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The US will finally allow adaptive beam headlights on new cars

arstechnica.com

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

#151

Post by adrianN »

voltagex_ wrote: post #102
SuperQue wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fix is to make it so you aren't left stranded in life without a car. Car dependency is just as bad a disease as any. Cars give you the freedom to go anywhere, but take away the freedom to do anything without them.

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…

If you need a car you should push even harder so that fewer people who don't really need a car drive. More space for you on the road.

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

#152

Post by sethammons »

The bright-in-your-eyes headlights (oncoming or following you) are a problem, especially oncoming on curves. I learned early to follow the outside lane marker with my eyes, effectively taking my eyes off the road to avoid getting temporarily blinded.

My wife suggested a fun tech solution: night vision and making all lights less bright. Kind of a fun idea: a slight glow or dim lights so you can still see vehicles unaided, but a full night vision windshield or glasses and no more too-bright-to-see lights.

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

#153

Post by sethammons »

synaesthesisx wrote: post #72

Side note - anyone know how to disable the annoying auto high beams on their vehicle? A recent software update appears to automatically toggle high beams (which do turn off when oncoming traffic is detected however it's still annoying). It appears that this is necessary for autopilot to function - so I can't just disable it entirely :/

On my Toyota Highlander, I can toggle that with a button on the dash to the left of my steering wheel.

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

#154

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

#155

Post by Retric »

fastball wrote: post #137
sgtnoodle wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lane following isn't the hard part of self driving cars. I wouldn't say it's trivial, but it's a minor detail compared to everything else that also needs to work reliably 99.9999% of the time. Such infrastructure might help make cheaper lane-keep assist as standard options I guess, but at the speeds where it matters for safety, you need significant look-ahead on the trajectory rather than just lateral position error.…

Do you need everything to work reliably 99.9999% of the time? Is that the reliability rating of human drivers?

Depnds on how you count. If you consider every ~5 seconds you could have an accident, and a minor or worse accident happens once every 2,000 to 20,000 hours of driving that’s 99.99993% to 99.999993% reliability.

On the other hand if you start talking per trio then we aren’t even close to that.

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

#156

Post by stefan_ »

autoexec wrote: post #94
KerrAvon wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US auto regulations are extremely conservative on the lights/signals front, have been for a long time. Some European car designs in the late 20th century were compromised when brought to the US because the headlights had to be made worse (in an aesthetic sense) even though there was no safety reason to do so — Citroen DS was one of these. And maybe they should be conservative, but I don’t see how anyone can argue tha…

I agree the NHTSA is way too slow, but damn am I glad they're doing the work! I love that they're checking everything carefully and doing the research before approving new designs.

The NHTSA is regulating all the wrong things. How many people have been killed by wrong headlight shape? How would you even test that regulation? Meanwhile, people are free to go 100mph in cities, with the trivially demonstrable deaths that causes for no upside.

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

#157

Post by thallium205 »

weberer wrote: post #126
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.

How do you think something becomes "proven safe" without testing?

Same way Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J did it!

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

#158

Post by EthicalSimilar »

sethammons wrote: post #152

The bright-in-your-eyes headlights (oncoming or following you) are a problem, especially oncoming on curves. I learned early to follow the outside lane marker with my eyes, effectively taking my eyes off the road to avoid getting temporarily blinded. My wife suggested a fun tech solution: night vision and making all lights less bright. Kind of a fun idea: a slight glow or dim lights so you can still see vehicles unai…

Most newer vehicles have automatically dimmed rear view mirrors to prevent this issue from vehicles behind you.

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

#159

Post by nicoburns »

voltagex_ wrote: post #102
SuperQue wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fix is to make it so you aren't left stranded in life without a car. Car dependency is just as bad a disease as any. Cars give you the freedom to go anywhere, but take away the freedom to do anything without them.

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 live in London which has all-but banned cars in the city centre (they're not banned, but there is an expensive congestion charge which means that in practice most traffic in the centre is buses, taxis, or very wealthy people).

However, there is an exception for anyone with a "blue badge" holder (for those with disabilities which prevent easy mobility - wheelchair users and others). These people not only get free car access to the city centre (which now has a lot less traffic because nobody else is driving there), but also get to park in places that most people are not allowed to, etc.

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