Why is America stuck with bad headlights? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#421

Post by u801e » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 1:17 PM UTC

mcv wrote: post #356

globular-toast wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you're a minority and most people haven't been on a bike since they were a child. For most people, their first experience on the road is in a car. They are completely out of touch with what it means to use the road outside of a car. The roads are owned by cars, even though everyone pays for them. This is the way it's been for years and it won't be changing unless we have a serious reform.

That really depends on where you live. Over here, most people ride bikes regularly. Car headlights that can blind cyclists should be considered a serious issue.

> Car headlights that can blind cyclists should be considered a serious issue.

Even people who design bicycle facilities don't consider this. They'll happily install a bidirectional bike lane where contra flow cyclists are effectively riding against motor vehicle traffic. This puts cyclists on the wrong side of the headlamp beam.

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#422

Post by j_m_b » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 1:21 PM UTC

Not sure how truly effective the Porsche solution really is. I have a hard time believing that computer controlled sensors can effectively direct beams of light. What about conditions which scatter light? None of the interesting problems are addressed in this article, instead we are left with a clickbait title.

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#423

Post by lagadu » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 1:23 PM UTC

CivBase wrote: post #174

> Each of the 911's lighting units includes 84 individually controlled LEDs that allow the car to continuously morph the pattern of its beams. When a car approaches in the oncoming lane, the 911's headlights dim around it while leaving the rest of the pattern bright. [...] Porsche would also dim the right side if road signs on the shoulder were overly reflective. The article never mentions, but how does the Porsche d…

My mk8 Ford fiesta (this current gen was never launched in the US) already does that: it does real-time processing to determine when to enable and how to angle the LED high beams in real time so it's not just a European manufacturer thing. I was genuinely surprised at how well it works.

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#424

Post by ed312 » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 1:25 PM UTC

brianwawok wrote: post #381

justapassenger wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla’s lack tons of stuff that’s standard or an option on other high end cars. They need to catch up on things like ventilated and massage seats, HUD, CarPlay, bird view cameras and many many more. They’re effectively simple cars, with powerful computer and drivetrain. Adding localized and very complex feature is likely very low on their to do list, especially as their RD spending is ridiculously low, and trending d…

CarPlay is silly. CarPlay was made for legacy manufacturers who can’t make a decent UI. The UI on Tesla is generally ahead of CarPlay. Not even sure how you would do CarPlay.. a small pop-up window? It couldn’t take over the whole nav or you lose Energy display and a host of other good stuff.

CarPlay's UI is far better than any manufacturer I've seen so far. Using the same UI/UX as your smart phone is way more intuitive - and it'll keep pace with OS updates. I wouldn't buy a car _without_ CarPlay at this point.

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#425

Post by sgt » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 1:28 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #296

lvspiff wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst thing to happen to America was Autozone and Fast and Furious. Cheap aftermarket modifications to your car being sold to people with no knowledge of what they were doing but wanted it too look cool cause they saw it in the movie. Its led to years of teenagers with no training putting things on their cars that turn them into obnoxious spectacles on the road. I know I sound like an old coot but frankly I'm gla…

> but frankly I'm glad my dad showed me how to install/aim headlights and along with explaining the benefits of a working unmodified exhaust system and how it should sound In Germany, headlight aim is checked at the 2-yea mandatory inspection, dito for exhaust stuff. Is that not a part of US checks?

Here in South Africa, inspection happens when you buy a vehicle. After that, it's not inspected again unless you sell it to someone else who will have to take it to roadworthy inspection. The test is pretty good and covers everything from suspension to oil leaks. It does however not cover emissions, as far as I know.

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#426

Post by dhimes » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 1:28 PM UTC

mumblemumble wrote: post #407

serf wrote: post #14

groups like Audi/Porsche/BMW have trouble bringing their fancy LED setups to America due to laws pertaining to high / low beams -- meanwhile every Jack and Jill on the road has glaringly illegal aftermarket Xenon bulb setups in refractor headlight housings rather than proper projectors, blinding the hell out of everyone on the road, and the police seem to do nothing about it. I mean, hey -- i'm usually happy about au…

Also fog lights being left on at all times. When I'm being followed by an SUV with a relatively high chassis and a set of fog lights that the owner blithely keeps turned on, it can be very nearly physically painful for me.

