General > General Technical Chat
Insane overengineering of a car headlight
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amyk:
Were the designers too bored to keep things simple? :o

tooki:
I will never understand why some people get outraged at new technology that’s more complex than they’re used to. It’s more complex because it does more. It does more because that solves shortcomings in the older, “simple” technology. What’s so hard to comprehend about that?
tom66:
Pretty 'insane', but I've a neighbor with a 2011 Mercedes E Class with the original factory LED headlamps still looking good.

My 2015 Golf also has LED headlamps and they look fantastic,  no signs of wear,   illuminate the road brilliantly whilst not dazzling oncoming drivers.

Some engineers seem to have a clinical condition of ludditus!
ace1903:
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? I understand that is beneficial for lorry drivers in rural Australia, but 2000$ headlamp to take your kid from kinder garden is overkill. I know it LEDs consumes less current and are sold as eco friendly but when I saw pile of headlamps at local junkyard I think they pollute much more than average H4 lamp in lifetime of the car.

I can't see how aluminum can be recycled when this contraption will visit scrapping place? To separate plastic, millions screws is expensive, to (burn) melt aluminum with some plastic is toxic.
tom66:
I don't know what roads you drive on, but the 60 mph single carriageway roads in the UK are generally unlit, except for the most dangerous junctions.

Imagine trying to negotiate a road like this with crap headlights: 
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.5154043,-4.1153472,3a,81.4y,294.71h,87.32t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sXUBXnLCaNZcsJPdJfbxnYg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

(I was here at night a few months ago, and I felt comfortable enough to maintain a 60 mph pace through most parts in my car.)

The recyclability is definitely a concern, though these LED lamps should last much longer.  It's a problem when the whole car gets recycled, though.

IMO the benefit of LED lamps is not fuel/energy efficiency or lifespan, though those are small factors, but the much higher brightness possible by precision focused optics and the ability to carefully vary the light output to avoid dazzling oncoming traffic.  The LED lamps on my car are a fixed distribution, but they're carefully shaped so the dipped beam stops right at the edge of the oncoming lane, minimising any dazzling effect.  This was one of the benefits of HID lamps, though less so given it is ultimately just a point source.  With full-matrix LED lamps, the ADAS camera can be used to shape the beam perfectly so that your lane is lit up but the oncoming traffic receives no glare.  It's a great achievement and already available on many basic cars.

This is the system fitted to a lot of new cars now:
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