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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

#171

Post by Hamuko »

dominotw wrote: post #114
alkonaut wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luckily most new cars from the last 5-10 years should have blind spot warnings (even as standard on premium cars) so should be a problem that's at least slowly being solved.

They tell you to not rely on it in their manual. So you still have to check manually.

They tell that about every single safety feature in cars. Reversing cameras usually always have a warning to not rely on the image, even though basically the only way to actually get a proper view what's behind you in a modern car is to get out of the car and go behind it. I imagine it's all about liability.

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

#172

Post by TomSwirly »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #145
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…

I expected this to be a rant about bureaucracy and it turned out to be a nuanced and rational discussion of the failure of American government. Good stuff.

I would only add that this isn't an accident - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture

For a large company, draconian regulations can be to their distinct advantage, as them very size allows them to handle the cost and complexity, while smaller companies cannot - or they can simply cheat, and if caught, swallow penalties that would destroy a small company.

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

#173

Post by TomSwirly »

snovv_crash wrote: post #170
qwerty456127 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Metamizol (Novalgin) is probably one of the biggest examples of this I know. It's a non-NSAID, non-addictive painkiller that was discovered over 100 years ago and banned in the USA in the 60s. It has a similar danger profile to Diclofenac (Voltaren), which is now prescribed like candy. And it is still widely used in Germany and Switzerland, so there is lots of data on 'modern' populations. But since nobody can patent…

To be fair, the Netherlands has very tight controls on metamizol as well, and for no clear reason except small-c conservatism, and also a tremendous reluctance for doctors here to give out painkillers.

No, I have never asked for painkillers myself, so it isn't personal! However, if God–forbid I came down with pain issues that were treatable by painkillers, you better believe I would be on the dark markets PDQ.

(My RSI is no fun, but I deal, and it isn't amenable to painkillers except in mind-numbing doses.)

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

#174

Post by KennyBlanken »

bmitc wrote: post #136
bb88 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> it's clear that human behavior and existing road design is still vastly worse Is that true? Those human statistics take every human car and driver into account, not just Teslas. I have never seen data that shows self-driving cars anywhere close to human driving capability. If we replaced every car on the road with "self-driving" Teslas, it would be mayhem.

Most of the "teslas are safer than other cars!" stats are severely biased because:

1)Teslas are "luxury" vehicles, much higher-end than the average US car. A base Model S, or average model 3, costs twice the average US car cost. They are as a result significantly better equipped with safety features and have better crash engineering. In terms of driver assistance, the auto industry was pretty belligerent about backup cameras being mandated, just to give one example.

2)Teslas are on a whole significantly newer than the average US car. The average age of a car on the road in the US is twenty years old. Of course a Tesla with safety features not available until ~10 years ago (or less) is safer than a 1999 anything.

If people said "my electric Mercedes is significantly safer than the average car, so Mercedes should be allowed to beta-test their software, which despite after many years of development is proven to randomly slam on the brakes, or drive into the back of emergency vehicles, and is shown on numerous videos to violate traffic laws, suddenly veer at poles and barriers and pedestrians and cyclists"

...they'd be laughed out of the room on a number of points.

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

#175

Post by kalleboo »

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?).

Wikipedia has citations for a system from 2010 that is mechanically controlled ("movable shadow masks shifted inside the headlamp") rather than using LEDs. Nothing from 2003 though

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

#176

Post by KennyBlanken »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #145
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…

Nah. A lot of it is is protectionism. For example, european cars came with significantly better headlights in the US but they put less light above the road, which didn't meet a standard designed for non-reflective road signs.

The manufacturers tried to get the standard updated, but the US auto industry blocked it, which resulted in car companies having to make US-specific, shittier, headlights - at significant expense - because GM and Ford didn't wanted more competitive advantage.

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

#177

Post by qwerty456127 »

TomSwirly wrote: post #173
snovv_crash wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Metamizol (Novalgin) is probably one of the biggest examples of this I know. It's a non-NSAID, non-addictive painkiller that was discovered over 100 years ago and banned in the USA in the 60s. It has a similar danger profile to Diclofenac (Voltaren), which is now prescribed like candy. And it is still widely used in Germany and Switzerland, so there is lots of data on 'modern' populations. But since nobody can patent…

To be fair, the Netherlands has very tight controls on metamizol as well, and for no clear reason except small-c conservatism, and also a tremendous reluctance for doctors here to give out painkillers. No, I have never asked for painkillers myself, so it isn't personal! However, if God–forbid I came down with pain issues that were treatable by painkillers, you better believe I would be on the dark markets PDQ. (My RS…

Myself and everyone I knew took metamizol countless times, for every minor sickness (the way people use Tylenol in the US) when I was a child. And side effects were unheard of. So I don't understand why does anybody care to control it more strictly than paracetamol (which is really deadly by the way) or ibuprofen. People should just be taught to consider their unprescribed meds conservatively and avoid taking NSAID like candies.

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

#178

Post by BurningFrog »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #147
Animats wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

Roads should provide the infrastructure for driving.

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

#179

Post by cjrp »

datavirtue wrote: post #163
kalleboo wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's something that should be caught in mandatory periodic vehicle safety inspections. I always thought it was weird that in large parts of the US that is simply not a thing (compared to places I'm used to in the rest of the world where it seems totally normal)

We don't have the resources deployed for this. They are too busy wasting thousands and thousands of rounds of ammunition each week, practicing for thier next shout-out.

The safety inspections aren't done by the police here (UK), they're done by certified mechanics.

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

#180

Post by danuker »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #177
TomSwirly wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, the Netherlands has very tight controls on metamizol as well, and for no clear reason except small-c conservatism, and also a tremendous reluctance for doctors here to give out painkillers. No, I have never asked for painkillers myself, so it isn't personal! However, if God–forbid I came down with pain issues that were treatable by painkillers, you better believe I would be on the dark markets PDQ. (My RS…

Myself and everyone I knew took metamizol countless times, for every minor sickness (the way people use Tylenol in the US) when I was a child. And side effects were unheard of. So I don't understand why does anybody care to control it more strictly than paracetamol (which is really deadly by the way) or ibuprofen. People should just be taught to consider their unprescribed meds conservatively and avoid taking NSAID l…

When addressing the root cause of pain is lobbied against by billion dollar corporation (for instance, Big Food -> inflammation and obesity), the current system is the outcome.

In addition, any GP that might normally have a chance of breaking people out of the disease-food feedback loop is bought out by the healthcare cartels (maybe getting a part of the symptomatic treatment profits).

Here is a link of videos made by a non-profit, with a plethora of references for each video.

https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/industry-influence/

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