your_Problem Rubbish. Emergency vehicle lighting has evolved over decades. There's no way this sort of technology would have been available sooner than now. I was involved in studies carried out by the NSW Rural Fire Service into vehicle lighting just over a decade ago, mostly focussed on incandescent versus LED, and this sort of control wasn't available even then.

[@MCMXI1]

All this and police departments East of the Mississippi still can't hook up their siren park kill switch.

[@napsterbater]

That's the biggest thing that infuriates me.. this has been a feature of sirens for like 20 years or longer... Police intercept vehicles have the wiring ready to go.. it just needs to be hooked up... And the fact that they can even bother with that.

[@Distress.]

What's that?

[@napsterbater]

@@Distress. Sirens have a wire that can be hooked to the vehicle that when the vehicle is put into park it turns the siren off. So you know when they come to a screeching hall at the end of a Chase and get out of the vehicle and they're trying to yell commands at somebody, the person can't hear them because of course the sirens are blaring from 40 cop cars. It's a very simple hookup, the police interceptor vehicles from the manufacturers already have the hookup available, the sirens have the hookup available, yet they don't have their installers hook it up.

[@Distress.]

@@napsterbater that would be endlessly frustrating

[@Distress.]

@@napsterbater should be legally required

[@babybirdhome]

This is a great use of technology! As someone who’s on the spectrum and can sometimes be overwhelmed or distracted by excessively blinky, blinding, flashing lights, this will save lives. Great work on your engineering team’s part and whoever came up with the idea! Now the next big hurdle will be turning something like this into a public standard so that it can work with competitors’ products too so that a department can start taking advantage of it immediately rather than having to wait until they have the budget to replace the entire fleet at once. That’s a much bigger hurdle, but even just a very basic sync system would be good to introduce industry-wide, and Whelen could be the driver behind that much needed improvement.

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

In recent years a lot of vehicles excessively mix colours. I for example find a simple on off wig wag all red light bar more noticeable than one with multiple fast flash rates and 3 or more colours.

[@galacticboy2009]

I would assume the system would either use Bluetooth, or output some sort of a timecode signal on a very specific frequency, while listening on another frequency. If that part were standardized and kept very simple, you could have the lights all broadcast "RED, BLUE, RED, BLUE" and specify a rate of change, in order to synchronize their clocks. I guarantee a lot of manufacturers, suppliers, and installers, would be left out in the cold by this.. but they'd all need to be let know 2 years in advance so they could sell off all their existing stock and develop new hardware in line with whatever standard. I'm also assuming it would be legislated on a state level. So unless it was a massive state that enacted such a rule, most manufacturers wouldn't even care, they just wouldn't make lights for that state anymore.

[@ChristopherBurtraw]

I didn't know they synced up, but that they slow down the pattern when parked is also appreciated.

[@WhelenEng]

Right?! Isn't it awesome?

[@Ryansanders80]

my local department made the switch, it is so much safer to pass officers during traffic stops now.

[@TheTman9898]

I think it adds to the professionalism

[@DerekMartell]

Its about time. This need to be everywhere. When i drive by an accident and its chaotic lighting i gotta focus so much just to get through the flashing. Especially if its at night or if it just rained. It always felt unreasonably stressful to drivers and glad to see im not alone. God i love driving and i love cop cars but i do not love driving next to 5 cop cars through a detour laid up with road flairs.

[@Cfomodz]

This is amazing. It’s able to send a message - such as, pull that way - instead of just Screaming nonsense into the air - “HEY LOOK AT ME” while not telling me what it is that you want me to be doing about the fact that you’re there. This is amazing, and can confidently say as someone with sensory issues that this will allow me to better do what it is that you are trying to communicate needs done, because tons of random lights at different times and patterns doesn’t.

[@pontiac_montana]

Dang, thank you Whelen! This wasn't something I've thought about until recently but it's a great idea!

[@zz449944]

The old, rotating light bars were great. All these new fluttery-flashy lights are a huge mess. Step 1 -- slow down the speed of the flashing, get rid of the rapid flutter of lights. Step 2 -- Have flashing lights that actually turn completely OFF and then ON. Synchronization is a great idea. :)

[@12799MaDeuce]

As someone who has a hard time dealing with bright lights at night, this is a fantastic feature and should be mandated for any vehicle that has strobe lights

[@Neberheim]

Need to auto-dim at night, if that’s not already an option. I wish we could get a DOT regulation that requires solid blue and red with a directional amber light bar once stopped.

