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

141–150 of 290 posts

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

#141

Post by fastball »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #133
voltagex_ wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi. I'm a wheelchair user. It's only reasonably recently that the buses here had a restraint system that can lock my chair in place added, before that I needed to hold on to a bar next to me, which destroyed my shoulders. Uber decimated the taxi industry, the pandemic finished them off, and now taxis need to be sent from one town over, and those drivers don't accept my government subsidy card. At my fittest, I could…

I need a car And this should make you angry. No one should be reliant on a car. Everyone should have access to a robust public transportation system. Even if that means you personally get a subsidized van to take you where you need to go. Subsidized so it costs the same as a bus ride.

Why do you think implementing excessive amounts of bureaucracy is a better solution than just letting people do their own thing?

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

#142

Post by Huh1337 »

rob74 wrote: post #134

> The technology has been around for nearly two decades in Europe and Japan. That sounds a bit too long - in 2002 LEDs were just starting to be used in brake lights etc., but not in headlights. Of course, it depends what they mean by "nearly two decades" (I imagine it has to be at least 15 years?) and by "has been around" (in the lab? in prototypes? or in actual cars that you could buy?).

What about bixenons? Or does adaptive lightning mean strictly LED?

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

#143

Post by cromka »

rob74 wrote: post #134

> The technology has been around for nearly two decades in Europe and Japan. That sounds a bit too long - in 2002 LEDs were just starting to be used in brake lights etc., but not in headlights. Of course, it depends what they mean by "nearly two decades" (I imagine it has to be at least 15 years?) and by "has been around" (in the lab? in prototypes? or in actual cars that you could buy?).

> by "has been around" (in the lab? in prototypes? or in actual cars that you could buy?).

Well, since they explicitly mention regions, in that context they rather mean the cars one can buy.

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

#145

Post by qwerty456127 »

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.

This is because the only place for progress in America seemingly is within yet-nonexistent unregulated areas. As soon as something gets regulated in the US it mostly is doomed to lag decades behind the rest of the developed world (because American policymakers apparently are not fond of updating existing laws/rules and the bureaucracy is not flexible enough, often prioritizing the letter of the law). Of course there are exceptions (let alone particular regulations which do much more good than harm) but this seems to be the rule.

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

#146

Post by bobthepanda »

ReptileMan wrote: post #138
bobthepanda wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some judges have taken the opinion that the infrastructure is so car dependent that you can't have a license revoked lest you lose the entire ability to be a self-sufficient member of society. And in parts of the US, that's true. As a general example, how many nightlife areas have decent public transportation at bar closing to avoid committing a DUI?

taxi/cab exist...

How many people can afford to pay a cab for every trip they make?

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

#147

Post by kwhitefoot »

Animats wrote: post #96
bb88 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may find it interesting the NHTSA is pushing for breathalizers in cars starting in 2026. Personally I'm more in favor of smart road like technologies where a highway has a mechanical or physical properties to assist self-driving vehicles stay in line with the road. Mostly because a 100% software solution will likely not work, particularly in the midwest and great lakes states during the wintertime. It need not be…

Magnetic nails embedded in the road Volvo wanted to do that, in Sweden. They pointed out that it would also be useful for snowplow guidance. That's often done by putting up poles at the side of the road.

Volvo are just trying to get someone else to provide the infrastructure for self driving.

I live in Norway, the poles at the side of the road are not just for the snowploughs, they are very helpful for human beings too. Magnetic nails embedded in the road are not at all useful to humans and are just more stuff to maintain, especially in an environment where simply maintaining centre and edge markings is a difficult and time consuming job.

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

#148

Post by [deleted] »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #59
kube-system wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

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

#149

Post by kwhitefoot »

sgtnoodle wrote: post #87
waste_monk wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then any asshole could mix up their own magnetic bead paint and cause havoc. Probably no more than someone painting their own road lines or putting up fake signage does now [1], but if you want something that's better than what we currently have it would need to not only be both machine and human readable, but also authenticated. I always thought it would be quite neat to have those portable roadside displays you see…

Just have the human readable signs be reasonably standardized, and the self driving car computer can then read them too. It's a lot easier and more future proof to side-channel map updates to cars through a cell network, and allows for some curation. Also, improved cell network coverage seems like a more worthwhile capital expenditure for a local government than a bunch of smart signs that only help 0.001% of drivers…

> Just have the human readable signs be reasonably standardized, and the self driving car computer can then read them too.

This is already the case in Europe.

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

#150

Post by rob74 »

Huh1337 wrote: post #142
rob74 wrote: post #134

> The technology has been around for nearly two decades in Europe and Japan. That sounds a bit too long - in 2002 LEDs were just starting to be used in brake lights etc., but not in headlights. Of course, it depends what they mean by "nearly two decades" (I imagine it has to be at least 15 years?) and by "has been around" (in the lab? in prototypes? or in actual cars that you could buy?).

What about bixenons? Or does adaptive lightning mean strictly LED?

"Bixenon" means just that xenon lamps don't have extra bulbs for high beam and low beam, but regulate the beam via a mask. AFAIK the kind of adaptive lighting that dims only some sectors of the beam to avoid blinding oncoming drivers, pedestrians etc. can only be done with LEDs.
Post reply on HN