General > General Technical Chat
Insane overengineering of a car headlight
strawberry:
there must be some concept where driver and pedestrian/cyclist must see each other and not only one of them
super bright light is disorienting/blinding in dark night conditions
is removed control of situation in situations where other person is not capable
james_s:
--- Quote from: SilverSolder on February 14, 2022, 08:27:51 pm ---US collision rate is 1.5 collisions per 1M vehicle miles. Assuming a well taken care of vehicle can last 200,000 miles, it is expected to be involved in 0.3 collisions in its life. If the replacement cost of 2 headlamps is $2000, the mathematical expectation for the owner of the fancy lights is $600!
Do the same math for every other over-engineered and overpriced part in your car, and you begin to see the outline of a cost explosion... - if you are a shareholder, then 8) .... if not, then :(
--- End quote ---
The biggest problem is the demise of bumpers. Cars used to have sturdy bumpers to absorb minor impacts and protect the expensive painted bodywork, lights and other stuff. Now the entire front and rear end of cars is a sacrificial structure and there is absolutely nothing to protect the expensive bits. What would have been a minor fender bender now results in a total loss. You cannot even buy a simple, rugged maintainable car anymore.
Gyro:
--- Quote from: Monkeh on February 15, 2022, 09:06:38 pm ---
--- Quote from: Gyro on February 15, 2022, 08:50:26 pm ---Gradual clouding of the outer polycarbonate lenses of headlamps seems to be almost inevitable at some point as the car ages
...
We may end up with a situation where sealed headlamp systems start failing vehicle inspections much sooner than we are accustomed to.
--- End quote ---
It's a good thing they're readily polished then?
--- End quote ---
Yes sure, you can attack them with aftermarket polishing and surface sealing solutions, they'll never be as good as new though. You get crazing and micro cracking in the polycarbonate that you'll never polish out.
Fraser:
I have just seen a suggestion in this thread that yellow driving glasses are good for combating eye fatigue caused by the modern lighting systems. I bought a pair and mentioned them to my optician. He advised that I should not wear yellow tinted glasses at night as the filtering effect means I would not see a pedestrian dressed in blue clothing. I was not aware of this but apparently the wearing of yellow tinted glasses for night driving is a serious no-no. A pity as they did work well against HID headlights.
Fraser
SteveyG:
--- Quote from: tom66 on February 14, 2022, 07:07:18 pm ---Cooler light, which is better for night driving than the warmer light that a halogen produces.
Brighter light in the allowed area, with lower glare, improving visibility.
--- End quote ---
I think those are both incorrect, certainly the colour temperature is known to be preferential for driving at night if it is warmer. There's many studies on this.
Brighter light in the allowed area is also not necessarily a good thing, the eye cannot quickly shift exposure for dark areas so it's very easy to get dark blindness where the beam cannot effectively/legally cover.
Most cars with LEDs that I've driven are OK, probably no better than a decent HID headlamp setup, but the matrix types are extremely distracting both for the driver and oncoming vehicles.
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