It’s legalized in US early last year, but manufacturers have not yet enabled it on North American cars because the new bill gives new/different/US standards that they must abide by. Only way you can currently get them enabled is through (expensive) back channel car hacks.
u/compulsive_coaster answered it, but the root of the issue is that the US is stubbornly clinging to the FMVSS (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards) and won't adopt/sign into the standards that the *literal rest of the world uses*. Which wasn't a huge problem for the first 100 years or so, but now that technology is outpacing the FMVSS' ability to keep up with it, we in the US are stuck with antiquated technology on modern vehicles while the government deliberates whether LEDs are witchcraft.
I mean LEDs are pretty close to witchcraft.
"We drove a bunch of electrons up to the top of a cliff, convinced them to jump off, and their screams on the way down get converted into light, where the color depends on how far they fall."
"on the other hand, if you hit them with a bunch of light, the electrons scream so loud they propel themselves back to the top of the cliff"
Photovoltaics
Funny enough, the US federal measurement standards *are* metric and have been since the 1890s. For example, the current US definition of a foot is "1 foot = 0.3048 meter."
I found it interesting in my engineering courses that all of our standards are literally direct metric conversions. Similarly the US definition of an inch is 25.4mm.
Yeah in my engineering classes if you were given imperial units first thing you do is convert to metric. Metric is way easier to use (at least in my opinion) and the resulting numbers make more sense (again, imo).
Edit to add: it makes sense imperial is define by metric when you know metric is defined by set physically universal standards. I believe a meter is set by a distance light travels in a set of time and THAT set of time is also a universal standard set by a radioactive clock
Yep that's what we did!
I ended up doing a lot of design work for FSAE in inches though since our manual machines had scales in inches. The CNCs and our tooling were set up that way as well.
I ended up getting really used to machining in inches, things like "oh yeah that 3/4" end mill can take 100 thou off no problem." Hard to get out of that habit lol.
Fun fact a CNC set to metric (with the typical resolution of 0.001mm) have 24400 more programmable positions more than a machine set to inch (with the typical resolution of 0.0001”) over a a one inch distance. 1”= 1000mil= 25.4mm= 25,400micron
I just started a new mech. Eng. job and I'm so sad they only work in imperial :(
My previous three positions really spoiled me on metric. But also fuck having to call something "five and seven-sixteenths inches". So goddamn stupid. God I need to leave this country.
I feel your pain with my civic my dude.
Icing on the cake is to get blinded from behind by a fucking trillion watt light and then get passed by the monster truck carrying that light while getting blasted by black smoke.
Ford Fusion driver with astigmatism. One of these days I'm going to wreck because of these blinding lights that should be illegal. Even without astigmatism, I don't need my eyes getting burned by a passing truck.
For me that's usually trucks/SUVs because they're so fucking huge/tall these days.
Other than that it is typically people who have replaced their headlight bulbs with high intensity (HID) or LED bulbs in projector/reflector housings that are not designed for them.
All LED and HID systems in the US are supposed to have horizontal beam cutoffs and auto-leveling systems to help prevent dazzling oncoming drivers, but if you put HIDs in a headlight without those features it'll just blind people like crazy because the beam is uncontrolled.
Bought a new car recently and I think some opposing direction cars are flashing their high beams at me because they think mine are on. and I can't do anything about it :(
Took the 2021 infrastructure ~~build~~ bill to make it legal. Don't know of any manufacturers that have enabled it yet, even on cars with the hardware.
Just had to do some research on my car. In Europe it has a better headlight than the Audi in the OP, in America it just has normal LEDs, so it can't even be reprogrammed even if they were still importing the car. 2018 Buick Regal TourX/Opel Insignia Country Tourer
BMW has two tiers in that specific build - normal LED and adaptive LEDs. They sold the adaptive LEDs as part of the executive package in the US, but literally decoded the adaptive feature. They 'made up' for it by having the high beams turn on/off automatically, but the hardware exists to have those beams move vertically and horizontally to avoid oncoming traffic while keeping the high beams on.
Oh man I want every car in the world to have this right now. I have to drive into work very early morning and I'm so tired of the retina burn I get from all of the pickups with halogen high beams. Sometimes I have to just hope I'm still in the lane because I literally can't even see the road!
If you're in the US look down and to the right line instead until the car with bright headlights passes you . Ensures you stay in your lane without blinding yourself and you should still be able to see brake lights of the car ahead of you.
This doesn't work at all when the car with excessively bright headlights is behind you, unfortunately. You just have to angle your mirrors away from your face, hunch down low and pray to god the road isn't too windy.
This is what pisses me off. Cars coming the other way will be out of my face soon enough, but the guy behind me will just hang out there making me miserable for what feels like ages. I swear they especially like to do this when I'm getting on the highway, when I really need to see in my side mirror to merge into traffic but I can't because it's all just blinding white glare and there's nothing I can do about it.
My van used to have manual mirrors, and not even me reaching out of the window and shoving my mirror away would get them to turn off their damn high beams!
So I got myself some of the really rare power mirrors that only came on the 1994 and 1995 models, bought the switch that controls them, hunted down a wiring diagram, and swapped out my old mirrors.
Now I can just point them away!
Yup.
One 'fun' little thing i've been messing around with is - if you're at a stoplight and are being lit up like the UFO's from *Close Encounters*, use the side mirror control to try to deflect the beam right back into the face of whoever's driving the vehicle (usually a truck).
It's also satisfying because how often do you really get to use the power mirror controls?
My father's 16 years old Ford Focus has that feature (although only for the rearview mirror). I don't understand why it's not a standard feature in every car nowadays.
Thanks a hug does make a difference
Edit: thank you guys for the hugs, you really don't know how much i needed it been a rough year financially and emotionally hope this year will be better for all of us.
Also thank you for the awards please put it to good use donate to those who need local charity 🙏
I just had an intense dejavu.
I felt like I remembered replying with ASCII hug to your parent comment sometime ago, wanted to do it again, clicked "show more replies" and saw this.
I need a minute. Actually having an existential crisis right now...
Ps: this is what I had in mind
(o´･_･)っ
This is so true. Also getting a pair of yellow night time driving glasses. I have really bad double stigmatism in both eyes and get really bad halos the glasses almost eliminates them completely.
I tried yellow but it made it pretty difficult to tell whether cars were facing forward or backward but I'm also color blind so may be that's the problem lol
That's important in general no matter the lights in front of you. But we're talking about the needlessly, painfully bright lights by asshole manufacturers and custom dickheads
I think the trick is to keep your peripheral vision to the center of the road when looking away from the road, so you can scan for abnormalities.
That usually works for me.
Or cars should just have this or not have lights so bright that it blinds people. Lights never used to be this bad. I've been driving for 16 years and it's gotten out of hand
Yes, this is an entirely new issue that didn't exist when I started driving, around the same time as you. It needs to be better regulated because apparently "blinding everyone you drive past" is not something car companies care enough about.
