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Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

caranddriver.com

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Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#171

Post by kube-system »

drglitch wrote: post #143
acd wrote: post #69

Some European cars are sold with laser head lights as an optional extra. As a driver meeting usch a vehicle I ponder if that is safe for my eyesight? After recent scandals I don’t fully trust the car industry to self regulate as they have mislead consumers before for example Dieselgate. Thus I think it’s good that there is car safety regulations but that led lights probably should be allowed. I think too many consume…

The laserlights, like ones marketed by BMW, are not shining the laser outward into the world - they use them to warm up phosphor which in turn produces “regular” light. In a sense, it’s somewhat akin to an old school incandescent bulb, but using much less energy. In US, laserlights are reduced power due to regulations

I think you mean fluorescent, not incandescent.

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#172

Post by mullingitover »

jachee wrote: post #144
browningstreet wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I'm really old. Before Fast and Furious, I lived through the slammed mini truck / monster car stereo (speakers, speakers, speakers) craze of the late 80s. And before that there were many, many trends, like muscle cars, etc. It's always been like this...

Don't forget the folks in the 40's taking those old trucks and turning them into hot-rods. The car modification scene is only slightly younger than the car.

My uncle told me stories about living in rural Michigan, and how the first thing that people did when a road got paved in the area was set up a quarter mile marker.

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#173

Post by kube-system »

Simulacra wrote: post #108
spdustin wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That exists now with a number of models here in the U.S., and is sometimes called "cornering lights." The original article refers to what this Motor Trend article [0] calls, "Adaptive Driving Beams." [0]: https://www.motortrend.com/news/get-lit-adaptive-headlights-...

Have a look at this advertisement for the Citroen from the 60s. Why did it take so long to get "adaptive" headlights? https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=rRHogyYXFiQ&...

Cornering lights were a thing on US cars in the 60's too.

https://jalopnik.com/a-tribute-to-the-most-un-appreciated-li...

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#174

Post by CivBase »

> Each of the 911's lighting units includes 84 individually controlled LEDs that allow the car to continuously morph the pattern of its beams. When a car approaches in the oncoming lane, the 911's headlights dim around it while leaving the rest of the pattern bright. [...] Porsche would also dim the right side if road signs on the shoulder were overly reflective.

The article never mentions, but how does the Porsche detect oncoming cars and overly reflective signs?

If it involves a computer doing real-time image processing, I can certainly see why the US government might be cautious considering headlights are an important safety feature for a car.

I also assume a system like that would probably be very expensive. Is this just a luxury feature or are matrix lights actually common in European cars?

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#175

Post by jdietrich »

sandworm101 wrote: post #76
a2tech wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My parents live near Lake Michigan (although decidedly NOT on the lake) and I made the mistake of visiting them last weekend and driving home on Sunday night when everyone was migrating from their lake house back to the city. I think I spent roughly half the drive back with stars in my eyes from people in Audis and BMWs blowing by me with their ridiculously bright headlights. If I made the mistake of checking my blin…

Lake country + Sunday night = high beams. When people improperly load vehicles, especially when towing things like boats, the headlights tip upwards. You were probably seeing overloaded vehicles, trailers with high tongue weights because they pushed everything to the front rather than center the cargo over the axle. That pushes the back of the truck down and the headlights up.

Most of the European Audi and BMW range is equipped with adaptive LED or laser headlights that selectively dip for oncoming traffic; self-levelling headlights are mandatory on new cars in the EU.

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#176

Post by lotsofpulp »

tw04 wrote: post #39
decafninja wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

re: "aftermarket xenon bulb setups" Is this still a big problem? While I would have agreed with you, say, back in the 2000s when the whole "import tuner" craze was in full swing, I don't think this is popular anymore. The car mod scene seems to be close to extinct now, with whats left being a lot less crazy than those in the past.

IMO it’s WORSE. The new craze are the LED light bars. I had one on my old truck for off-road use, but there are idiots that drive with them turned on driving down public roads. They’re so bright it can take 10+ seconds to see normally again.

LED light bars should immediately result in an attempted murder conviction.

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#177

Post by ooobit2 »

beenBoutIT wrote: post #147
browningstreet wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I'm really old. Before Fast and Furious, I lived through the slammed mini truck / monster car stereo (speakers, speakers, speakers) craze of the late 80s. And before that there were many, many trends, like muscle cars, etc. It's always been like this...

The Fast and Furious franchise is, not unlike the late 2pac, a reflection of the community. A percentage of America has always been modding their cars and an even larger percentage enjoys dreaming about modding cars - the films draw from that, not the other way around.

That's the reason the Fast franchise is some 8+ films in and still doing $500M+ box offices.

It's also a good reason documentaries, classical and jazz music, and non-fiction books in all but self-help and cookbooks sell poor. I'd love to see a huge textbook covering pre-Calc through intros to harder topics like Real Analysis and Stochastics top the bestsellers for 22 weeks. But instead, people are buying the 5,431st political commentary about how we'll never recover from Trump unless we do everything the author says.

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#178

Post by pandaman »

luma wrote: post #168
pandaman wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You will blind yourself with your own high beams in heavy rain/snow/fog.

Interestingly, a similar version of these systems was demonstrated back in 2012 which could track individual snow flakes or rain drops. They would avoid illuminating the drops so they wouldn’t reflect back at you, thus reducing glare and allowing you to see much further. https://youtu.be/4jwhQM6aDS8

Such system could work in moderate conditions, though it's doubtful. As soon as you get water "dust" in front of the headlight the only thing this tracking can do is to shut off the light entirely, there is no way isolating separate droplets and the cloud of "dust" will disperse the light further into the medium.

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#179

Post by dave_aiello »

CivBase wrote: post #174

> Each of the 911's lighting units includes 84 individually controlled LEDs that allow the car to continuously morph the pattern of its beams. When a car approaches in the oncoming lane, the 911's headlights dim around it while leaving the rest of the pattern bright. [...] Porsche would also dim the right side if road signs on the shoulder were overly reflective. The article never mentions, but how does the Porsche d…

> I also assume a system like that would probably be very expensive....

Couldn't that also have been said about anti-lock braking systems (ABS), if you go far enough back in automotive history?

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#180

Post by frosted-flakes »

drewg123 wrote: post #131
stingrae wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course you would do the safety inspection without the trailer?

I assumed the OP meant "camper" as a mostly-permanent thing mounted in a pickup truck bed, not a detachable trailer.

Those are in no way permanent. Many of them even have built-in stands that can lift and support the camper, allowing you to simply drive the truck out from under it.
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