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What's a matrix LED?

sangnoir 2y ago
A 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 ago
  How 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 ago
      This 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.
      - sangnoir 2y ago
        > I'm not sure how mandating matrix headlights be not used is the solution here. That's not what I'm suggesting at all - matrix headlights absolutely should he used - clearly some drivers "need" them, I'm just identifying them as a kludge for asshole drivers who can't be bothered to flick a finger or thumb to dip their lights.
        Kirby64 2y ago
        Again, how is it a kludge? If you want to argue standard 'auto' high beams are a kludge, then maybe... but matrix headlights are performing a function that is literally impossible by a driver. Having high beams still illuminate an area where no cars are is strictly better, especially on the proper locations where it should be used (poorly lit rural areas), and there is no way to do that without matrix headlights.

A 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 ago
How 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 ago
    This 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.
    - sangnoir 2y ago
      > I'm not sure how mandating matrix headlights be not used is the solution here. That's not what I'm suggesting at all - matrix headlights absolutely should he used - clearly some drivers "need" them, I'm just identifying them as a kludge for asshole drivers who can't be bothered to flick a finger or thumb to dip their lights.
      - Kirby64 2y ago
        Again, how is it a kludge? If you want to argue standard 'auto' high beams are a kludge, then maybe... but matrix headlights are performing a function that is literally impossible by a driver. Having high beams still illuminate an area where no cars are is strictly better, especially on the proper locations where it should be used (poorly lit rural areas), and there is no way to do that without matrix headlights.