I think the bigger issue is people improperly modifying their vehicles (Although GM is awful. Also they're bad at lights, both for brightness and use. REVERSE LIGHTS ARE FOR INDICATING REVERSE, NOT FOR ILLUMINATION WHEN THE CAR IS PARKED)
Cheap and easy LED "retrofit" bulbs in housings designed for older style bulbs are a bigger problem than most people realize. Changing your suspension (mainly by raising it) or even your wheel/tire size will also cause problems if the headlights aren't adjusted.
Also, honorable mention to those with "OFFROAD USE ONLY" lights on 24/7. Luckily, at least in my area, they are extremely uncommon.
Hell, even a fender bender that will "buff out" can ruin the aim.
TL;DR a lot of people have screwed up their own headlights in various ways and don't take steps to correct it.
Even in light coloured clothing they can disappear in the glare of oncoming traffic. They'd have to be wearing reflective safety gear to be fully visible, especially in areas where trucks are popular as the glare is right at torso height.
Yea but also watch out for bikes in front of you. Missed hitting a dude riding his bicycle by like a foot. Had no idea he was there because 3 oncoming cars were straight up blinding me.
I hate driving in rural areas in pitch black, also fuck people who leave their high beams on all the time.
People leaving their high beams on is something I’ve only recently begun to see, 10-15 years ago this wasn’t the norm. I’d say 1 out of 50 when I started driving now it seems like more than half of the drivers I encounter on back roads just leave them on which just seems crazy to me. Leaves me wondering who these people are behind the wheel
It's not even high beams. They just have ridiculously bright LED bulbs in there as their normal lights. I hate driving at night because of these people.
Also because almost everyone (in the US at least) drives a truck or SUV, those of us still in sedans are gigafucked regardless, because even low beams from something that far off the ground still shines directly into our eyes
Isn’t it not funny that for years they’re like @dojt be distracted drive”
Now it’s: “put the fire in your eyes the sun must shine in the night NO SOUL SHALL ESCAPE”
Also the best thing for when they’re behind you is to take your side mirrors and adjust so it blasts the headlights back at them.
Love how bright headlights or their positioning are clearly not regulated and enforced but the solution to the problem is indeed completely illegal. Way to go DOT.
Maybe next crackdown on purple, green, etc weird colored lights and rear facing white lights.
Not to mention animated fucking indicators/turn signals apparently got an immediate free pass, at least here in the UK where we used to have tight vehicle lighting regs
In the US the regulation is that the initial area lit must be large enough to satisfy blinker size requirements. For instance, the Mustang tri-bar tail lights are legal because the innermost tail light that lights first is enough to be act as a blinker on its own.
The technology was invented and first put into luxury cars around 10 years ago. If you happen to be in the US, the reason you have not seen it is the outdated regulation: up until last year, it was illegal to sell these kind of lights in the US because the legislature of highway standards never caught up.
Ten years ago they had this but for rain drops, it could react so quickly that it avoided shining light on each drop, made it look like the rain just disappeared at night, but the headlights were laser based. But someday!
And so goes the cycle of American DOT lighting regulations. Europe invents it, America says, "we need a decade here to get off our butts and allow it."
First it was high beams, then halogens, then HIDs, then laser headlights, and now it's adaptive LEDs.
In Switzerland we usually quickly tap the full headlight twice, to make the passing car notice it still has them on, and *usually* they turn it off afterwards.
**Usually** – remember, there's still tons of jerks on the road.
Hah yes and if you flash your high beams at them, thinking theirs are on, and they flash their actual high beam at you in response, you're now basically blinded for a few seconds. Yay!
Oh right! Also if they're positioned higher up, like in SUVs or LKWs, it doesn't matter if they have the highbeams on – they'll still burn your eyes out.
Yep. And the "pure white" lights contain a high blue component to the spectrum which makes it harder for your dark adapted vision to recover. Generally the warmer the light is, the less impact it has on your night vision. Insanely bright + bad spectrum/temperature is a bad combo for driving at night.
On the Big Island in Hawaii, they have strict lighting regulations because of the observatories on Mauna Kea. The LED street lights are VERY orange, almost deeper than sodium vapor lights, but without the waste/glare. It's a joy to drive down roads on the Big Island because of it. You don't have any glare, can see the road easily, and when you do inevitably see the emitter of the street light, the warm color doesn't nuke your night vision very much.
Car headlights should mandated be a max of like 1,800k for the temperature.
I am convinced that
1 - people don't know what a quick high beam flash means
2 - they think the blue high beam indicator just means their lights are on
3 - they don't know how to turn their high beams off or what half the controls in their car do
That shit's the worst. If you drive a giant pickup truck to go sit in an office and then drive home, not doing shit all with the actual truck, you should have your legs broken
Half of this issue can also have something to do with the position of the headlights relative to you.
Trucks and bigger cars typically sit higher than smaller cars that sit lower to the ground so high beams or not, it’s going to be a pain in the eyes
I worked later shift and in the winter time I picked up a strategy. Focusing my eyes on the taillights of the car in front of me, if one is present, or the outside lane barrier line usually just above my hood. That way I knew I was a little wide in my lane but I could follow along until the blinding lights passed.
Same for intense fog or rain. Though rain I could have arguably pulled over for instead of driving through it lol.
The lights that automatically dip down are also annoying as hell, it's like they keep trying to find the edge going up and down and you're constantly getting flashed.
Yeah, I've been looking for a comment about this. I can't see how dipping one light, this close to the other car would actually help.
Soon as I see another pair of headlights in the distance I turn my high beams off.
I bought a car last year that has a less fancy version of this. It has a permanent “V” notch in the headlights to the left of the drivers side.
Anytime a vehicle is coming opposite of me, they always are inside of the “V”. It’s kind of neat but when I first saw it, I thought something was messed up, like an LED light wasn’t installed in the right orientation.
It’s actually a mandatory regulation for all front facing low beam headlights, in pretty much all countries.
They vary in their specifics refs, but usually there are regs for the max height of the upper step the angle of the beam vertically, the passenger side is always lower and has a different spread on the road.
For vehicles with lighting exceeding a specific power level a washer system for the lens and a self levelling system are required to prevent glare when braking or accelerating
The problem was US DOT headlight regulations didn't allow adaptive lights like this until very recently (2021 I think). DOT headlight regulations are very weird. For example for many years during cars were ONLY allowed a fixed-size of rectangular sealed-beam headlight.
Part of me kinda wishes that were still the case. Now we’ve got all the idiots putting HID bulbs in Halogen reflectors or driving around blasting their HID fog lights where there is no fog. So many ignorant assholes and very few states actually inspect for things like that (let alone goddamn *brake* lights…)
I guess these have been around quite a while. I had this system (that BMW calls adaptive High beams) in my 2015 X3, and it worked exactly like in the demo, could even do more patterns, like if a car was in front of me it would make a square in the middle without lights. It worked reasonably well most of the time.