[@spyder027]

I think that would be dangerous especially on busier streets. You need a bright strobe on a 70mph freeway so people notice. On a 35mph suburb road though it would work great

[@aarongrantthebulk]

This is awesome. Now install automatic environmental adjustment if you haven’t already. Think I simple light sensor would work. Night time/dark days they dim right down and sunny days go max brightness. In New Zealand they have to be visible 300ft, but at night I can see them for miles!

[@cameron.t]

This is awesome! Always leaned on the side of supporting LEOs but I’ve always wondered if there could be ways to de-escalate situations. This is something I never thought of. The way the deputy talks relaxes me. He presents himself almost like a hospitality manager. Good to see this type of person in charge.

[@neromastic4512]

This is absolute amazing A phenomenal milestones for emergency lights.

[@DrLumpyDMus]

My first emergency vehicle was a 1967 Cadillac ambulance. It's entire lighting compliment was two sealed beam beacons and a solid red, sealed beam, forward facing Atlas spotlight. If we worked out of the backup ambulance it had a Mars lamp instead of the two gum ball machines. Sirens? One had a Q, the other had an engine belt driven B&M mechanical. No yelp, no hi-lo, no phaser, no air horn, no PA or radio repeat. One light mode, one siren mode. Needless to say, we never had a problem with "Chaotic light patterns". But the whole thing did draw just under 100 amps with everything running.🙂 The fun of the Federal Q siren was to see if you could wind it up as you left the station and allow it to coast back down over the entire time needed to get to the call. Thanks Whelen, for turning down the "volume".

[@jinxedjuno]

v2v is my favourite feature tbh, it’s such a simple thing, but makes a huge difference.

[@evanflredondo]

Crazy how something so small makes a huge impact.

[@Oppatwunk]

This is brilliant technology, so simple, yet such an impactful thing for so many reason. Hoping to push for this to get adopted nationwide!

[@AMT4245]

I SAID THIS. 10 YEARS AGO. I WAS TOLD I WAS CRAZY AND OVERTHINKING IT.

[@WeissHS]

I saw this for the first time on the highway the other day, that's really cool! It's much less harsh and distracting. Hopefully this will be a lot better for epileptics as well! Really cool!

[@supertrooper7273]

Thank god, this is probably one of the greatest advances in emergency services in recent history. Far too many times I’ve driven past a scene and couldn’t see a damn thing because it’s all too bright and chaotic, and I have 20/20 vision, I couldn’t imagine if someone had an astigmatism or just impaired vision. Thank y’all for this. Hopefully departments will upgrade quickly

[@RVthereyet25]

Night mode, slower patterns and Park kill for the siren. 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

[@obsornobs6063]

At my work we have Whelen lights on our plows and they are awesome totally game changer honestly wish we had them on all trucks and really wish I had them on my personal for when I go rescue friends broke down on the side off the road can’t wait to see what y’all come up with next

[@SirenRecordingsofIowa]

Funny that you uploaded, I was hoping yall wpuld cause I wanted to say Ima record a Whelen Vortex that sounds like a Federal Signal Modulator. Still I really appriciate what you guys do for the community, very efficient and astonishing

[@maxmyzer9172]

I noticed this on occasion, cool that its a feature

[@211Gus]

I've always contended steady burn ala CHP in the front and a slower flasher in the rear is best. Also, you don't need the amount of lighting that some departments have in their cars. Looking like a Vegas billboard with how bright they are

[@Sangman]

The footage of the "old style" lights seems to have been taken via a dashcam through a wet windshield, while the footage of this new product was taken via a drone shot. Not to claim this product doesn't work but is there footage of the new product with the same setup in similar conditions?

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

How's about slower and straighter flash patterns and not mixing the light colours so close together?

[@dlyselxics]

Sheriff's Office here has these, they're pretty sweet! Love the products

[@schmal911]

if you guys actually wanted to save lives then you would work with your competitors to standardize this stuff.

[@numjro]

Yes!

[@Gizzle605]

As the old expression goes, you can lead a horse to water, but can’t make it drink. Each brand is out to make money and leave their mark if you will. I agree it would be nice for Whelen, Code 3 and SoundOff Signal, etc. to work together to some degree, but it’s highly unlikely as someone else already stated.

[@tellucas]

At the very least if a compeditor brand arrives, it could at least adopt the same flash rate even if it had a different pattern.

[@tacticaldude35]

no way photon man here

[@arnehurnik]

I'm hoping that this will become an open and international standard one day. I'd love to see it in Europe as well, since we have exclusively blue flashing lights here which are the more blinding kind.

