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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

#261

Post by danaris »

ehvatum wrote: post #253
danaris wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you haven't been paying attention. The Democratic Party has advanced actual legislative agendas, tried to govern, and supports democracy. The Republican Party has openly stated their goal to "make Obama a one-term president", frustrate Democratic legislation simply because it is Democratic legislation , and is actively working to subvert democracy and both prevent and overthrow the results of free and fair elect…

> The Republican Party has openly stated their goal to "make Obama a one-term president" That’s a very trashy hot take. Doing everything possible to demonize and replace a POTUS is American tradition dating to the Peggy Eaton affair and has contributed to a United States civil war. In recent times, Democrats objected to the Trump presidency, elected though he was, and sought to block his every move. In fact, when Tru…

Yeah, no; you can't "everyone does it, it's always been like this" your way out of this.

There's a big difference between "we need to be able to defeat the other side in order to enact our goals, which are X, Y, and Z" and "our only stated goals are to defeat the other side and hold power". Also see 2020, when the Republican Party released no official platform aside from, effectively "we support Trump, whatever he says goes".

There's a big difference between every (modern*) Democratic president and Trump, who has, since even before he was elected, derided and eroded our democracy, actively promoted racism and white supremacy, and relied upon Big Lies[0] as fundamental parts of his campaign and governance strategy.

* To differentiate from the era prior to the Dixiecrats flipping to the Republican Party, in response to the Democratic Party officially supporting civil rights.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie

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

#262

Post by terryf »

_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...

European, have these on my Volvo - they are great. In fact, they illuminate more of the side of the road than regular headlights.

Basically, they split the beam into multiple sections and if it detects an oncoming car, it turns off the section that would shine towards the oncoming car, but keeps on the section that shines towards the side of the road.

Another thing - if you are driving behind another car, then the headlights don't shine into the rear-view mirror of the car in front, but rather around it.

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

#263

Post by ericmay »

u801e wrote: post #260
lotsofpulp wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>People drink and drive in America because they have no choice. You can’t walk him from a bar, and even if it’s available nobody is paying $40 for an Uber when they can drive their car. List of choices: 1. Not drink alcohol 2. Drink less alcohol, and switch to water at least 1 hour before driving. 3. Pay for a driver 4. Live where you can walk to an establishment that serves alcohol 5. Rent a hotel room nearby And so…

6. Ride a bicycle If the drunk driver ends up in a collision with a motorist, then the damage to the other party would be minimal. The drunk person also still has personal transportation as well.

Against the law and you can get a DUI for this too. It’s actually pretty dangerous. This includes other things too like scooters. E-Bikes can go pretty fast and cause serious injury too.

If you were riding a bike drunk and drove into or were hit by a car you would probably be hurt pretty badly. If you ran into something else, or another person, same deal.

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

#264

Post by Nomentatus »

jve wrote: post #56
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.

There weren't high and low beams back when. If you can have the car detect the difference between low and high beams (even with a hilly road) that'd be a help, yup.

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

#265

Post by exclusiv »

JamesBarney wrote: post #123
wheybags wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need for fancy sensors and ai - I used an electric scooter rental in Germany recently, and it made me do a reaction speed test on my phone before starting. Super easy.

Are they worried you'll kill someone with your electric scooter?

It happens as it causes swerves and crashes. Deer do this too.

With a deer your best course of action is to try and stop but mow it over if necessary.

With a person swerving on a bike or moped, you may not be able to stop in time and most likely swerve.

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

#266

Post by u801e »

ericmay wrote: post #263
u801e wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6. Ride a bicycle If the drunk driver ends up in a collision with a motorist, then the damage to the other party would be minimal. The drunk person also still has personal transportation as well.

Against the law and you can get a DUI for this too. It’s actually pretty dangerous. This includes other things too like scooters. E-Bikes can go pretty fast and cause serious injury too. If you were riding a bike drunk and drove into or were hit by a car you would probably be hurt pretty badly. If you ran into something else, or another person, same deal.

I was thinking more along the lines of a conventional bicycle, not an e-bike. The primary problem with DUI is the injury and property damage that others suffer as a result of a crash. This is because of the mass of the vehicle that the DUI uses. If they were on a bicycle, the danger would be minimized for others, and they would be the ones who are injured or killed in the crash.

Based on the remark about individuals making a choice to operate a vehicle while under the influence, having them use a bicycle instead of a vehicle that's significantly heavier, the choice changes from do they drive under the influence and take the chance on injuring or killing people to do they drive under the influence and take a chance on injuring or killing themselves. Whether that change influences their choice remains to be seen.

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

#267

Post by SAI_Peregrinus »

EthicalSimilar wrote: post #158
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.

But not auto-dimmed side view mirrors, so it sometimes doesn't help if the following car is in an adjacent lane.

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

#268

Post by andrewflnr »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #149
sgtnoodle wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Are there self-driving car tests in Europe, and are they doing any differently? Seems like a potential way to test the hypothesis. OTOH I bet they could still have a lot more signs that would help. The Europe/America difference might be pretty marginal...

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

#269

Post by ericmay »

u801e wrote: post #266
ericmay wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Against the law and you can get a DUI for this too. It’s actually pretty dangerous. This includes other things too like scooters. E-Bikes can go pretty fast and cause serious injury too. If you were riding a bike drunk and drove into or were hit by a car you would probably be hurt pretty badly. If you ran into something else, or another person, same deal.

I was thinking more along the lines of a conventional bicycle, not an e-bike. The primary problem with DUI is the injury and property damage that others suffer as a result of a crash. This is because of the mass of the vehicle that the DUI uses. If they were on a bicycle, the danger would be minimized for others, and they would be the ones who are injured or killed in the crash. Based on the remark about individuals…

I added the e-bike as an extra factor not focusing on it there. You can still get a DUI.

But the point of the bike comment largely doesn’t matter since people have to drive to the bar or wherever and there wouldn’t be a bike to get a DUI on.

I’m actually not even sure that if given equal consideration a bike causes more drunken damage (although probably less lethal) but we won’t know because so few people ride bikes since they have to drive a car so they just get DUIs and kill people and themselves that way since we force that on people.

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

#270

Post by midoridensha »

za3faran wrote: post #251
midoridensha wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly; I should have been more specific: EU mirrors are aspherical, so the curvature isn't consistent. The US government believes, rightly or wrongly, that American drivers are simply too stupid to properly comprehend the view from an aspherical mirror, so therefore they are banned in the US.

Would it be legal to import and install a European mirror for your car model?

Definitely not, but it's not something you'd ever be caught for. While some states have safety inspections, mirrors aren't something they check for (other than to make sure they aren't broken), or would even think to check for. But it would technically be against the regulations for allowed equipment. I suppose it could get you in trouble if you were involved in a crash and the other side's attorney found out you had a non-approved mirror installed and this somehow might have affected the crash.
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