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Insane overengineering of a car headlight

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KE5FX:

--- Quote from: tooki on February 16, 2022, 06:46:08 pm ---I wonder how many Americans think they’ve been dealing with being blinded by modern headlamps, not realizing they’ve never, ever seen them in use? I ask because it was in the news today that just yesterday, the  NHTSA announced that it will finally allow adaptive headlamps and not just “dumb” high and low beams.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/02/the-us-will-finally-allow-adaptive-beam-headlights-on-new-cars/


(Note also that the beam patterns in USA up to now contain a deliberate amount of upwards lighting to illuminate road signs. And that many of the headlamps that really dazzle oncoming traffic are illegal aftermarket units. And that the worst dazzling is experienced by sedan drivers, caused by SUVs both oncoming and behind them, due to the height differential.)

--- End quote ---

Exactly.  Drivers in the US resort to sketchy aftermarket headlights because our Federal lighting standards are criminally obsolete.  It's good to see that NHTSA is finally starting to address this.

Lots of people claim that headlights were "just fine 30 years ago," but they don't understand that we lose about half our contrast sensitivity as we age.  Headlights that were fine when we were in our twenties were never adequate for drivers in their fifties and beyond.

Collisions with animals are also much more frequent now than they were decades ago, when hunting was more of an everyday activity and predators were not aggressively culled, relocated, or otherwise forced from their habitats.   You need every advantage you can get if you drive in an area with a large deer population.

When buying a car, always get the biggest engine and the best headlights the manufacturer offers.   8)  The rest is optional.

tom66:
I have to say I don't find the headlights on modern cars to be excessively glarey.  There was a time maybe 5 years ago when modified HID lamps were more common - perhaps due to the relative durth of LED headlamps - and those were pretty bad. You could usually tell they were modified as they were VERY blue.  I notice many fewer vehicles with those systems on the roads now. Perhaps police/MOT testers are more strict or they went out of fashion, who knows.

The worst offenders are taller vehicles, but even then they're usually required to have a headlight adjustment system, and on most cars that's automatic now which keeps light controlled reasonably well.

I wonder if was VW or Tesla that prompted NHTSA to change their stance on adaptive lights - both have included the systems in certain NA models but had it disabled for regulatory reasons, with a software update at the dealer, or over the air, being all that's required to include it. 

Monkeh:

--- Quote from: KE5FX on February 16, 2022, 10:11:15 pm ---Exactly.  Drivers in the US resort to sketchy aftermarket headlights because our Federal lighting standards are criminally obsolete.  It's good to see that NHTSA is finally starting to address this.

--- End quote ---

Let us know when they finally stop mandating flat mirrors.

coppice:

--- Quote from: tooki on February 13, 2022, 02:29:46 pm ---
--- Quote from: ace1903 on February 13, 2022, 11:30:50 am ---I see this as "just because we can" approach.
99% of the drivers drive on well lighted towns and urban neighborhoods. Even in my country which is the poorest in the Europe all roads are designed to be nice to drive with 30+ years old car.
Where you need to drive your car to see advantages of this level of technology? …

--- End quote ---
Uhhhh… wtf you talking about? In Europe, suburban and rural areas are where people are more likely to own cars. City dwellers mostly rely on public transit.

Have you ever driven in the Swiss countryside? The roads are winding and unlit. And that’s not hours away from cities, but just a few minutes outside.

Around the world we are reducing street lighting because of the negative effects of light pollution. And part of that effort means headlamps must be good.

--- End quote ---
The headlights on many cars are pathetic afterthoughts. We are in the UK, and have two cars. One car has halogen headlights, and one has fancy beam forming automated, and very bright, LED headlights. I think the car with haogen lights has pretty reasonable lights compared to most cars. However, the difference between driving these cars on roads outside a town is huge. Most major roads in the UK only have lighting around major junctions. We spend a large part of our driving time on roads without lighting. Basic bright LED headlights can be really annoying when a car comes towards you, but the beam forming ones don't shine in other driver's eyes. They very quickly adapt as soon as an oncoming car is detected, or as you approach the tail of cars going the same way as you.

The NCAP people are now including lighting performance in the mix of things needed to get the maximum number of stars. They downgraded a lot of cars for poor headlight performance.

G7PSK:
Reading through the construction and use regulations I am not sure that the LED matrix head lamps are even legal here in the UK as the last paragraph states not more more than two dipped head lights, so unless two of those three clusters are switched of on dipped I cannot see how they comply.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989/1796/schedule/4/made

PART II
Requirements relating to optional dipped-beam headlamps
1.  In the case of a vehicle with three or more wheels having a maximum speed exceeding 25 mph first used on or after 1st April 1991, two and not more than two may be fitted and the only requirements prescribed by these Regulations in respect of any which are fitted are–

(a)those specified in paragraphs 2(c), 4, 7, 10 and 12(a) of Part I,
(b)that they are designed for a vehicle which is intended to be driven on the right-hand side of the road,
(c)that they form a matched pair, and
(d)that their electrical connections are such that not more than one pair of dipped-beam headlamps is capable of being illuminated at a time.
2.  In the case of any other vehicle, any number may be fitted and the only requirements prescribed by these Regulations in respect of any which are fitted are those specified in paragraphs 2(c), 4, 7 and 12(a) of Part I.

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