321–330 of 493 posts
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Been driving about 20 years in the US, owned eight or nine cars (mostly small to mid-sized sedans and minivans) over the years between me & the wife, and I can't recall ever seeing headlight level controls.
I'm an enthusiast who has owned dozens of vehicles and driven around a hundred. I have only seen this feature on a couple of euro luxury cars.
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And also instant free wire transfers. Paypal would probably never happened if US had a banking system like the one in some European countries.
For fairness one must say that our free run-of-the-mill wire transfers being instant is a relatively recent development. They used to take multiple days in pre-SEPA-days, and international payments were a hassle (and also usually not free). And even today not all transfers are instant, as both banks must support this feature. But the processing time for the non-instant ones is down to one day across the board at leas…
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The worst thing to happen to America was Autozone and Fast and Furious. Cheap aftermarket modifications to your car being sold to people with no knowledge of what they were doing but wanted it too look cool cause they saw it in the movie. Its led to years of teenagers with no training putting things on their cars that turn them into obnoxious spectacles on the road. I know I sound like an old coot but frankly I'm gla…
> but frankly I'm glad my dad showed me how to install/aim headlights and along with explaining the benefits of a working unmodified exhaust system and how it should sound In Germany, headlight aim is checked at the 2-yea mandatory inspection, dito for exhaust stuff. Is that not a part of US checks?
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The worst thing to happen to America was Autozone and Fast and Furious. Cheap aftermarket modifications to your car being sold to people with no knowledge of what they were doing but wanted it too look cool cause they saw it in the movie. Its led to years of teenagers with no training putting things on their cars that turn them into obnoxious spectacles on the road. I know I sound like an old coot but frankly I'm gla…
This is much more down to improper enforcement. If having illegal headlights meant losing your license, people would think twice about it.
It al boils down to how much money police can get out of fines and how many licenses they can suspend, AND how easy they can do that.
If they lack measuring equipment, the fine is too low, police won't bother enforcing a law.
> 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…
my 2020 honda civic has lane detection and cruise control that keeps pace with the car in front of you... this isn't much different
Are LED matrix headlights something Europeans can get in a 20,000 Euro car or is this limit something that's only significant for luxury cars?
I don't think they are too common in 20000 EUR cars yet, but they are continuously trickling down. A quick look shows that they are an option in Opel Astras that start at 21390€ (inc. 24% VAT plus 2000€ car tax) in Finland and under 20000€ in e.g. Germany, though. The median price of new cars is around 30000€ here. The most common models are Skoda Octavia, Toyota Corolla, Nissan Qashqai (all three start at around 240…
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They're also from a luxury brand that commands a premium price above and beyond its actual cost of supply. Give it five years and an entry level Hyundai will come with equivalent headlights and they'll only cost $100 to replace.
Why would you want to replace LED headlights? LEDs themselves are typically specified for 50k hours, a much longer useful life than car engines (~10k hours / 180000 km). Also, because these are individually dimmed array lights, even if a single element dies, it's not a big problem and wouldn't require replacing the unit.
groups like Audi/Porsche/BMW have trouble bringing their fancy LED setups to America due to laws pertaining to high / low beams -- meanwhile every Jack and Jill on the road has glaringly illegal aftermarket Xenon bulb setups in refractor headlight housings rather than proper projectors, blinding the hell out of everyone on the road, and the police seem to do nothing about it. I mean, hey -- i'm usually happy about au…
I wish we had the lights they turned with the steering wheel as a standard option. Is there any reasonably priced car with this feature, or is it only in Europe?
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They're also from a luxury brand that commands a premium price above and beyond its actual cost of supply. Give it five years and an entry level Hyundai will come with equivalent headlights and they'll only cost $100 to replace.
Brands like Hyundai and Toyota have been coming out with sealed LED units for years, and they cost thousands to replace The headlights are not that cheap. Expensive optics, expensive LEDs with carefully selected emission spectrums, cooling solutions.