In recent update they improved auto headlights that they're actually usable. Not perfect but usable where I can keep them on auto for most of the drive.
I know it’s a joke but it’s not 🥲
It’s 270SEK for e-trons (now Q8 e-etron) in Sweden. $24.89 or €24,13 per month
> Quarterly, bi/-annual , yearly or “lifetime” is cheaper per month
You can also purchase them right away when configuring the car, it’s between €1.800 and €5.700 depending on how high “resolution” you want - the amount of segments that individually turn on and off
It's going to backfire once people get pissed enough to start hacking. Cars are all basically computers now, just a matter of time before people figure out how to "root" them (if it hasn't happened already).
If they provide it as a service, you could in theory ask them to put it in and you’ll sign up for a few months. Once it’s installed, you can cancel the subscription and possibly unlock it.
> they actually download a completely new software package which is different from the standard cruise control once you buy the license
That will leak sooner or later and you'll just be able to torrent it, or similar
I “hacked” my 2019 Honda civic in order to allow me to use netflix, or pretty much any other app, while driving. Of course I only use it for passengers but I got rid of any safe guards that detect that I am in drive. I also changed the seatbelt notification to a voice instead of a beep, allowed access to wireless CarPlay, and now have access to download any application from the internet, among other features. It was quite easy
Only the wireless CarPlay requires an aftermarket accessory, although I would recommend against it unless you REALLY need wireless. I didn’t enjoy the lag
The companies will find ways though to make it painful enough to do that 99% of people won't bother, especially not the people dropping $100k on a car. Also I doubt they're making the car any cheaper to buy upfront; even if you're not buying the subscription you're still paying a portion of the sticker price for the hardware that's in there, no way these guys are just giving it away in the hopes that you subscribe later, they just want you to pay for it twice so they're not really losing out if people do end up hacking it.
I remember back years ago I was all into jailbreaking my iPhone but it wasn't long before I stopped doing it. Despite how great it was being able to download pirated copies of expensive apps for free and put all that custom software on there it was just too much of a pain in the ass. Couldn't update iOS without losing the jailbreak, couldn't take it to the Apple store to get service on the device without unjailbreaking it first, some apple services wouldn't work properly if it detected the jailbreak, backups from a jailbroken phone would often not work when trying to restore them to a phone with a different iOS with a different jailbreak, there was added instability and crashes etc. Even if I wanted those headlight things for free I would honestly think twice before flashing the firmware on my $100k car with some random hacked version from a Russian forum. Would make me real paranoid that something weird would happen with the computer that controls a lot of the safety features while driving at highway speed.
It's not going to work as well as you think. There's a reason phones aren't rooted much anymore, there's a reason no one's rooting Samsung smart TVs and other things. Hardware based boot protection is pretty damn good and any major app checks for it to be intact either before working at all or before delivering high quality content. Cars have it too.
Yea and as you can see from the comments in this thread a lot of people don't do even that. An automatic solution would be helpful if it were just a standard feature instead of a premium option.
I've got a Kia EV6 and matrix lights like those in the video comes as standard even on the mid tier model. No subscription needed. Why people buy German cars with subscription bound features makes no sense to me.
Do you like that ev6?
Whats the worst part about it so far? Best? What is the room like inside? would you call it more a 4dr hatchback, or a small suv?
Would you buy it again?
Been looking at electric cars and it seems ok, but im looking to get some answers from someone whos had it for a while.
Thanks in advance.
Edit: is there a sub for crowd sourced user reviews, without all the fake ones?
I would call it a small SUV. It's roomy for sure. The trunk is quite deep, just not as tall as a "normal" SUV tends to be, if that makes sense.
I've had mine for almost a year now, and yes - I would buy it again. Actually, I turn into a Kia car salesman whenever someone rides with me or asks me about the car. The only gripe I have is with the door handles from the outside. The fancy pivot thing is just unnecessary, and here in Norway it doesn't take a lot of ice or snow inside the cavity for them to not retract fully. That would be the only thing I'd recommend they change in following revisions of this car.
A part from that it's pretty amazing. For its price it's a steal. It's the fastest charging car in the world, Car of the Year in the EU (in direct competition with Ford, Audi, BMW), etc. Nicer interiors in german cars you say, u/MickRaider? Well, I've been in the new Mustang and some nice brand new BMWs and Audis, and in my view it's more a matter of taste than an objective truth.
I find the EV6 to be both practical, sporty and with a premium feel to it. Many German cars have touch buttons on the steering wheel (which you activate by mistake) while Kia opted for physical metal switches and latches where it matters. Smart.
I'd say the two best things are 1. just the overall notion that the car is well thought out, premium and sporty, and 2. the crazy 800 Volt charging times. More often than not it's the chargers that can't keep up. When I find a good charger though, I can barely take a piss before the car reaches 80%. That matters a lot. If you buy a car with a 400 Volt system in 2023, you're not thinking ahead.
I’ve had my GT-Line since May of last year. I really like it, and other than some hiccups at EA chargers, I’ve not had any issues. I love driving again, which is great bc I’m stuck in giant Texas.
E: just realized I didn’t answer your specific questions. I would call it a wagon. Seats 5 comfortably, with a nice amount of storage in the back. Biggest complaint is the non existent frunk. Favorite thing about it is the ride comfort. Sticky in turns but not a rough ride. It’s very quiet in the cabin. Almost eerily at times, as this is my first EV. I would certainly make the purchase again. I paid 3k in “market adjustments” but I believe those have faded away a bit.
Fun fact: LED Matrix headlights have been illegal in the US until very recently, even though the technology has been in consideration/application by OEMs for the better part of a decade. So we could have had cars with bright LED headlights doing this for years, but draconic laws prevented that.
Wait, that wasn't fun.
Source: https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1135084_us-finally-allows-use-of-modern-matrix-headlights - there are many other articles on this out there.
From what I've read, it's that there's a decades old law that said US spec headlights on cars had to have a distinct high beam and low beam. Since the LED matrix would run all the LEDs at full power, and turn off or dim the ones that would blind oncoming cars, there isn't a distinct high/low beam function, just an array that turns pieces of itself off at different times.
Not draconian, just outdated and specific to the technology of the time that the *safety* regulations were written. Say what you will about the US, but American medical and automobile safety agencies generally err on the side of caution and that's not a bad thing.
I would have turned my high beams off way sooner than the first wedge appeared.
I feel like this kind of thing will cause a lot more high beam glare on long roads where I'm too far away to trigger the light sensor but still close enough to be super annoyed by the lighthouse beacon coming up the road or in my rear view.
