[HN Gopher] The US will finally allow adaptive beam headlights o...
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       The US will finally allow adaptive beam headlights on new cars
        
       Author : Tomte
       Score  : 22 points
       Date   : 2022-10-16 19:39 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
        
       | coin wrote:
       | The same NHTSA that allowed the high beam (slightly dimmed) to be
       | used for DRL?
        
       | citronaut wrote:
       | I wonder when this will begin to be implemented or "turned on"
       | with vehicles that already have compatible hardware. The article
       | was written in February of this year and to my knowledge my car
       | (2022 Tesla 3) has the hardware but the feature is not enabled.
       | Are any production cars in the US fully using this tech?
        
       | vanilla_nut wrote:
       | Does anybody know if these lights detect and "un-bright" for
       | pedestrians and bicyclists? I know many cars automatically turn
       | the brights off at low speeds where you're more likely to see
       | peds and bikes... but as someone who frequently walks and cycles
       | on or along 40+ MPH roads, I worry what will happen to me when
       | these vehicles start to show up.
        
       | ianai wrote:
       | I really hope this means the cameras/monitors instead of mirror
       | wings get allowed asap.
        
       | deburo wrote:
       | Available in Europe since 2006? Why did it take so long for the
       | US? LED lightbeams are so bright that high beams is almost
       | unbearable for opposing cars.
        
         | pxtail wrote:
         | This feature is available indeed but I don't feel like it's
         | significant improvement - sensors are too slow to react, too
         | imprecise and moreover drivers seem to rely on them too much,
         | are lazy and don't care about others - for example high beams
         | should be disabled _before_ other car ahead is already visible
         | on winding road , same goes for hills and multitude of other
         | various scenarios where automatic sensors and software just
         | doesn 't work. Tbh it seems that this is another "arms race"
         | just like with car size/SUVs dominance and this arms race can
         | make driving at night really painful experience
        
           | deburo wrote:
           | Oh. That's depressing. Maybe AI-augmented cars will perform
           | better in that regard.
        
         | deburo wrote:
         | It seems to have been approved only in 2018 in Canada, so we
         | aren't much better. It's also merely an (apparently expensive)
         | option, so we will have to live with careless high beam drivers
         | for a while.
        
       | throwaway019254 wrote:
       | Can anybody tell me why all my US cars have enormous side-mirror
       | blind spot? And my European cars have none? Are European cars
       | using curved mirrors to prevent this?
       | 
       | Edit: I just googled it. That's exactly what's happening - EU
       | side mirrors are curved to prevent blind spots.
        
       | prng2021 wrote:
       | We allow companies like Tesla to jeopardize people's lives while
       | the company beta tests "full self driving" technology, but are
       | scared of allowing proven safe technology like adaptive
       | headlights.
        
       | Spivak wrote:
       | If you haven't yet seen the more advanced version of this where
       | the cameras detect rain/snow and don't illuminate it's some god
       | damn magic that makes "barely able to see in a snowstorm" to
       | "there's a snowstorm?"
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | soared wrote:
         | Is this something different than switching off high beams and
         | switching on fog or regular lights?
        
           | saltcured wrote:
           | It's pixelated, so rapidly modulating which small angular
           | sections of the illumination pattern are on or off. Imagine
           | shining a bright light around the snowflakes but not on the
           | snowflake, so there isn't much back-scatter.
        
           | PeterisP wrote:
           | Yes, it's tech that turns off individual pixels of the light
           | beam that would illuminate the occluding snowflakes and
           | raindrops while keeping most of the high beam turned on.
        
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       (page generated 2022-10-16 23:01 UTC)