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posted by
martyb
on Tuesday January 15 2019, @11:27PM
from the blinded-by-even-more-distant-oncoming-traffic dept.
from the blinded-by-even-more-distant-oncoming-traffic dept.
Most people don’t turn on their car’s headlights and think, I wish they were brighter. Shuji Nakamura is not most people.
The Nobel Prize-winning illumination scientist has spent the past five years developing a laser-based lighting system. His company, SLD Laser, says the new design is 10 times brighter than today’s LED lights, capable of illuminating objects a kilometer away while using less power than any current technology. And unlike a regular, dumb headlight, the laser can potentially be integrated into current and forthcoming driver-assistance systems.
Do headlights need to be brighter?
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The Headlight of the Future Is a Laser
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sillema sillema nika su
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday January 16 2019, @01:53AM (6 children)
No, retard. I don't see old people with HID's on their vehicles. The vast majority of them are running OEM headlights. The HID's and assorted other headlights are on vehicles owned by younger drivers. Teens and early twenties own the most, then the 25-35 year olds. From 35 on up, it seems to taper off to near zero. Wake up and smell the coffee.
Just for information, when I was a kid, there were none of these bright lights. Pretty much all headlights were incandescent lights. I must have been 20 when quartz halogen hit the market, and they were not widely adopted immediately. Earliest halogen lights were fairly bright, but not exceptionally so - they were still a yellowish light. Over the course of a few years, halogens got whiter, and brighter, until it made sense to pay a little extra for them. A good halogen bulb is truly superior to any incandescent. Anything brighter just doesn't make a lot of sense, unless the drive suffers from libido problems. And, THAT from a guy who drives pretty fast, even at night.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday January 16 2019, @04:41AM (4 children)
In my area there are plenty of older (80s) people with new cars (esp. anything German) with HID and the way brighter LED headlights. I live amongst the wealthy.
Perhaps you're referring to the illegal aftermarket retrofit lights? You can always spot them because they're absurdly blue and there's no high beam, so the idiots aim them higher.
You mentioned the halogens. When I was a kid (early 80s) I knew a guy who had aftermarket halogens and he had to change them out for every state inspection, which he gladly did. I never had the heart to tell him I didn't think they were all that. Those guys have fragile egos and all. By the late 80s sealed-beam halogens were legal and available, and getting brighter. They're in a new much brighter flavor now too: Sylvania Silverstar for example.
(Score: 2) by NoMaster on Wednesday January 16 2019, @11:03AM (3 children)
What backwards 3rd-world country was that in? Because halogen headlights have been standard fitment throughout most of the world since the early-mid 70's. My first car was a Toyota with H4 halogen headlamps as original equipment from 1979; miles brighter than even the last tungsten headlamps from the 60's & early 70's (and even brighter when fitted with 95/70W globes ;))
(Oh. Wikipedia tells me the US was way behind everyone else, and when they did adopt halogens in the 80's they generally had 25% less output than the rest of the world...)
Live free or fuck off and take your naïve Libertarian fantasies with you...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday January 16 2019, @03:36PM (1 child)
Yes, the US stays behind in automotive technology because the DOT spells out exactly what is permitted, meaning anything else is NOT permitted. Seven to ten years after Europe and Asia adopts something new, the DOT gets around to approving it. In the traditional sense of conservative, our DOT is ultra conservative.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 16 2019, @06:38PM
As well it should be, at this point the essential bits of how to build and operate a car safely is pretty well established. Additional features and the like should be added and changed cautiously.
The bigger issue tends to be that we allow cars to use the brake lights as brakelights and turn signals which causes all sorts of mayhem when the car behind you has to guess from first blink whether the car ahead is braking or about to turn. It's foolish and just there to save a few dollars.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday January 16 2019, @04:00PM
I'm in USA and you're probably not. It's amazing how much misconception there is about USA.
I don't like: "the US is way behind everyone else". Maybe we exercise wisdom and caution. I don't think that blinding oncoming drivers is progress (although it's rampant now).
USA is made up of States, and "States' Rights" has been an ongoing fight since 1776. The Feds try to force their rules onto the states. They can't really do it legally, but they gather and redistribute so much money that they can force us into conformity by threatening to withhold $. A great example is federal highway money.
Yes, when halogens were first allowed they had a 35W limit for low-beams and 55 for high. The bulb manufacturers figured out how to get maximum light output from that 35W. As an engineer, I'm amazed at the stupidity of enacting a law regarding light output based on watts consumed. We have the ability to measure actual light output, right?
But I digress- generally transportation laws are uniform, but each state has much discretion re: interpretation, implementation, enforcement, etc. For example: many states have enacted laws specifically forbidding the use of "driving" or "fog" lights when there are oncoming cars. Half of cars seem to have them on anyway. Many states have annual auto inspection, but some do not (!!!). My state allows independent shops to both do the inspection AND the repairs (with the owner's approval). That is Conflict of Interest. I'm a car nut and do all my own work, but most of my friends and relatives get huge bills for unnecessary work. You'd think there would be more policing, undercover stings, etc., but nope. A brake job used to cost $50 / axle. Now I get friends coming to me in desperation due to a $500-1500 estimate. Shops are offering financing now!! I think it needs to be a law that if a shop does the inspecting, they are NOT allowed to do the repair. I'd rather have state run inspection stations.
And yes, headlight type, bulb wattage, aim, etc., are all part of state inspection, and it's up to the shop to do it, and some do. In my state and most states, at any time a state cop can pull a car over and fail it for state inspection violation, and if it's bad enough, prevent you from driving it.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 16 2019, @05:20AM
No, retard. OLDER CARS. Not older drivers driving newer cars. TFA is about headlights of the future so commenting about drivers' age seems out of place.
You dim bulb.