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from the shine-a-bright-light-on-the-subject dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
It might be stating the obvious, but your car's headlights are a safety device, and not all headlights are created equal. For a while, carmakers have been fitting powerful LED headlights to their high-end offerings, but more often than not, their cheaper cars—and particularly cheaper trim levels—get saddled with much-weaker illumination. But sometimes a commuter wants to see more of where they're going when the sun goes down. Eventually, they go looking for a solution, starting with their local automotive parts store. But stuffing aftermarket LED headlight bulbs into OEM housings designed for conventional halogen units results in dangerous glare for oncoming drivers. While LEDs can deliver more intense light at a higher end of the spectrum, most aftermarket units also create a hazardous condition.
The major brick-and-mortar auto parts stores know this, which is why they tend to shy away from aftermarket H11 LED bulbs, other than ones clearly marked for use in fog lamps or "for off-road use only." It's a different world online, with off-brand H11 LED bulb listings on Amazon, eBay, and Walmart websites failing to carry the same prominent warnings.
You can get pulled over for non-spec headlamps, and for a good reason. In addition to issuing a citation, the law enforcement officer may have the legal right to force you to remove the bulbs. More ominously, once the officer has pulled you over, you risk a vehicle search. With all that in mind, it would be wise to keep a set of securely packaged OEM bulbs in the glovebox or trunk if you are running aftermarket LEDs.
Although Consumer Reports tests new vehicle headlamps, it hasn't tackled the topic of LED replacement bulbs, despite Consumer Reports' extensive resources. A comprehensive Consumer Reports aftermarket LED replacement bulb test would go a long way to bring clarity to the market. Consumer Reports' testing of conventional replacement bulbs found that while aftermarket units can improve headlight brightness, there's much more to it than that. "Distance and how far a headlight illuminates is governed more by the reflector (behind the bulb) or the lens (ahead of the bulbs). While you can change the bulb, you are not changing the distance, i.e., not necessarily improving safety."
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Tuesday March 17 2020, @06:51PM (7 children)
"How Do We Stop People Blinding Other Drivers With Aftermarket LEDs"
If it were me, I would run them off the road, hunt them down, and then beat them to death with a crowbar.
It seems like about 25% of the idiots on the road around here are using these extra bright, bluish-tinted LED bulbs. These things are downright blinding when an oncoming car or a car in my rear view gets close. Sometimes I even have to flip my mirror in to night mode during the day when someone comes up behind me with their LED headlights on (which is another issue, why the fuck do so many idiots leave their headlights on during the day these days?). They go over a bump, and it looks like they are flashing their high-beams.
I might be mis-misremembering, but it seems like headlight brightness, temperature, and alignment, were strictly enforced a long time ago. I do recall that at one point a long time ago, headlights were part of a car's standard yearly inspection. But that was in a different state. Either way, it is a major safety issue when driving at night, but no one seems to care.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2020, @07:16PM
Many (most?) cars now have an "auto" setting for their lights whereby it will have daytime running lights going for safety reasons.
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday March 17 2020, @08:03PM (3 children)
Back when, headlamp regulations were written in terms of bulb wattage.
Modern LEDs are still compliant with the wattage limits, but of course some are putting out far more light. They also are implementing more sharp cutoff low beam patterns which are great, until you're on the wrong side of the cutoff which happens all too often and is then far worse than the traditional softer cutoff patterns.
Worst of all seems to be aftermarket bulbs installed by the clueless which have nonsensical beam patterns, no effective low beam, and all kinds of brightness.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday March 17 2020, @10:16PM (2 children)
Exactly. IIRC, 35W for low beams, 55W for high beams. Which is absurd (obviously to you, me, and others who understand these things) because a 35W halogen incandescent emits far less visible light than 35W into an LED or HID lamp.
Occasionally I see what are obviously aftermarket headlamps- the blue color, and they generally don't have high/low beams, so they just adjust them up.
But even stock- there are many new cars- mostly German Audi, BMW, Mercedes, and some Japanese, that have absolutely killer LED lights. I live in an area that must be unimaginable to whoever approves headlights- we have curves, hills, and heaven forbid: curves on hills. So no matter how good the light pattern control, there are far too many times when an oncoming car's headlights are directly aimed into my eyes. I'm pretty much totally blinded during and for a couple of seconds after. Who is approving this? Why did the good laws change, from when they actually thought things through and tested things like human eyes and headlight glare?
Hold that thought for a moment. We also have expanding laws regarding pedestrian rights. Seems a pedestrian can just step out into the path of a moving vehicle. Vehicle driver must be able to overcome the limits of physics and stop a vehicle almost instantly.
But wait, said driver might be BLINDED by headlights.
Gee, I wonder why there are more and more pedestrian collisions and deaths. Isn't more light more betterer?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday March 17 2020, @10:58PM (1 child)
Around here, the limits are 55W low, 65W high (I happen to know because I have run "offroad" 55W low 100W high bulbs for decades...)
I'm running aftermarket LED bulbs in my '99, in part because the halogens were so very very lame. My LED bulbs aren't too much brighter than stock, but enough to help. Out in the boonies, I've always been of the opinion that dimmer lights are actually better for your night vision outside the beams - you really need "just enough to see" in the pattern, then your night vision should be maximized to see what's beyond and outside the beams as well as possible.
Of course, most people are more urban and suburbanly oriented, and in the 'burbs it's all about whether or not you can stun the oncoming drivers with your brilliance - the lights themselves are superfluous with all the streetlamps providing plenty of light to see by.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday March 18 2020, @12:43AM
I was just a zygote (cough cough) but I remember when halogens were illegal. A work friend had them, was very proud of them, and had to change them out for inspection, which he happily did.
(Score: 2) by dry on Wednesday March 18 2020, @01:52AM
Having the headlights on during the day is a safety feature, or at least should be. Especially here in the rain forest where a grey car can be invisible at times. Legally they've been required here in Canada since about 1990 but the way they usually work is the daytime lights are in series instead of parallel so my high beams come on when the engine is on, parking brake off, lights off, running at 6volts.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday March 18 2020, @02:16AM
Either you live in a weird place, or you're confusing factory HIDs and LEDs with aftermarket ones. I have a hard time believing that anywhere near 25% of drivers in a place would have aftermarket LED bulbs installed; most people do not install aftermarket parts in their cars at all.
Most new cars now come with LEDs from the factory, and lots of cars have had HIDs for years now, starting in the early 2000s I think. All of them are going to look much brighter than halogen systems. But the factory ones should have proper beam patters, and also be leveled: I think there's a law that requires these vehicles to have auto-leveling headlights to keep them from blinding people, though of course this doesn't work so well when there's hills.