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> Chris Trechter, a lighting-focused engineer who used to work for Magna International, the largest automobile parts manufacturer in North America, told me the
by djoldman 2y ago
> Chris Trechter, a lighting-focused engineer who used to work for Magna International, the largest automobile parts manufacturer in North America, told me the company would adhere to 108 in making headlights for clients like General Motors but that the rule is “archaic.” “It does not account for LEDs,” he said, “and there are giant loopholes that allow you to throw basically unlimited light as long as you meet all the other aspects of 108.”
There are multiple references to this idea that you can have a basically unlimited brightness headlamp because the way it's tested is flawed. Anyone know how the testing process works?
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 2y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42332716 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42332716 It sounds like there is an area that is focused on for the test and they can engineer the lights to avoid putting too much light in that area.
- neuralRiot 2y agoCasually newer GM vehicles are one of the worst offenders together with Tesla with their poorly-shaped light beaming, that’s maybe a cosenquence of having a front end in the vehicle so high that the the headlights are level with the roof of “normal” sedans.
- nunez 2y agotbf newer Teslas all have matrix LEDs but they aren't enabled in the US because of NHTSA. I bet it's just a feature flag suite away too.
- brokenmachine 2y agoWhat's a matrix LED?
- sangnoir 2y agoA technical kludge around drivers who refuse to dip their hi-beams by creating a dynamic mask around other vehicles - matrix LED headlights act as a bright, low-resolution projector that keeps other vehicles unlit, but lights up everything else.
- Kirby64 2y agoHow is getting all of the advantages of high beams without the blinding factor of other drivers a kludge? It’s a huge benefit. Auto high beams already exist.
- sangnoir 2y ago> How is getting all of the advantages of high beams without the blinding factor of other drivers a kludge? Because it's not just other drivers inconvenienced by super bright lights - people in their homes, pedestrians out if sensor range and camera systems are unaccounted for. Also, because a simpler solution exists for 99% of the times drivers abuse high beams, and has existed for 50+ years. Driver ed books in most jurisdictions spell out where high beams ought to be used, and well-lit city streets are not one of them. It's kludge because it's being offered up as a technical solution to make up for rule-breaking drivers who use high beams as an default-on, when they ought to be default-off. Don't use high beams unless you need them, which should be a minority of the time. The bulk of society seems to have decided not to be inconvenienced by only seeing 20 car lengths at night, screw everybody else's night vision.
- Kirby64 2y agoThis sounds like a failing of the system to not dip the high beams in the presence of sufficiently bright street lighting. I'm not sure how mandating matrix headlights be not used is the solution here. My auto high beams don't come on at all during city driving that is reasonably well lit, since its detecting something to cause them to dip.
- 2y ago
- amluto 2y agoThe current Rivian cars have this, enabled, in the US.
- xethos 2y agoThey measure at a certain point. Jason Cammisa points it out pretty clearly in an episode of Carmudgeon, with the money quote either here[0] or in the link direct to YouTube here[1]: > On a recent episode of the Carmudgeon Show podcast, auto journalist Jason Cammisa described a phenomenon occurring with some LED headlights in which there are observable minor spots of dimness among an otherwise bright field of light. “With complex arrays of LEDs and of optics,” he said, “car companies realized they can engineer in a dark spot where it’s being measured, but the rest of the field is vastly over-illuminated. And I’ve had now two car companies’ engineers, when I played stupid and said, ‘What’s the dark spot?’ … And the lighting engineers are all fucking proud of themselves: ‘That’s where they measure the fucking thing!’ And I’m like, ‘You assholes, you’re the reason that every fucking new car is blinding the shit out of everyone.’” [0] https://www.theringer.com/2024/12/03/tech/headlight-brightness-cars-accidents https://www.theringer.com/2024/12/03/tech/headlight-brightne... [1] https://youtu.be/MkwjMV2of_8?t=697 https://youtu.be/MkwjMV2of_8?t=697