Great stuff!!

WorldCarFans.com Page 

240Driver, I'm not sure that's correct. This petition by MBUSA to NHTSA for a two-year exemption to the Federal requirement for brake lamps to burn steadily was granted.

 If in fact that 2 year period has expired, or there's been some other regulatory development that's precluded the installation of this particular variety of what's generally known as "emergency braking display", then that's a very good thing, in my view. Not only is this a seldom-seen, nonstandardised signal mode, which likely cancels any benefit by forcing a driver observing it to make a determination of what it's trying to tell him before he can act (which'll easily take up all that "extra" warning time, if not worsen overall reaction time compared to baseline w/ordinary brake lamps), but in North America we already have a standardised meaning of a flashing red light: rear turn signals are (still!) allowed to be red in North America, so a flashing red light means you're looking at a car made by a company that cares more about cheap compliance and/or fabricated BS like "Americans prefer the style of red rear turn signals" than they care about safety. Or maybe you're looking at a school bus — those already have their own standardised meaning of flashing-red. Or maybe you're looking at some dimwit who's installed a flasher module on his centre 3rd brake light.

No, flashing brake lamps is just not a good idea. Making them "grow" (i.e., the illuminated area gets larger) or making them brighter under emergency braking situations is a much better idea, even if MB didn't think to do it that way.