<VV> LED tail lights

[JVHRoberts at aol.com]

They also tried copper clad aluminum battery cables, and that turned out to  
be a nightmare. At the end, for the lights, the wire was always cheaper than 
the  components to reduce the amount of wire. One reason why even today, with  
electronic components being both insanely inexpensive, reliable, and 
versatile,  it STILL doesn't make sense to do anything other than wire the lights the 
old  fashioned way. 
 
In a message dated 2/2/2006 8:35:41 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, pp2 at 6007.us  
writes:

Just for  S&G, in the early 1970s GM was very concerned about the spiraling 
cost  of copper. One of my projects at GMI was to figure out how many long 
runs  of wire could be eliminated and got all of the long front to rear 
wiring  down to two wires with pulse width modulation (instead of resistors) 
and  diode steering (so the side marker and license plate lights would not  
pulse with the turn signals.

Then the price of copper stabilized,  it was realized that trailer wiring 
would require relays or a special  harness the length of the car (a popular 
and profitable option was a  "towing accommodation package"), and the whole 
thing was  shelved.

Padgett