[@David-fj5md]

Just the idea of having LED lights flash in an alternating pattern slowly as a old school halogen flasher does is a refreshing change. From videos that I have seen of accident scenes from 40 or so years ago looks so much different than they do today because the overwhelming strobe effect of emergency vehicles. Even rotator lights weren't as overbearing as strobe or LED are.

[@siberx4]

I mean, the synchronization is a nice trick and probably helps, but can we start by putting light sensors on the cars so they don't operate at what feels like sunlight levels of brightness in the middle of the night when it's pitch black? The unsychronized lights are dazzling drivers because they're so bright in the first place; it's not helping safety at this point, the cars can be seen from miles away, and actively washing out my ability to see the road as I try to avoid and pass the emergency vehicle response is _increasing_ the risk of extra crashes. The LED technology has gotten _too good_ for this application; producing blindingly bright light power-efficiently is now trivial, and obviously emergency vehicles will say "I want the brightest lights you can make" but we're well past the point of diminishing returns and I would really like to see some regulation that controls emergency vehicle brightness especially when stopped and especially when it's dark.

[@kklogins]

This is such a simple thing, that might seem unnecessary, but really makes a difference once you've seen it. I wonder how long it'll be before sirens get pushed to surrounding car's audio system. That could majorly decrease the travel time & literally save lives...

[@DRawwrrr]

Do they automatically engage a high brightness mode in the daytime and a lower brightness mode at night, or is the only" innovation" here that the flash patterns are coordinated?

[@thatguy3892]

If synchronization is as important as Whelen would like us to believe, I hope they're openly allowing other industry players to integrate with this tech.

[@jb5music]

It allows the drivers to see the ass end of the patrol vehicle sticking out in the middle of the lane as if the universe doesn't exist behind it.

[@spyder027]

I actually noticed this a few weeks ago. Two cops were on a stop on the highway and their strobes were synced up.

[@pythonboi5816]

Can we have just blinkers? Like synced blinkers?

[@chpman2013]

I wonder what would happen if an emergency vehicle equipped with the Whelen synchro function were to come into contact with a different emergency vehicle equipped with a Federal Signal or Soundoff Signal synchro function.

[@911HRW]

I wonder what would happen if I used my iPhone near someone with an android

[@farmer07511]

Inter-product compatibility would be great. Probably won't happen sadly though

[@chpman2013]

@@911HRW good point

[@chpman2013]

@@farmer07511 that would require some form of cooperation between the lights and siren companies. It may happen one day...

[@schmal911]

@@911HRW for what it's worth, Google and Apple do actually cooperate when it comes to public safety stuff. Whelen, FedSig and SOS? Yeah... not so much.

[@GoHerping]

its a clever ad in the sense the befores and afters aren't apples to apples lol. 0:59's overexposure with a lens filter vs the appropriately exposed 1:17 with a clear lens

[@Bestrian]

We defiintely need this here in Germany.

[@The_Orchestrator_of_Chaos]

This is really an amazing idea😮

[@joshuarivera3617]

This is actually really cool

[@minnybiker4505]

I just noticed this recently! Very cool!

[@vivideradicator]

Different camera settings… keep the settings the same if you’re going to show your product??

[@towcat]

Can we get them in Amber bars for service and recovery trucks as well? I'd absolutely put this on my rollback

[@schwarzwolfram7925]

It's not so much the synchronizing, although that is certainly impactful, as it is the _not strobing._ Strobes indicate erratic behavior because they are erratic lights. Smooth fading and intervals are closer to hazards/four-way-flashers; which indicate _stationary._

[@apersunthathasaridiculousl1890]

Honestly looks like some game devs got lazy with the police lighting, but this is waaay easier on the eyes

[@jasonpeterson6163]

Good job Whelen. I like your products I use the mini bar for my car. You're making good ideas, keep it up. 👍

[@WhelenEng]

Thanks so much! We appreciate it!😊

[@Leafyfpv]

Really helps limit the chaos of the scene.

[@WhelenEng]

Exactly!

[@MisterMotel]

its cool and all but maybe just look at Europe, and realize you dont need that many lights on all the cars at all. its like a Christmas tree on your units.

[@csmlouis]

Is there an effort to have the LED emitting housing to carry electrochromic lens (the now common conference room glass that can change opacity via voltage)? Just imagine changing projective ray into a diffused state; basically your soft(er) lights. I cannot be the only one to say the current strobes and flood are wayyy too projective and linear to the point it is night blindness inducing.

[@AbNomal621]

Glad to see so,e thinking about this. Seems like some are so good in the day they become dangerous at night.

[@Jump-n-smash]

Pretty interesting product. God speed.