Fog lights? Mine are mounted and shine low. I thought they all were so they don't bounce back into the driver's eyes when there is actually fog.

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#427

Post by growlist » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 1:29 PM UTC

switch007 wrote: post #349

growlist wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in the UK Top Gear has a lot to answer for in promoting an utterly moronic car culture (and I like cars).

How so?

Where I live we have countless boy racers with farty exhausts obnoxiously informing everyone at all hours of their amazingly unique and original ideas about how to modify cars. I pin the blame in no small part on Top Gear for spreading a dumbed down car culture to the masses. That's not to say I didn't enjoy watching it. I just don't enjoy what it contributed to bringing about.

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#428

Post by vonmoltke » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 1:36 PM UTC

acituan wrote: post #204

aaomidi wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what does jailing someone achieve here? what is with this gross authoritarianism? most of these people using these bright LEDs dont realize how bright it is for the other drivers - it's probably just to make the roads brighter because driving in America is extremely different than the rest of the world (very very rural highways - with essentially no extra lighting)

> what is with this gross authoritarianism? most of these people using these bright LEDs dont realize how bright it is for the other drivers There are wishes for gross authoritarianism because US has problems with lesser, appropriate regulations. The way other countries handle this is periodic vehicle inspections - just like smog checks but with more points - which also measure from the lumens and angle of your headl…

> If this was suggested in the US eyes would roll, heads would turn, nanny state arguments would be invoked.

Yet several states do this, including Texas of all places.

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#429

Post by astura » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 1:40 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #296

lvspiff wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst thing to happen to America was Autozone and Fast and Furious. Cheap aftermarket modifications to your car being sold to people with no knowledge of what they were doing but wanted it too look cool cause they saw it in the movie. Its led to years of teenagers with no training putting things on their cars that turn them into obnoxious spectacles on the road. I know I sound like an old coot but frankly I'm gla…

> but frankly I'm glad my dad showed me how to install/aim headlights and along with explaining the benefits of a working unmodified exhaust system and how it should sound In Germany, headlight aim is checked at the 2-yea mandatory inspection, dito for exhaust stuff. Is that not a part of US checks?

Depends on what state you live in. In my state there's absolutely no routine inspections whatsoever on automobiles, where I grew up there was yearly comprehensive safety inspections required - that being said, you only get a ticket if you fail to get an already registered car inspected.

Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?

#430

Post by blaser-waffle » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 1:43 PM UTC

lnanek2 wrote: post #366

ooobit2 wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'd be nice if someone would do something about Wrongthink Trolls. It's not cool to see several downvotes on a random post, three or four levels deep in a comment chain, simply because it criticizes people spending money on useless political spin. It's crazy , maybe even hate speech to suggest a math textbook should be more important than a political memoir? ...on Hacker? Is there some sudden influx of people who jo…

I guess you are new here, but HN is heavily, heavily edited and moderated. Posts get killed all the time, if they don't have their titles changed or URLs swapped, for not being exactly what certain people want, and other posts resurrected because the founder didn't get sufficient traffic. Comments get rethreaded and killed at the drop of a hat as well. The buried comment was a non-mainstream opinion, so not welcome h…

> if they don't have their titles changed or URLs swapped, for not being exactly what certain people want, and other posts resurrected because the founder didn't get sufficient traffic.

Disingenuous headlines are a huge problem and are part of "spin" (aka marketing or propaganda effort).

All available research -- plus tons of anecdotal experience on /. or HN or reddit -- shows that people never read the links that are posted, and, if they did click the link, probably won't read 100% of it. Most people share links without reading articles as well.

The headline is what generates the controversy, and should reflect the actual or original content of the piece. I am okay with mods changing headlines to reflect that. I have no doubt this is a SV echo chamber -- but it's a news aggregator run by Y-combinator, what the hell did you expect?

https://slate.com/technology/2013/06/how-people-read-online-...

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/why-we-do...

http://thesciencepost.com/study-70-of-facebook-commenters-on...