Vehicle including substantially transparent high mounted stop light

A vehicle (10) comprising:

• brake means (20) for braking the vehicle;
• brake light actuator means for actuating a brake light upon actuation of said brake means (20);
• a passenger compartment (22) including a driver's position;
• a rear window (18) located at the rear of the passenger compartment (22) defining a rear view line of vision from behind the driver's position;
• light projecting means (34) mounted adjacent said rear window (18) at a position offset from said rear view line of vision from said driver's position for projecting a brake light indicating beam (36) upon actuation by said brake light actuator mean;
• semitransparent beam splitting means (38) disposed adjacent said rear window (18) and in said rear view line of vision from said driver's position;
• and shield means for absorbing light projected by said light projecting means (34) and transmitted through said mirror (38) to prevent the projection of the transmitted beam from obstructing the driver's rear view line of vision.

A vehicle (10) comprising:

• brake means (20) for braking the vehicle;
• brake light actuator means for actuating a brake light upon actuation of said brake means (20);
• a passenger compartment (22) including a driver's position;
• a rear window (18) located at the rear of the passenger compartment (22) defining a rear view line of vision from behind the driver's position;
• light projecting means (34) mounted adjacent said rear window (18) at a position offset from said rear view line of vision from said driver's position for projecting a brake light indicating beam (36) upon actuation by said brake light actuator means, and characterized by a semi-transparent beam splitting mirror (38) disposed adjacent said rear window (18) and in said rear view line of vision from said driver's position for reflecting the brake light indicating beams (26) through said rear window (18) while presenting a substantially transparent window to said rear view line of vision from said driver's position, said light projecting means (34) projecting the brake indicating beam (36) on a beam path, said semi-transparent beam splitting mirror (38) including a semi-transparent beam splitting mirror (38) mounted on said beam path and canted relative thereto, said semi-transparent beam splitting means (38) transmitting visible non-red light of wavelenghts from 400 to 600 nanometers and reflecting red light of wavelenghts 600 to 700 nanometers.