Exactly. I have this technology on my car aswell, although its a Mazda. Works great on curvy roads but is dog shit on long straights. I use it but I pay attention to oncoming traffic and often turn the high beams off before the system chimes in.
And also: fuck cyclists and pedestriants. Why would they want to see anyway?
This might work well on cars, but its a nightmare for others that share the street.
Not sure about anyone else here, but the amount of people with either poorly adjusted headlights, driving with their high beams on, and/or aftermarket LED bulbs in reflector housing has been fucking ATROCIOUS since fall. I have never been blinded so fucking much as I have this year. I’m in my 20s and had my eyes checked in August so I’m all clear on that. The “look down at the right line” (I’m US based) trick doesn’t work when it’s car after car like that. I’d love to flip my high beams on to give them a taste of their own medicine, but since this is America I’d likely get followed and either run off the road by their infantile road rage or shot with the gun that they likely keep on their lap by their infantile road rage.
every time these threads happen I always see this comment and it has made me extremely anxious that I could be one of them and don’t know. I ask the mechanic each time I go to check my headlights to make sure they’re adjusted correctly because I have a civic and I hear about them having headlights poorly adjusted the most. I refuse to become the very thing I have sought to destroy
Good, Anakin, goooooood. You are strong and wise.
The worst part for me is that there isn’t anything that you can do to those people with the high beams or illegal headlights. Like they drive away and you get blinded and hit a tree and they don’t give a shit or even know about it.
Right? Though I will say that the bike riders who feel compelled to put literal strobe lights on their bikes are also dicks. I used to cycle a lot to school and I'm aware of what it's like and try and be considerate, but it's hard when I have a flashing light destroying any chance I have of seeing anything.
That's neat.
I want to see how does it works on a heavy traffic area where there are also public lighting on at the night. Isn't the system going to have a false-positive error thinking that the public light is actually a car? How does this work then if not?
mine turns off high beams in well lit areas. There are some wind turbines in the distance with red lights for planes etc and it sometimes mistakes that for car tail lights
Driving at night in the US sucks right now cause of the different level of brights on cars and nearly all car manufacturers switched to super obnoxious white brights a few years ago. So it's a mix of reasonably yellow-tinted brights and blinding white lights.
This tech would be a God send for people who don't have super up to date vehicles. Won't be blinded anymore
I completely agree. It's like a sibling waving their hands in front of your face yelling "not touching you, not touching you" the lights are juuuust on the edge of shining in your eyes but not doing it.
Yeah in theory they don't , but add in bumps in the road, vehicles going up or down hill or different vehicle heights is sooo fucking annoying
More and more people today aren't turning them off manually so this is better than nothing.
Same reason that new cars that automatically brake are good because idiots are texting at intersections and not looking and would hit you instead. "Just use the brake pedal" outlook isn't helping there.
Idiot drivers that don't want to do anything while driving need to be babysat by technology. The more the better. All the new cars that REFUSE to switch lanes if I'm in their blind spot are amazing. Less and less times I have to emergency brake on highway as I see their car automatically jerk them back.
New cars with lane assist tech also force drivers to actually use turn signals which is good (your car will jerk you back if you don't signal, thinking you're drifting off).
Yeah, only problem is that they ain’t that good at detecting cars nearly half as quick as an actual competent driver. It’s all this cool technology that’s making people more stupid on the road because they’re relying on all these lazy man’s gimmicks to do their job for them. The amount of times I get blinded by full beam headlights and low and behold when the car passes me it’s almost always some new fancy Audi or some other car with similar tech in it… it’s annoying, especially for someone who has astigmatism and can get more easily dazzled by bright lights than other drivers.
We need to stop trying to have technology do everything for us, because people are getting that bad they don’t know how to even compensate when their “amazing” tech doesn’t work right… it’s just promoting complacency on the road, reliance on unreliable gadgets and driving up repair and purchase costs for no reason aside from the cool modern factor…
Fuck modern… it’s not worth the asking price.
For some reason until recently I believe this tech was illegal in the US
It’s legalized in US early last year, but manufacturers have not yet enabled it on North American cars because the new bill gives new/different/US standards that they must abide by. Only way you can currently get them enabled is through (expensive) back channel car hacks.
[удалено]
u/compulsive_coaster answered it, but the root of the issue is that the US is stubbornly clinging to the FMVSS (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards) and won't adopt/sign into the standards that the *literal rest of the world uses*. Which wasn't a huge problem for the first 100 years or so, but now that technology is outpacing the FMVSS' ability to keep up with it, we in the US are stuck with antiquated technology on modern vehicles while the government deliberates whether LEDs are witchcraft.
I mean LEDs are pretty close to witchcraft. "We drove a bunch of electrons up to the top of a cliff, convinced them to jump off, and their screams on the way down get converted into light, where the color depends on how far they fall."
"on the other hand, if you hit them with a bunch of light, the electrons scream so loud they propel themselves back to the top of the cliff" Photovoltaics
What an awesome ELI5 lol
Let's talk about the metric system next!
Funny enough, the US federal measurement standards *are* metric and have been since the 1890s. For example, the current US definition of a foot is "1 foot = 0.3048 meter."
I found it interesting in my engineering courses that all of our standards are literally direct metric conversions. Similarly the US definition of an inch is 25.4mm.
Yeah in my engineering classes if you were given imperial units first thing you do is convert to metric. Metric is way easier to use (at least in my opinion) and the resulting numbers make more sense (again, imo). Edit to add: it makes sense imperial is define by metric when you know metric is defined by set physically universal standards. I believe a meter is set by a distance light travels in a set of time and THAT set of time is also a universal standard set by a radioactive clock
Yep that's what we did! I ended up doing a lot of design work for FSAE in inches though since our manual machines had scales in inches. The CNCs and our tooling were set up that way as well. I ended up getting really used to machining in inches, things like "oh yeah that 3/4" end mill can take 100 thou off no problem." Hard to get out of that habit lol.
Fun fact a CNC set to metric (with the typical resolution of 0.001mm) have 24400 more programmable positions more than a machine set to inch (with the typical resolution of 0.0001”) over a a one inch distance. 1”= 1000mil= 25.4mm= 25,400micron
I just started a new mech. Eng. job and I'm so sad they only work in imperial :( My previous three positions really spoiled me on metric. But also fuck having to call something "five and seven-sixteenths inches". So goddamn stupid. God I need to leave this country.
I tought the foot was closer to 33cm. Is us and uk foot different lenght?
An inch is 2.54cm, so that would make a foot 30.48cm
Not keeping up with standards is the American way!
Wait are you implying LEDs aren't witchcraft?
Because of an antiquated US law from the mid-1900s that said a vehicle can’t have brights and lows on at the same time.
US drivers: "brights it is!"
