At 20:56 26/07/99 -0600, you wrote:
>Dennis Plunkett wrote:
>>
>
>>
>> Yup,
>> There is nothing stopping a manufacturer from using L.E.Ds in tail lights
>> etc. EXCEPT->
>>
>>                                     ********   COST    ********
>>
>> Can't do it cheeper than a globe!
>>
>
>
>I don't doubt that for manufacturing costs, but how do lifetime costs
>compare?  Won't an LED last longer than a bulb, improving replacement
>cost and don't forget the time & trouble to dig out the old bulb.  Isn't
>an equivalent brightness LED more efficient, translating into fuel
>savings?

The manufaturer does not care as this is not a cost that they bare!

>
>But there is another interesting issue that I read about a few years
>ago; I'm assuming its true... An LED comes up to full brightness faster
>than an incandescent bulb, something like a couple of hundred
>milliseconds faster.  Doesn't sound like much, but at 60 MPH, that's an
>additional 18 feet of reaction time and stopping distance for the bozo
>that's barreling down on you from behind.
>
>

Add to this the 200mS that it takes for you to react! Better to change
driving habbits! Take a look at what happened in NY taxis when ABS was
first introduced.

Dennis