Posted on 02/16/2022 8:27:57 AM PST by algore
DETROIT – Anyone who has ever been temporarily blinded by high-beam headlights from an oncoming car will be happy to hear this.
U.S. highway safety regulators are about to allow new high-tech headlights that can automatically tailor beams so they focus on dark areas of the road and don't create glare for oncoming drivers.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it issued a final rule allowing what's called “adaptive driving beam headlights” on new vehicles. It will go into effect when published in the Federal Register in the next few days.
The headlights, commonly used in Europe, have LED lamps that can focus beams on darkness such as the driver's lane and areas along the roadside. They also lower the intensity of the light beams if there's oncoming traffic. Camera sensors and computers help determine where the light should go.
"This final rule will improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists by making them more visible at night, and will help prevent crashes by better illuminating animals and objects in and along the road,” the agency said in a news release on Tuesday.
The new rule, which was supported by the auto industry, comes as the safety agency grapples with a dramatic rise in traffic deaths nationwide.
(Excerpt) Read more at fox13news.com ...
Get the mf-ing government OUT of our lives!! Enough of their interference and meddling! Just look at what those retards did to our gas cans!!
Yep, loved the pencil beams, they were like plane landing lights.
They’re going at it all wrong. Mandating design rather than performance. In the 1960s we had the European Cibie halogen headlights which were FAR superior to the Guide type sealedbeams, but were illegal under DOT rules. We used them anyway, but where I lived then we had to swap back to sealed-beams to pass mandatory vehicle inspection every six months. Still stuck on stupid, is the DOT.
Adaptive headlights also usually include a self-levelling function that would resolve this issue.
Just one more thing the government shouldn’t be involved. Of course, it is in the name of public safety. I’m old enough to see the entire government mandated seatbelt safety measures. That goes back to a time when my father bought a car with a seatbelt and demanded that us kids wore them. That was before any government mandate. You see, people can make the correct decisions on their own and the free market will provide solutions. I trust my decisions over lazy ass government employee decisions every day time and I am willing to live with the consequences when I choose poorly. I’ll call that a learning experience.
“... better at lighting up objects that are falling from the sky in front of you.”
Like when it gets cold, and iguanas start falling from the trees?
Can they be aligned to the targeting lasers?
I know you're making a funny, but LEDs in the rear view can be annoying. I was in front of a newer Tacoma last week, and i was getting a strobe effect from the LED headlights in my rear view. If I looked straight at the light, no strobe, but if I focused away from the light, strobes from both. Very irritating.
Me too but they didn’t check that for inspection- just to see if they work. And they were much better halogens 👍🏻
I think they were Hella brand
It would be a simple mechanism, to self-level headlights. A hinge, dampers of some sort, and a weight hanging at the appropriate position to keep them level.
Dampers so that if you’re driving up and down hills, they don’t make a drastic, sudden shift to a new position.
Of course, they wouldn’t use something so simple - anything that can be done mechanically can be done for a larger profit using sophisticated electronics.
I agree, and especially on load-carrying vehicles that tow, carry a load sometimes, that are prone to having their level changed drastically in normal use, self-leveling would be very helpful.
Maybe they should revert back to candles in a glass lamp. /s
Mercedes has had these, or something similar for years.
And they would check the aim.
Self levelling headlights, and headlight washers are mandatory in Europe.
All that I know of are motor driven, not dampened plumb-bobs.
Slightly off topic but reminds me...
Seems a lot more often these days If I am behind someone who is going slow they will pull over to let me pass....Dont think
I am riding their butt, but yet it still happens....is it my cologne?
2013 bought retirement car early(2014 Benz suv). Great car 150k mi! Made in Alabama. Headlights were selling point. Old Tahoe had poor headlights. These not only dim automatically but turn left and right and even up and down ( great when cresting a hill). Yeah expensive, but still working, and learning from wifey,” you get what you pay for.”
I had a pair of Cibie Z-Beam halogen headlights back in the late ‘70s on a 1972 Porsche 911T. On low-beam, they produced a bright white pattern that shown straight in front, but with bias toward the right hand side of the road so oncoming drivers weren’t blinded.
The Z-beam pattern only applied to the low beams. On high-beams you could see into the next state, and they vaporized small animals that crossed in front of the car.
“Yep, loved the pencil beams, they were like plane landing lights. “
A narrower vertical beam spread is what’s needed. Older headlights had larger reflectors which allow for narrower beams.
Also, the incandescent headlamp bulbs have a straight filament which, if oriented horizontally, permits a very narrow vertical beam spread.
Anyone who has ever been temporarily blinded by high-beam headlights from an oncoming car will be happy to hear this.
It's not even high-beams. It's the regular-beam lights that are so bright that they hurt your eyes in daylight.
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