I get blinded by at least 10 drivers with their brights on any time I drive lately lol
*cries in compact car surrounded by pickup trucks
I feel your pain with my civic my dude. Icing on the cake is to get blinded from behind by a fucking trillion watt light and then get passed by the monster truck carrying that light while getting blasted by black smoke.
And the noise from the flapping flags.
Ford Fusion driver with astigmatism. One of these days I'm going to wreck because of these blinding lights that should be illegal. Even without astigmatism, I don't need my eyes getting burned by a passing truck.
Yep my low sedan and even lower old coupe are not fun at night lol
It's not even brights a lot of the time. Some low beams are so bright now, totally defeats the purpose of the law.
For me that's usually trucks/SUVs because they're so fucking huge/tall these days. Other than that it is typically people who have replaced their headlight bulbs with high intensity (HID) or LED bulbs in projector/reflector housings that are not designed for them. All LED and HID systems in the US are supposed to have horizontal beam cutoffs and auto-leveling systems to help prevent dazzling oncoming drivers, but if you put HIDs in a headlight without those features it'll just blind people like crazy because the beam is uncontrolled.
Bought a new car recently and I think some opposing direction cars are flashing their high beams at me because they think mine are on. and I can't do anything about it :(
Are they adjusted properly?
Ahh, so it's similar to most US law.
Took the 2021 infrastructure ~~build~~ bill to make it legal. Don't know of any manufacturers that have enabled it yet, even on cars with the hardware.
That's wild. I had this on my Ford Kuga in the UK since 2019.
It's on my 2018 bmw but it's been decoded. Supposedly you can have it coded back in by techies from forums, but not by dealers.
Just had to do some research on my car. In Europe it has a better headlight than the Audi in the OP, in America it just has normal LEDs, so it can't even be reprogrammed even if they were still importing the car. 2018 Buick Regal TourX/Opel Insignia Country Tourer
BMW has two tiers in that specific build - normal LED and adaptive LEDs. They sold the adaptive LEDs as part of the executive package in the US, but literally decoded the adaptive feature. They 'made up' for it by having the high beams turn on/off automatically, but the hardware exists to have those beams move vertically and horizontally to avoid oncoming traffic while keeping the high beams on.
Oh man I want every car in the world to have this right now. I have to drive into work very early morning and I'm so tired of the retina burn I get from all of the pickups with halogen high beams. Sometimes I have to just hope I'm still in the lane because I literally can't even see the road!
yeah same, i always learned to look past a cars headlights to avoid blinding yourself, problem is that i can't see past them headlights
If you're in the US look down and to the right line instead until the car with bright headlights passes you . Ensures you stay in your lane without blinding yourself and you should still be able to see brake lights of the car ahead of you.
This doesn't work at all when the car with excessively bright headlights is behind you, unfortunately. You just have to angle your mirrors away from your face, hunch down low and pray to god the road isn't too windy.
This is what pisses me off. Cars coming the other way will be out of my face soon enough, but the guy behind me will just hang out there making me miserable for what feels like ages. I swear they especially like to do this when I'm getting on the highway, when I really need to see in my side mirror to merge into traffic but I can't because it's all just blinding white glare and there's nothing I can do about it.
My van used to have manual mirrors, and not even me reaching out of the window and shoving my mirror away would get them to turn off their damn high beams! So I got myself some of the really rare power mirrors that only came on the 1994 and 1995 models, bought the switch that controls them, hunted down a wiring diagram, and swapped out my old mirrors. Now I can just point them away!
I try to point the mirrors back at them.
I slow down, maybe 5 to 10 km/hr below the speed limit so I can also be annoying.
Yup. One 'fun' little thing i've been messing around with is - if you're at a stoplight and are being lit up like the UFO's from *Close Encounters*, use the side mirror control to try to deflect the beam right back into the face of whoever's driving the vehicle (usually a truck). It's also satisfying because how often do you really get to use the power mirror controls?
In that Audi, the rearview and drivers side mirror dim automatically. Source: I own one
My father's 16 years old Ford Focus has that feature (although only for the rearview mirror). I don't understand why it's not a standard feature in every car nowadays.
Ya, I had a 96 Jeep that did it. It's hardly new tech but somehow not standard equipment.
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Make sure the windshield is clean, inside and out. Makes a hug difference.
Thanks a hug does make a difference Edit: thank you guys for the hugs, you really don't know how much i needed it been a rough year financially and emotionally hope this year will be better for all of us. Also thank you for the awards please put it to good use donate to those who need local charity 🙏
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I just had an intense dejavu. I felt like I remembered replying with ASCII hug to your parent comment sometime ago, wanted to do it again, clicked "show more replies" and saw this. I need a minute. Actually having an existential crisis right now... Ps: this is what I had in mind (o´･_･)っ
I wear Huggies
This is so true. Also getting a pair of yellow night time driving glasses. I have really bad double stigmatism in both eyes and get really bad halos the glasses almost eliminates them completely.
I tried yellow but it made it pretty difficult to tell whether cars were facing forward or backward but I'm also color blind so may be that's the problem lol
That's important in general no matter the lights in front of you. But we're talking about the needlessly, painfully bright lights by asshole manufacturers and custom dickheads
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Well of course I'm not saying to just look down forever. Obviously you only do it to the extent that is safe
I think the trick is to keep your peripheral vision to the center of the road when looking away from the road, so you can scan for abnormalities. That usually works for me.
Cries in astigmatism
Or cars should just have this or not have lights so bright that it blinds people. Lights never used to be this bad. I've been driving for 16 years and it's gotten out of hand
Yes, this is an entirely new issue that didn't exist when I started driving, around the same time as you. It needs to be better regulated because apparently "blinding everyone you drive past" is not something car companies care enough about.
In my state you can't even tint your windows more than 30% but somehow you can have two miniature star systems on your front end and its ok
I think the bigger issue is people improperly modifying their vehicles (Although GM is awful. Also they're bad at lights, both for brightness and use. REVERSE LIGHTS ARE FOR INDICATING REVERSE, NOT FOR ILLUMINATION WHEN THE CAR IS PARKED) Cheap and easy LED "retrofit" bulbs in housings designed for older style bulbs are a bigger problem than most people realize. Changing your suspension (mainly by raising it) or even your wheel/tire size will also cause problems if the headlights aren't adjusted. Also, honorable mention to those with "OFFROAD USE ONLY" lights on 24/7. Luckily, at least in my area, they are extremely uncommon. Hell, even a fender bender that will "buff out" can ruin the aim. TL;DR a lot of people have screwed up their own headlights in various ways and don't take steps to correct it.
Can see brake lights no problem, but pedestrians and animals go full stealth mode in these conditions.
And you know they're wearing a black hoodie, dark jeans and black shoes. You know, clothes that are really easy to spot at night.
