Wednesday 17th December 2014

Seeing the light: PH Blog

Why self-dipping headlights are one piece of tech even Luddites like Dan can get behind

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I'll admit to being something of a Luddite when it comes to in-car tech and automation. Really, how hard is it to switch your wipers on? Or lights? Or, even, slide your own seat back and forth? Possibly my Yorkshire background but whenever I get in a car with powered and/or automated stuff in it I fast forward a couple of decades to the point where I might actually be in a position to buy it, suck my teeth and mutter "'eeh, that'll cost if it goes wrong."

Optional lights an extra worth coughing up for

An example. The mate I talked into buying a C63 a little while back. One of the three powered lumbar support things went on the seat and he was basically told "we'd have to take the whole seat apart ... really you're better off just living with it." Man can live without powered lumbar support. But OCD man can be driven to distraction at the thought that Something Isn't Right, even if it's not actually needed.

And those windscreens festooned with cameras, sensors and the rest for your active lane keeping and similar. How much to replace one of those bad boys when you get a stone chip on the M25? An inconvenient insurance claim on a new car. A possible write-off for the Sheddist two decades hence. Nor do I especially like steering that nudges me back in line when I get within two feet of a white line, mirrors that flash every time there's someone alongside me or autonomous brakes that decide to bring the car to a dead stop mid lane-change because something didn't compute, as happened recently in a Golf R. If you can't steer, check your own mirrors or operate the brakes without assistance maybe driving ain't your thing.

Enough moaning though. Seasonally dark and dingy roads mean I've found a modern gadget I actually like! When I heard about automated high beam systems and self-dipping headlights I was ready to lump them in with all the other hated 'assist' systems. I even drove my BMW 435i long-termer for five out of six months without trying them. Idiot! They're actually brilliant, especially for those long winter drives on unlit rural roads.

Audi Matrix LEDs can peer either side of traffic

The M3 we had in recently had the optional Adaptive LED lights, which include the High-Beam Assist for £1,600. A fairly burly option price but if you drive outside of city limits well worth it in my view because, unlike the nannying of most other safety systems, these actually empower you and encourage engagement with surroundings rather than seek to isolate you from them.

It's a bit unnerving leaving the blue full beam light on in the face of oncoming traffic but the way the beam - like your eyes - attempts to pick out the near-side verge with additional illumination is genuinely useful. Likewise the way it peers around either side of slower moving cars ahead of you, giving you full-beam visibility without dazzling the poor sod in front.

Audi's sci-fi sounding Matrix LED lights introduced on the A8 (a £2,375 option on Sport spec versions of the new TT or £945 on S Line) are even more intelligent. They can pick out cyclists and pedestrians with a quick flash of the headlight pointing in their direction, pre-empt bends via the navigation and can 'track' an oncoming car to maintain full beam either side without dazzling them. And more than any other technology it's this I notice most when I drive an older car at night - mechanically they're more than capable but the pitiful lighting really holds you back and makes it a considerably more stressful experience.

The rest of your 'assists' you can keep. But I'll have this one, ta.

Dan

[Dale487]

I'm a Yorkshire Luddite at heat too but wish I put more tech on my Fabia Monte Carlo - the sat nav & blue tooth are awesome but I wish I added rear electric windows, parking sensors & cruise control

[mrclav]

Why would the first owner of a new car care if things would go wrong once it becomes a 'shed'? I was always of the mind that if one can't really afford an expensive car new then they'd struggle to afford an expensive car when it's old, it's just the cost of purchase moves to the cost of maintenance/bork (once the car is out of warranty)...

That being said a lot of this new lighting tech is very very clever indeed!

[Dale487]

I'm a Yorkshire Luddite at heart too - I never liked electric stuff for the sake of it, ie seats, mirrors, steering wheels.

But I wush I spec'd more tech on my Fabua Monte Carlo as the blue tooth & sat nav are brilliant. I wish I added rear electric windows (after a passenger moaned about body building windows in the back - how rude!), parking sensors (the one bit of driving I hate & no one wants to ruin their new car) & cruise control for good measure.

I do still have a soft spit for stripped out specials - 106 Rallye & 968 CS

[shoestring7]

Really can't understand why manufacturers load up seats with electronics. Most of us use those heavy motors just the once to set a decent position, and then they sit there waiting to go wrong. As for a massage function; get a fecking life, all you need is a well designed, supportive seat with a decent relationship to wheel and pedals, decent damping & NVH, and long distance comfort is completely sorted.

Mind you I do like current gen. LED and Xenon lights.

SS7

[Turbobanana]

Does it switch off the fog lights the day after it was foggy? Or in traffic when cars are only 6ft apart?

Hope it wasn't you taking the wobbly photo whilst driving, Dan.

Edited by Turbobanana on Wednesday 17th December 15:13

[Mr Whippy]

Ummm, so do these check for dazzling by scanning the forward view and looking for bright spots, and somehow check that these are being caused by the lights?

Just wondering how they can check for things like glare in puddles when on full beam. Ie, light bouncing down and into the face of an oncoming driver indirectly.

Or if there are several cars with lights on how each car knows which pattern of light is being generated by it. Do they know because the LED's work on/off at a rapid rate and are all a bit out of sync?