[@heybucko3956]

think about sync in chases

[@napsterbater]

Nothing says it can't be programmed that way.. just an option for the department.. hell just getting them to do rear light cutouts, or at least reducing rear lights when responding is a near impossible task. Let alone even getting departments to have the part kill functions hooked up on their sirens..

[@MrYour101]

I presume this V2V connection is encrypted?

[@mk810]

Is there any reason they have to be that bright?

[@yxngboypolo]

would've been nice to know how the system actually works....

[@AustinHerrig]

Super cool!

[@ppitowman]

Uniformity is another point you guys should touch on. Everyone is on one team not individual players.

[@illygah]

note to self: pensacola has good police

[@JJajaaja223]

it was about time...

[@TGV66]

This is awesome

[@jtb4]

Not sure about the sync, but a night mode when parked would save a blinded motorist from hitting something they can't see passing a scene at night!

[@WhelenEng]

Our Dynamic Variable Intensity (DVI) does just that! This innovative technology enables the creation of light patterns that gradually increase or decrease the light’s output intensity, which better conveys visual information to approaching motorists at night. Helping motorists actually see the first responders on the side of the road.

[@leakd]

Interesting idea!

[@Torbikini]

This is amazing, especially because I know how there’s conditions such as epilepsy and extreme light sensitivity.

[@lavender_heart5263]

thats cool af

[@techcastyt]

Amazing!

[@WhelenEng]

Thanks for the love!

[@celebrityrog]

Apply this to driving synchronization so cars stop having crashes so we don’t need to keep funding projects like this for you.

[@Wrutschgeluck]

saw this ALREADY in 1999 in old GTA 1 ;-)

[@DaniMartVTen]

What's funny as all hell is that law enforcement resources are probably spying on my KZbin activity, and the AI algorithm is registering their identification as the active account.

[@UQRXD]

# 1 The lights are too bright and blinding. The lights seem to attract drunken drivers to them like flame attracts a moth. Many officers have been killed by the "Moth Effect".

[@eckee]

When you have R&D budget but don't know what to do with it

[@dm-zx7xb]

Okay but you don't need the lights just as bright at 12am as you do at 12pm. Surely y'all can comprehend this?

[@dj_ramo]

Genius

[@templar1694]

And now offer it to all police departments in the USA. Start making police vehicles more visible especially when stationary. Police vehicles are being hit behind because some motorists taught they are moving and not stationary.

[@napsterbater]

Every Police department's free to buy this.. problem is there's a ton of law enforcement thinking that is stuck in the past and think brighter more lights and faster flashing and everything is better.. and it's not

[@henryordish]

just turn some of the vehicles lights off. or that's just not gonna fly i guess... if i'm a big police officer with flashy lights then i simply must have them on at all possible times

[@PiereWoehl]

Thats something for Casey

[@SA-hi3eu]

Now sync them up to music.

[@viktor_1939_]

I like random flashing. Feel like being in movie.

[@SuperS05]

I can't possibly forsee any security risk to "just syncing up"...

[@jaryn6552]

If you do a split second of research, you'd find out they're synced on the Atomic Clock. They aren't network connected or anything, and there's really no failure points.

[@jesushalligalli2334]

nice👍

[@honzarox]

Why is the chapter called " *SINKING* vehicles" lol

[@infantryrecon101st]

Or just do solid lights when stopped like CA does.

[@lawoftheland5923]

nobody should model anything off of CA. like anything. at all.

[@infantryrecon101st]

@@lawoftheland5923 lol!!!!!

[@tonytheofficer]

I can understand the sync, but I personally feel like it'll stay noticable if cars aren't synced. You also won't have scenes be filled with blue light, then filled with red light at times. I'm a-okay with the dimming and slowing of flashes on scenes, but I don't see a need for all-car sync lights.

[@chipperlevy8130]

the people that protect us don’t even know?

[@setharnold9764]

Finally!

[@miurako8900]

yall fr copied soundoff signal LOL

[@chris52209]

which is a good thing in this case its a very much needed change

[@lawoftheland5923]

who cares

[@raiden72]

What happened to using the lights to confuse the criminal? Get this ad out of my face

[@stevee7260]

Smart

[@bobfitzgerald14]

This video spends way too much time looking at guys in chairs instead of your product.

[@platoscavealum902]

👍

[@lllilililililililililll]

Guys we've reached the end of the road our lights are bright enough to blind an astronaut and we still aren't seeing an increase in profits what can we do to make the product stand out? How about a light show🤷

[@crackwitz]

Firefly effect

[@whuffer5103]

Still not impressed until the lights synchronize with the in car stereo

[@AnotherBadRep]

Just seems more of a way to pay more taxes for lights. Just leave them alone.