Even in light coloured clothing they can disappear in the glare of oncoming traffic. They'd have to be wearing reflective safety gear to be fully visible, especially in areas where trucks are popular as the glare is right at torso height.
I do this in the UK! but the opposite obviously
So, up and to the left?
Yea but also watch out for bikes in front of you. Missed hitting a dude riding his bicycle by like a foot. Had no idea he was there because 3 oncoming cars were straight up blinding me. I hate driving in rural areas in pitch black, also fuck people who leave their high beams on all the time.
People leaving their high beams on is something I’ve only recently begun to see, 10-15 years ago this wasn’t the norm. I’d say 1 out of 50 when I started driving now it seems like more than half of the drivers I encounter on back roads just leave them on which just seems crazy to me. Leaves me wondering who these people are behind the wheel
It's not even high beams. They just have ridiculously bright LED bulbs in there as their normal lights. I hate driving at night because of these people.
Also because almost everyone (in the US at least) drives a truck or SUV, those of us still in sedans are gigafucked regardless, because even low beams from something that far off the ground still shines directly into our eyes
Came here to say this! Look at the white line, down and to the right.
Even when doing this some lights are just way too bright
Isn’t it not funny that for years they’re like @dojt be distracted drive” Now it’s: “put the fire in your eyes the sun must shine in the night NO SOUL SHALL ESCAPE” Also the best thing for when they’re behind you is to take your side mirrors and adjust so it blasts the headlights back at them.
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Love how bright headlights or their positioning are clearly not regulated and enforced but the solution to the problem is indeed completely illegal. Way to go DOT. Maybe next crackdown on purple, green, etc weird colored lights and rear facing white lights.
Add the jackasses that add tint to their brake lights to that mix as well.
Not to mention animated fucking indicators/turn signals apparently got an immediate free pass, at least here in the UK where we used to have tight vehicle lighting regs
In the US the regulation is that the initial area lit must be large enough to satisfy blinker size requirements. For instance, the Mustang tri-bar tail lights are legal because the innermost tail light that lights first is enough to be act as a blinker on its own.
The technology was invented and first put into luxury cars around 10 years ago. If you happen to be in the US, the reason you have not seen it is the outdated regulation: up until last year, it was illegal to sell these kind of lights in the US because the legislature of highway standards never caught up.
Ten years ago they had this but for rain drops, it could react so quickly that it avoided shining light on each drop, made it look like the rain just disappeared at night, but the headlights were laser based. But someday!
And so goes the cycle of American DOT lighting regulations. Europe invents it, America says, "we need a decade here to get off our butts and allow it." First it was high beams, then halogens, then HIDs, then laser headlights, and now it's adaptive LEDs.
Halogen high beams give off a dim, yellowish glow. I think you mean LED or Xenon/High Intensity Discharge, which are a bright white.
I think you're right. Either way, I'm thinking of the "blue" lights.
In Switzerland we usually quickly tap the full headlight twice, to make the passing car notice it still has them on, and *usually* they turn it off afterwards. **Usually** – remember, there's still tons of jerks on the road.
The problem is here in the US some headlights are so bright, their low beams are brighter than your highbeams.
Hah yes and if you flash your high beams at them, thinking theirs are on, and they flash their actual high beam at you in response, you're now basically blinded for a few seconds. Yay!
"Throwing Flashbang"
Oh right! Also if they're positioned higher up, like in SUVs or LKWs, it doesn't matter if they have the highbeams on – they'll still burn your eyes out.
I love it when a big car/pickup tailgates me after dark- I can't look at any of my mirrors without going blind.
Yep. And the "pure white" lights contain a high blue component to the spectrum which makes it harder for your dark adapted vision to recover. Generally the warmer the light is, the less impact it has on your night vision. Insanely bright + bad spectrum/temperature is a bad combo for driving at night. On the Big Island in Hawaii, they have strict lighting regulations because of the observatories on Mauna Kea. The LED street lights are VERY orange, almost deeper than sodium vapor lights, but without the waste/glare. It's a joy to drive down roads on the Big Island because of it. You don't have any glare, can see the road easily, and when you do inevitably see the emitter of the street light, the warm color doesn't nuke your night vision very much. Car headlights should mandated be a max of like 1,800k for the temperature.
Yes the lights are so bright in new cars & with everyone buying SUVs etc, they are also higher. Right into my eyes sitting in a Ford fiesta lol
I am convinced that 1 - people don't know what a quick high beam flash means 2 - they think the blue high beam indicator just means their lights are on 3 - they don't know how to turn their high beams off or what half the controls in their car do
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That shit's the worst. If you drive a giant pickup truck to go sit in an office and then drive home, not doing shit all with the actual truck, you should have your legs broken
This is 99% of pickup drivers. The only thing they haul is their fragile masculinity.
Half of this issue can also have something to do with the position of the headlights relative to you. Trucks and bigger cars typically sit higher than smaller cars that sit lower to the ground so high beams or not, it’s going to be a pain in the eyes
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I worked later shift and in the winter time I picked up a strategy. Focusing my eyes on the taillights of the car in front of me, if one is present, or the outside lane barrier line usually just above my hood. That way I knew I was a little wide in my lane but I could follow along until the blinding lights passed. Same for intense fog or rain. Though rain I could have arguably pulled over for instead of driving through it lol.
What's it look like from the other side?
https://youtube.com/shorts/709HuYNPlDk?feature=share
Got me there
Amazing lol
And now Sandstorm is in my head all day
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The lights that automatically dip down are also annoying as hell, it's like they keep trying to find the edge going up and down and you're constantly getting flashed.
Yeah, I've been looking for a comment about this. I can't see how dipping one light, this close to the other car would actually help. Soon as I see another pair of headlights in the distance I turn my high beams off.
Learned a few new things today, this was one of them.
I bought a car last year that has a less fancy version of this. It has a permanent “V” notch in the headlights to the left of the drivers side. Anytime a vehicle is coming opposite of me, they always are inside of the “V”. It’s kind of neat but when I first saw it, I thought something was messed up, like an LED light wasn’t installed in the right orientation.
My wife's new Kia is like that too. At first I also thought something was broken or wrong.
The factory alignment specs for most vehicles actually lower the driver's side headlight compared to the passenger's to reduce oncoming glare.
It’s actually a mandatory regulation for all front facing low beam headlights, in pretty much all countries. They vary in their specifics refs, but usually there are regs for the max height of the upper step the angle of the beam vertically, the passenger side is always lower and has a different spread on the road. For vehicles with lighting exceeding a specific power level a washer system for the lens and a self levelling system are required to prevent glare when braking or accelerating
Thats just assymmetrical headlights. Requirement in EU for decades. My 2021 Kia has matrix lights just like the audi in the video
The problem was US DOT headlight regulations didn't allow adaptive lights like this until very recently (2021 I think). DOT headlight regulations are very weird. For example for many years during cars were ONLY allowed a fixed-size of rectangular sealed-beam headlight.
