Car safety has become one of the most common goals of crowdfunding projects.
GStop is a connected brake safety light for cars that’s designed to prevent rear-end collisions. The device gets connected to a consumer’s third brake light and, when its sensor detects heavy breaking, it immediately causes rapid flashing to the high-level rear brake light to inform drivers behind the user’s car that they should slow down or stop. GStop also works for bikes, motorcycles and vans.
The plug-and-play device has a companion app for Android and iOS that allows users to control GStop’s settings. An Internal Data Logger, meanwhile, records every activation and event and, if there is a collision, the built-in super capacitor continues to log data for up to three minutes after power is removed from the brake light. GStop ships in March and its future price is about $55, but early bird backers can get one at about $38. Its makers are hoping to raise $45,574 by Jan. 14.
The Internal Data Logger is a nice feature because it allows crash data to be recovered and presented if additional supporting evidence is required due to a dispute after an accident. GStop certainly seems to be more useful than Fenderhawk, which records fender benders that happen while the user’s car is parked and that user isn’t around to see the accident firsthand. On the negative side, it’s not clear from the campaign video just how easy it is to install the device and it’s also hard to gauge just how many accidents it will actually prevent.