Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The US will finally allow adaptive beam headlights on new cars

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 290 posts

Re: The US will finally allow adaptive beam headlights on new cars

#51

Post by Rebelgecko »

bb88 wrote: post #28
prng2021 wrote: post #4

We allow companies like Tesla to jeopardize people's lives while the company beta tests "full self driving" technology, but are scared of allowing proven safe technology like adaptive headlights.

You're not wrong, the NHTSA should be more proactive on this stuff. But to be fair, drunk drivers kill 28 people a day in this country, or about 10k people per year. 3k people die at signalled intersections every year, or around 8ish per day. While Tesla shouldn't be beta testing their self driving cars on public roads, it's clear that human behavior and existing road design is still vastly worse.

Didn't the infrastructure bill have a clause saying that all cars have to start using alcohol detecting interlocks in a few years?

Re: The US will finally allow adaptive beam headlights on new cars

#52

Post by CorrectHorseBat »

midoridensha wrote: post #40
throwaway019254 wrote: post #13

Can anybody tell me why all my US cars have enormous side-mirror blind spot? And my European cars have none? Are European cars using curved mirrors to prevent this? Edit: I just googled it. That’s exactly what’s happening - EU side mirrors are curved to prevent blind spots.

American drivers are simply too stupid to be able to comprehend curved mirrors, so the US government bans them on US-spec cars, and instead you get flat mirrors with a warning message.

How does that make sense? Flat mirrors don't make things look further away than they are.

Re: The US will finally allow adaptive beam headlights on new cars

#53

Post by WirelessGigabit »

throwaway019254 wrote: post #13

Can anybody tell me why all my US cars have enormous side-mirror blind spot? And my European cars have none? Are European cars using curved mirrors to prevent this? Edit: I just googled it. That’s exactly what’s happening - EU side mirrors are curved to prevent blind spots.

Yea, all the BMWs I've had I imported European mirrors for. Much better.

Re: The US will finally allow adaptive beam headlights on new cars

#54

Post by m463 »

bb88 wrote: post #28
prng2021 wrote: post #4

We allow companies like Tesla to jeopardize people's lives while the company beta tests "full self driving" technology, but are scared of allowing proven safe technology like adaptive headlights.

You're not wrong, the NHTSA should be more proactive on this stuff. But to be fair, drunk drivers kill 28 people a day in this country, or about 10k people per year. 3k people die at signalled intersections every year, or around 8ish per day. While Tesla shouldn't be beta testing their self driving cars on public roads, it's clear that human behavior and existing road design is still vastly worse.

They say in this article:

  the National Transportation Safety Board conducted
  an investigation finding that the government should
  not be actively restricting headlamp systems that
  have been shown to have a safety benefit.
So I can imagine this sort of thinking coming down on telsa's side of the argument.

Personally, although tesla does "market" their technology, I think it is good technology that has probably not only saved a fair number of lives, but also bumpers and fenders.

Looking at the storied history of the airbag, I think telsa did a good job assisting the driver (and customer) when the status quo for other car manufacturers was to innovate at a snail's pace and implement safety features mostly when required.

Re: The US will finally allow adaptive beam headlights on new cars

#55

Post by Hamuko »

_carbyau_ wrote: post #42

Scenario: Driving in the countryside at night. Do the adaptive lights let you see off the edges of the road for animals? Kangaroos can be damn near suicidal...

It shouldn't be any worse than normal high beams, and in fact should be better, since it can still illuminate the sides of the road when there's an oncoming car, or a car driving in front of you.

https://youtu.be/r3gMna26BZg?t=462

Re: The US will finally allow adaptive beam headlights on new cars

#56

Post by jve »

Nomentatus wrote: post #29

There's an ancient history here which is both amusing and worth noting. For most of a century, starting way back, the US patent office would receive constant applications describing simple automatic dimmers from inventors who had never considered what would happen if two cars equipped with such dimmers approached each other at night. A whole lotta flickering is what would have happened. This literally became the para…

Does that dimmer needs to have high light beam to start working? If sensitivity is adjusted so that low lights are enough, I don't see an issue.

Re: The US will finally allow adaptive beam headlights on new cars

#57

Post by jve »

kube-system wrote: post #43
_carbyau_ wrote: post #42

Scenario: Driving in the countryside at night. Do the adaptive lights let you see off the edges of the road for animals? Kangaroos can be damn near suicidal...

Yeah, being in the US I have not used these headlights, but I sure hope the image in the article is a bad rendition. That beam is way too narrow.

They are pretty wide, don't worry. But there are other safety features for AUDI:

- Night vision camera. Not sure if it will actually help - you don't watch your screen when driving.

- BEEP, BEEP when approaching an invisible human/animal that is too close to car on a lane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0wwcU_IlwE

Re: The US will finally allow adaptive beam headlights on new cars

#58

Post by eyelidlessness »

prng2021 wrote: post #4

We allow companies like Tesla to jeopardize people's lives while the company beta tests "full self driving" technology, but are scared of allowing proven safe technology like adaptive headlights.

Let’s be even more clear: the regulations are so overly specific that they don’t even provide any guidance let alone recourse for things they don’t cover. I’m less concerned about the slow movement on proven technology, and more concerned that any amount of novel privately automated technology is just free to let loose on society with no restriction.

Re: The US will finally allow adaptive beam headlights on new cars

#59

Post by boomboomsubban »

kube-system wrote: post #44
midoridensha wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Available in Europe since 2006? Why did it take so long for the US? It probably wasn't invented in America, and therefore the US government refuses to believe that it exists. This is why the US is happy to allow half-baked self-driving tech from Tesla, but won't allow automakers to adopt anything that became standard overseas first.

Did any European automakers ask for the rules to be reevaluated? Or did they simply sell cheaper headlights for the same price and pocket the difference?

From the article, in 2013 Toyota initially petitioned for the rule to be reevaluated and later both Volkswagen and BMW asked for an import exemption.
Post reply on HN