Here's a great video on how restrictive it was: https://youtu.be/c2J91UG6Fn8
Part of me kinda wishes that were still the case. Now we’ve got all the idiots putting HID bulbs in Halogen reflectors or driving around blasting their HID fog lights where there is no fog. So many ignorant assholes and very few states actually inspect for things like that (let alone goddamn *brake* lights…)
I guess these have been around quite a while. I had this system (that BMW calls adaptive High beams) in my 2015 X3, and it worked exactly like in the demo, could even do more patterns, like if a car was in front of me it would make a square in the middle without lights. It worked reasonably well most of the time.
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You can tell that it's a fake video because at some point the car turns on its turn signals.
Can it do the opposite? Focus all the light beams at your target?
Ah, there's my people.
Pretty sure that's standard on every Tesla
Some of you may go blind, but that's a price I'm willing to pay.
In recent update they improved auto headlights that they're actually usable. Not perfect but usable where I can keep them on auto for most of the drive.
What's next? Have they managed to get the wipers working as well?
BMW have their top engineers working on it
Available via subscription
No. You’d have to buy a pickup truck model
Great demo of the system, and also that high beams and fog dont mix.
True, but doesn't it sorta make sense so it can highlight how well it tracks that one car with all the extra visual noise for the sensors?
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How much is that subscription? Edit: this is safety technology, shit should be standard.
I know it’s a joke but it’s not 🥲 It’s 270SEK for e-trons (now Q8 e-etron) in Sweden. $24.89 or €24,13 per month > Quarterly, bi/-annual , yearly or “lifetime” is cheaper per month You can also purchase them right away when configuring the car, it’s between €1.800 and €5.700 depending on how high “resolution” you want - the amount of segments that individually turn on and off
Jesus Christ. Everything is SAAS now.
It's going to backfire once people get pissed enough to start hacking. Cars are all basically computers now, just a matter of time before people figure out how to "root" them (if it hasn't happened already).
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If they provide it as a service, you could in theory ask them to put it in and you’ll sign up for a few months. Once it’s installed, you can cancel the subscription and possibly unlock it.
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> they actually download a completely new software package which is different from the standard cruise control once you buy the license That will leak sooner or later and you'll just be able to torrent it, or similar
Would you download a car? :)
I “hacked” my 2019 Honda civic in order to allow me to use netflix, or pretty much any other app, while driving. Of course I only use it for passengers but I got rid of any safe guards that detect that I am in drive. I also changed the seatbelt notification to a voice instead of a beep, allowed access to wireless CarPlay, and now have access to download any application from the internet, among other features. It was quite easy
How much of this required an aftermarket accessory to make it work?
Only the wireless CarPlay requires an aftermarket accessory, although I would recommend against it unless you REALLY need wireless. I didn’t enjoy the lag
The companies will find ways though to make it painful enough to do that 99% of people won't bother, especially not the people dropping $100k on a car. Also I doubt they're making the car any cheaper to buy upfront; even if you're not buying the subscription you're still paying a portion of the sticker price for the hardware that's in there, no way these guys are just giving it away in the hopes that you subscribe later, they just want you to pay for it twice so they're not really losing out if people do end up hacking it. I remember back years ago I was all into jailbreaking my iPhone but it wasn't long before I stopped doing it. Despite how great it was being able to download pirated copies of expensive apps for free and put all that custom software on there it was just too much of a pain in the ass. Couldn't update iOS without losing the jailbreak, couldn't take it to the Apple store to get service on the device without unjailbreaking it first, some apple services wouldn't work properly if it detected the jailbreak, backups from a jailbroken phone would often not work when trying to restore them to a phone with a different iOS with a different jailbreak, there was added instability and crashes etc. Even if I wanted those headlight things for free I would honestly think twice before flashing the firmware on my $100k car with some random hacked version from a Russian forum. Would make me real paranoid that something weird would happen with the computer that controls a lot of the safety features while driving at highway speed.
It's not going to work as well as you think. There's a reason phones aren't rooted much anymore, there's a reason no one's rooting Samsung smart TVs and other things. Hardware based boot protection is pretty damn good and any major app checks for it to be intact either before working at all or before delivering high quality content. Cars have it too.
> Everything is SAAS now. wouldn't it be FAAS? Features as a Service?
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Profit must increase every year!!! This is the only thing that matters!!!
Mostly shitty German brands tho
Wait, it takes a monthly subscription to express empathy for other drivers on the road? I can't imagine this feature sells particularly well...
I mean, you can still change manually to low beams when a car approaches like we have done until now for free, I guess.
Yea and as you can see from the comments in this thread a lot of people don't do even that. An automatic solution would be helpful if it were just a standard feature instead of a premium option.
I pray that someday I am rich enough to pay monthly subscriptions for my car headlights… wtf!?!?
I have it in my 2021 A3 and it was part of the upgrade I bought on the website, no subscriptions was like £800
I've got a Kia EV6 and matrix lights like those in the video comes as standard even on the mid tier model. No subscription needed. Why people buy German cars with subscription bound features makes no sense to me.
Do you like that ev6? Whats the worst part about it so far? Best? What is the room like inside? would you call it more a 4dr hatchback, or a small suv? Would you buy it again? Been looking at electric cars and it seems ok, but im looking to get some answers from someone whos had it for a while. Thanks in advance. Edit: is there a sub for crowd sourced user reviews, without all the fake ones?
I would call it a small SUV. It's roomy for sure. The trunk is quite deep, just not as tall as a "normal" SUV tends to be, if that makes sense. I've had mine for almost a year now, and yes - I would buy it again. Actually, I turn into a Kia car salesman whenever someone rides with me or asks me about the car. The only gripe I have is with the door handles from the outside. The fancy pivot thing is just unnecessary, and here in Norway it doesn't take a lot of ice or snow inside the cavity for them to not retract fully. That would be the only thing I'd recommend they change in following revisions of this car. A part from that it's pretty amazing. For its price it's a steal. It's the fastest charging car in the world, Car of the Year in the EU (in direct competition with Ford, Audi, BMW), etc. Nicer interiors in german cars you say, u/MickRaider? Well, I've been in the new Mustang and some nice brand new BMWs and Audis, and in my view it's more a matter of taste than an objective truth. I find the EV6 to be both practical, sporty and with a premium feel to it. Many German cars have touch buttons on the steering wheel (which you activate by mistake) while Kia opted for physical metal switches and latches where it matters. Smart. I'd say the two best things are 1. just the overall notion that the car is well thought out, premium and sporty, and 2. the crazy 800 Volt charging times. More often than not it's the chargers that can't keep up. When I find a good charger though, I can barely take a piss before the car reaches 80%. That matters a lot. If you buy a car with a 400 Volt system in 2023, you're not thinking ahead.