I'd rather have some IR flood-lamps and a full-windscreen HUD with IR overlay. When that arrives I'll be happy.

[dukebox9reg]

Doesn't work on the Porsche panamera on the Fosse Way on the way to work as it goes up on down the dips it looses track of the cars coming towards it. I've been blinded a few times.

I've flashed him a few times and I get a very confused look which is why I assume its auto dip.

[Dale487]

shoestring7 said:

Really can't understand why manufacturers load up seats with electronics. Most of us use those heavy motors just the once to set a decent position, and then they sit there waiting to go wrong. As for a massage function; get a fecking life, all you need is a well designed, supportive seat with a decent relationship to wheel and pedals, decent damping & NVH, and long distance comfort is completely sorted.

Mind you I do like current gen. LED and Xenon lights.

SS7

I never understand electric driving position adjustment either (may be I do on a Rolls Royce) - there's over half a foot in height between me & the wife - all we do is slide the seat back & forth, both of us are happy & takes 1 second (it'd take about a week with s motor)

[Clivey]

I typically buy cars at 5-10 years old and deliberately avoid those with outdated tech (built-in ICE / GPS that can't easily be updated or replaced, for example.)...it seems I'll be struggling in the future. If I could afford to lose tens of thousands in depreciation however, I'd love a fully-specced Range Rover Autobiography.

I'm equally concerned by the seemingly unavoidable creep of tech into areas which I don't want, though. - I don't care for electric steering, handbrakes etc. and I'd prefer most sports cars (especially RWD) with a manual 'box - not having the option would make me go elsewhere. I'd much rather have a 997.2 than a 991, or an E46 M3 than an F30.

[cookie1600]

So when will they invent flashing turn indicators that can use the drivers thoughts to show which direction they are going at a roundabout or junction????? It would save having to use a ruddy crystal ball 99% of the time......

[okie592]

MY RETINASSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cheib]

My now 7yr old X5 has "high beam assistant"...cost £150 or so as an option back in 2007 IIRC. Now I don't have the LED's that can see round cars etc but have always found it work very well.

I'd suggest Mr Trent as a motoring journalist should let his hair down and try some of these new fangled devices before they have been on the market for the best part of a decade

[Mr Whippy]

Dale487 said:

shoestring7 said:

Really can't understand why manufacturers load up seats with electronics. Most of us use those heavy motors just the once to set a decent position, and then they sit there waiting to go wrong. As for a massage function; get a fecking life, all you need is a well designed, supportive seat with a decent relationship to wheel and pedals, decent damping & NVH, and long distance comfort is completely sorted.

Mind you I do like current gen. LED and Xenon lights.

SS7

I never understand electric driving position adjustment either (may be I do on a Rolls Royce) - there's over half a foot in height between me & the wife - all we do is slide the seat back & forth, both of us are happy & takes 1 second (it'd take about a week with s motor)

My wife is shorter than me but sits higher and further forward, and has a different back angle position too.

She finds it hard to find a good position (don't ask), so electric memory seats are really really handy imo.

If you're gonna have electric seats, then they should be memory. Otherwise they're just worse all round I think.

If they're not memory then they may as well be manual as it's faster and lighter and no doubt cheaper, less likely to break etc.


Dave

[Outrun]

Cheib said:

My now 7yr old X5 has "high beam assistant"...cost £150 or so as an option back in 2007 IIRC. Now I don't have the LED's that can see round cars etc but have always found it work very well.

I'd suggest Mr Trent as a motoring journalist should let his hair down and try some of these new fangled devices before they have been on the market for the best part of a decade

To be fair the LED technology is a fair bit more advanced than 'high beam assist':

http://youtu.be/kZ1NOzIbadk

[ghibbett]

I paid for the optional LED Intelligent Lighting System on my E-class. It has the ability to split the beam such that it illuminates either side of the car ahead / on-coming car and also dips just the offside beam etc. It is absolutely superb.

And the real test is that in 5000 miles I've not been flashed once (despite fully expecting to be). Surely lighting technology is one of the techs that has progressed the most in the last 10 years.

[ManFromDelmonte]

I was amazed the first time I used high beam assist and totally agree that it is very useful.

[Waitey]

Outrun said:

To be fair the LED technology is a fair bit more advanced than 'high beam assist':

http://youtu.be/kZ1NOzIbadk

Plus that tech works on regular xenons now too!

[mattwilko]

I've only been in one car with some form of high beam assist, not avoiding things, but just turning them off when a car comes, but it was too slow to work effectively and resulted in driving towards people for a second or so with full beam on - I'd rather just do it myself. However, when I saw that Audi advert that avoids oncoming traffic, I thought it looks brilliant, want a go with one to see what it's like in reality.

[DevonPaul]

Auto dip is great, unless you're coming the other way, in which case you get your retinas seared by several hundred watts of HID for half a second until the system recognises you're there. By which time my High Beam are fully on to compensate for the lost night vision.

I'm not a (complete) luddite, I like some tech on a car, I loved the auto sensing wipers on the Volvo, but these systems are positively dangerous to other road users.

[77box]

High beam assist is great in my RS3 but rubbish for rural areas (such as where I live). It's impossible for the camera to see lights coming round a twisty road in time.
Designed for Germany where there are nice, straight roads - not ideal for here.
(My Adaptive lights are brilliant though.)