mmarshall

The dark window-tint that is the rage on so many cars today doesn't help, either. No mater what kind of headlights you have, It can significantly cut down on night visibility...but many drivers, especially younger ones, simply have to have it because they think it looks cool. Yes, it can help lessen the load on the A/C on a hot day, but you sometimes pay for it at night. That is one reason (among several) why tint-level is tightly regulated by the state.

theory816

Thats only if the truck is going over a hill. Your sedan does the same exact thing going over a hill. You blind others even more with them sik leds on your IS.

You forgot to mention that your 4runner is an 04. The halogen headlights on my sister's 2018 sienna will outperform your LEDs anyday. How? Because the headlights sit higher.

Brighter headlights will not be a boost for everyone. Better usage of light is what will benefit everyone.

sm1ke

iTrader: (5)

I understand what you're saying, but there are diminishing returns on the height-distance increase, and you also lose visibility of the road directly in front of the car, especially when it comes to halogen vs. HID or LED. As an example, if I were to raise the height of my Civic some inches, I may be able to see the traffic signs ahead a few feet sooner, but I'll loose some of the light that is thrown onto the road and I'll end up blinding even more people now that the light is at their eye-level. That's why HID lighting in a projector housing is superior. Output is higher, light is brighter, so you can see further. The projector housing provides a sharp cutoff to minimize the glare to oncoming drivers.

LED advanced headlights, as shown in the Merc demo, take what projector housings do to the next level. Instead of cutting off light from top to bottom, it now minimizes the light that shines on oncoming traffic. In addition, it varies the light output so that traffic signs are more readable and there is less road glare in poor weather conditions. Why wouldn't you want that?

SW17LS

I find it funny that people are complaining about brighter lights blinding drivers when that's exactly what these advanced headlights keep from happening lol.

You literally are arguing that technology specifically designed to ease the issue you're afraid of is somehow going to make it worse.

Let's put it this way, if those concerns were valid...the NHTSA wouldn't have approved them.

The point of having advanced dynamic headlights is they focus light where you want it, without shining it where you don't (I.e. into the eyes of oncoming drivers). Its not about being brighter, its about being better.

BippuLexus

That's what I mentioned earlier. The "advanced dynamic headlights" that the NHTSA are looking into isn't about headlight brightness or type of headlight (LED vs Laser). Its about the ability to shine the light on the thing you need. Allowing advanced dynamic headlights doesn't mean its allowing laser lights.

arentz07

If that's the case, that means the lights on higher-riding vehicles are angled down, which means their lighting distance isn't meaningfully different from lower vehicles.

And no, my lights are not any worse at blinding than others.

"The low beams never exceeded glare limits."

https://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/ve...oor-sedan/2016

For comparison, the 2018 Silverado Crew Cab headlamps got a rating of "poor", in spite of its higher ride.

https://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/ve...rew-cab-pickup

They also created "excessive glare".

theory816

Youre correct here. Still, higher sitting headlights, will give you a good 10-20ft of lighting over a sedan. Which is significant if you are driving pitch dark on the highway and a couch suddenly appears out of nowhere.

Im a lighting expert. I stated that for a reason. Its not to boast. IIHS does not specialize in lighting. Crazy right? How can a big company like IIHS get lighting wrong? Again, its because they are not lighting engineers. That should also tell you something about the opinions in this thread also.

The ratings on headlights from IIHS are pure crap. Just trust me on that.

mmarshall

Compared to the average car owner/driver, we are all experts here on Car Chat.

SW17LS

Is there anything you aren't an expert at?

theory816

Good point

lol, its not that im an expert, its just that I look into the things that im interested in. I've always liked cars and the most interesting part of a car, at least to me, are the headlights.

arentz07

If the IIHS isn't a great source for test data on headlights, then who?

I am glad they started testing headlights. I haven't owned very many vehicles, and even among the around 7 or so that I've regularly driven since I got my first car (combination of my girlfriend/wife's cars and my own), I've noticed a pretty big disparity in illumination, particularly the cut-off angle. My 2015 Camry had a really sharp cutoff. Good for visibility, but also means that getting another driver just barely inside that cut-off means blinding them. I noticed this when (inevitably, it's a Camry) encountering others on the road at night. The Corolla, like Jill was saying, has great visibility as well, but I hate running into them at night. They aren't as bad as some aftermarket HID lamps, but they are worse than many other LEDs.

I think LEDs get a bad name, too, due to their similar appearance to Xenon or HID lights. In reality, I don't think many LED lights have given me as bad of a glare as the blue-white lights commonly installed aftermarket, or even some big pickup trucks with factory halogen bulbs.

SW17LS

So you lied up there where you said, in bold "I AM A LIGHTING EXPERT". Got it.

Everybody here has always liked cars, and we all know a lot about cars and different aspects of cars. To laypeople, we would likely be considered "experts" but not compared to each other. You don't have an edge in experience with lighting more than many people here, best not to pretend you do.

tex2670

So--you read about it on the internet?

sm1ke

iTrader: (5)

What makes you a self-proclaimed expert on lighting? What are your credentials? You mentioned earlier that you "extract information from the people who make them." Then you said "Sulu may be an engineer, but he's not an optical engineer." Are you an optical engineer?

I extract information from agricultural equipment engineers, but that doesn't make me an expert on agricultural equipment.

He's proposing that luxury cars should go back to inefficient, cheap, low lumen output lighting instead of using the available advanced headlight tech (which is clearly much better than anything that came before it). He's an expert, alright.

JDR76

I think this is a good advancement.

The HIDs in my GS, despite being lower to the ground, are massively more effective than the Halogens in my Highlander.