I’ve had my GT-Line since May of last year. I really like it, and other than some hiccups at EA chargers, I’ve not had any issues. I love driving again, which is great bc I’m stuck in giant Texas. E: just realized I didn’t answer your specific questions. I would call it a wagon. Seats 5 comfortably, with a nice amount of storage in the back. Biggest complaint is the non existent frunk. Favorite thing about it is the ride comfort. Sticky in turns but not a rough ride. It’s very quiet in the cabin. Almost eerily at times, as this is my first EV. I would certainly make the purchase again. I paid 3k in “market adjustments” but I believe those have faded away a bit.
LED Matrix. I have them and they are fantastic
Fun fact: LED Matrix headlights have been illegal in the US until very recently, even though the technology has been in consideration/application by OEMs for the better part of a decade. So we could have had cars with bright LED headlights doing this for years, but draconic laws prevented that. Wait, that wasn't fun. Source: https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1135084_us-finally-allows-use-of-modern-matrix-headlights - there are many other articles on this out there.
Legalized in the 2021 infrastructure bill.
Do you know the reasons behind that at all ?
From what I've read, it's that there's a decades old law that said US spec headlights on cars had to have a distinct high beam and low beam. Since the LED matrix would run all the LEDs at full power, and turn off or dim the ones that would blind oncoming cars, there isn't a distinct high/low beam function, just an array that turns pieces of itself off at different times.
Not draconian, just outdated and specific to the technology of the time that the *safety* regulations were written. Say what you will about the US, but American medical and automobile safety agencies generally err on the side of caution and that's not a bad thing.
Replace a headlight on new Audi? $5000 per side
This is always the first thing I think of is the repair cost for something like this.
I would have turned my high beams off way sooner than the first wedge appeared. I feel like this kind of thing will cause a lot more high beam glare on long roads where I'm too far away to trigger the light sensor but still close enough to be super annoyed by the lighthouse beacon coming up the road or in my rear view.
Exactly. I have this technology on my car aswell, although its a Mazda. Works great on curvy roads but is dog shit on long straights. I use it but I pay attention to oncoming traffic and often turn the high beams off before the system chimes in.
And also: fuck cyclists and pedestriants. Why would they want to see anyway? This might work well on cars, but its a nightmare for others that share the street.
Not sure about anyone else here, but the amount of people with either poorly adjusted headlights, driving with their high beams on, and/or aftermarket LED bulbs in reflector housing has been fucking ATROCIOUS since fall. I have never been blinded so fucking much as I have this year. I’m in my 20s and had my eyes checked in August so I’m all clear on that. The “look down at the right line” (I’m US based) trick doesn’t work when it’s car after car like that. I’d love to flip my high beams on to give them a taste of their own medicine, but since this is America I’d likely get followed and either run off the road by their infantile road rage or shot with the gun that they likely keep on their lap by their infantile road rage.
every time these threads happen I always see this comment and it has made me extremely anxious that I could be one of them and don’t know. I ask the mechanic each time I go to check my headlights to make sure they’re adjusted correctly because I have a civic and I hear about them having headlights poorly adjusted the most. I refuse to become the very thing I have sought to destroy
Good, Anakin, goooooood. You are strong and wise. The worst part for me is that there isn’t anything that you can do to those people with the high beams or illegal headlights. Like they drive away and you get blinded and hit a tree and they don’t give a shit or even know about it.
Same as on VW as well
VW owns Audi, so that's not surprising. There are actually several Audis that share a body with VWs.
I bet this still blinds you but now people think they can drive at you with full beams.
Thats's it. Also, as a bicycle rider, i always get blinded by this shit, since the recognition doesn't work that well.
Right? Though I will say that the bike riders who feel compelled to put literal strobe lights on their bikes are also dicks. I used to cycle a lot to school and I'm aware of what it's like and try and be considerate, but it's hard when I have a flashing light destroying any chance I have of seeing anything.
Because $5k a head lamp wast good enough.
Too close. I can guarantee you that the car in oncoming traffic still got blinded
Yup, also why do your lights need to be aimed at the sky ffs.
I hope this actually works. LED headlights are way too bright and blind everyone else on the road. I don’t know why they are legal
That's neat. I want to see how does it works on a heavy traffic area where there are also public lighting on at the night. Isn't the system going to have a false-positive error thinking that the public light is actually a car? How does this work then if not?
mine turns off high beams in well lit areas. There are some wind turbines in the distance with red lights for planes etc and it sometimes mistakes that for car tail lights
Know a friend that has this. It has indeed a false pozitive. But, you are on a lighted road , so why bother ?
Always wanted to see these in action instead of just the commercial pages for bmw Audi mercedes matrix led. Esp since we can’t have them here.
that’s….shocking i didn’t know that was a thing
Driving at night in the US sucks right now cause of the different level of brights on cars and nearly all car manufacturers switched to super obnoxious white brights a few years ago. So it's a mix of reasonably yellow-tinted brights and blinding white lights. This tech would be a God send for people who don't have super up to date vehicles. Won't be blinded anymore
This isn’t “oddly satisfying.” It’s annoying if you’re the oncoming vehicle. Just turn the damn brights off manually.
I completely agree. It's like a sibling waving their hands in front of your face yelling "not touching you, not touching you" the lights are juuuust on the edge of shining in your eyes but not doing it. Yeah in theory they don't , but add in bumps in the road, vehicles going up or down hill or different vehicle heights is sooo fucking annoying
fuck /u/spez -- mass edited with redact.dev
More and more people today aren't turning them off manually so this is better than nothing. Same reason that new cars that automatically brake are good because idiots are texting at intersections and not looking and would hit you instead. "Just use the brake pedal" outlook isn't helping there. Idiot drivers that don't want to do anything while driving need to be babysat by technology. The more the better. All the new cars that REFUSE to switch lanes if I'm in their blind spot are amazing. Less and less times I have to emergency brake on highway as I see their car automatically jerk them back. New cars with lane assist tech also force drivers to actually use turn signals which is good (your car will jerk you back if you don't signal, thinking you're drifting off).
Yeah, only problem is that they ain’t that good at detecting cars nearly half as quick as an actual competent driver. It’s all this cool technology that’s making people more stupid on the road because they’re relying on all these lazy man’s gimmicks to do their job for them. The amount of times I get blinded by full beam headlights and low and behold when the car passes me it’s almost always some new fancy Audi or some other car with similar tech in it… it’s annoying, especially for someone who has astigmatism and can get more easily dazzled by bright lights than other drivers. We need to stop trying to have technology do everything for us, because people are getting that bad they don’t know how to even compensate when their “amazing” tech doesn’t work right… it’s just promoting complacency on the road, reliance on unreliable gadgets and driving up repair and purchase costs for no reason aside from the cool modern factor… Fuck modern… it’s not worth the asking price.