Brightness/ alignment of new cars/ LEDS head lamps

Part of my regular commute is up the A36 from Southampton to Salisbury. Part of this road is straight and rolling so there are constantly headlights of oncoming traffic rising above the road surface.

Biggest offenders to me for overly bright and poorly leveled lights are Teslas and pick up trucks.

I'd like to see more regulation on this subject.
 
I don't understand why some cars have the full on light bar, a guy at work has them on his polo, and I'm sure I've seen mercs do it too. I wonder if they went blue leds rather than yellow to make it look more premium than halogens and it it's also a similar colour to xenon (which again were a premium option at one point). I have a model 3, and I don't think it's automatic after an update, as it seems to forget the height setting so I have to do that everything.
 
roadie said:
Part of my regular commute is up the A36 from Southampton to Salisbury. Part of this road is straight and rolling so there are constantly headlights of oncoming traffic rising above the road surface.

Biggest offenders to me for overly bright and poorly leveled lights are Teslas and pick up trucks.

I'd like to see more regulation on this subject.
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Couldn't agree more, feels like most people are driving around with high beams on now a days. My mother in law has auto high beams but they are very slow to react so i notice she will blind people constantly with them..
 
Something else I don't like on modern stuff is white light being used inside the car on the dash. Orange, yellow reds are used inside cockpits because they don't shine in the peripheral vision. Its like car designers are now just ignoring the science behind things :/
 
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Nasher said:
Something else I don't like on modern stuff is white light being used inside the car on the dash. Orange, yellow reds are used inside cockpits because they don't shine in the peripheral vision. Its like car designers are now just ignoring the science behind things :/
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One of the things I love most about my BMW. The soft orange glow is much nicer on the eyes.
 
TheVoice said:
Sequential/dynamic/sweeping indicators are purely for bling, they're less visible than a total on-off flash.
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I disagree.
Your attention is instinctively drawn to movement, with faster movement being given priority, so a moving and flashing light is more likely to be noticed... and making it something gay like on new Audis will actually be quite effective.
 
JonRGV250 said:
One I've just MOT'd..

CPtZWJS.jpg


Any guesses which headlight bulb has been fitted incorrectly?
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the one on the right is clearly incorrect as something's blocking half the light, how are you supposed to see overhead signboards with that beam pattern?! :p
 
ttaskmaster said:
I disagree.
Your attention is instinctively drawn to movement, with faster movement being given priority, so a moving and flashing light is more likely to be noticed... and making it something gay like on new Audis will actually be quite effective.
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But they tend to be thin and slow to sweep across, so it's less noticeable than a larger flash
 
Nasher said:
But they tend to be thin and slow to sweep across, so it's less noticeable than a larger flash
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The headlight issue i agree is a real worry. balancing clear vision from your own headlights vs dazzling every other poor bugger unfortunate enough to come across you when out and about at night is a tough one (my fiat coupe went way to far the other way with its factory fitted lights............... with lights on dip on unlit roads it was terrible!.

but the indicator lights........ am just not seeing the problem tbh. be it the animated ones or the classic flashing ones, they are imo all really easy to spot, so that for me is on the driver of the car being aware.

That said............ the biggest issue is nothing to do with the indicators themselves, it is the meat suit in the car and whether or not they actually use the damn things or not (there are a few roundabouts which are really busy i really want to get out and rage at some drivers who are so self absorbed and do not use their indicators.... meaning what would be a fairly smooth flowing roundabout becomes gridlock as you sit there and they pull off the roundabout but not signalling so people miss their chance to go.
(or those who dont signal and then choose to go right round the roundabout and then give stink eye or the horn to someone who pulled out on them)

of course legally they are in the clear because the high way code is a guide for good practice, not a law and no one has to use indicators, and equally other drivers are not supposed to pay heed to them either (which is an utter joke and if no one took notice of indicators and always waited for cars to commit before doing anything would be a disaster.).
 
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ttaskmaster said:
I disagree.
Your attention is instinctively drawn to movement, with faster movement being given priority, so a moving and flashing light is more likely to be noticed... and making it something gay like on new Audis will actually be quite effective.
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The problem is they appear less bright by being animated because you're not getting the full impact of all the light at once. Same reason emergency vehicles don't use sweeping/animated flash schemes, from a distance and among other light sources it dulls their effectiveness.
 
TheVoice said:
The problem is they appear less bright by being animated because you're not getting the full impact of all the light at once. Same reason emergency vehicles don't use sweeping/animated flash schemes, from a distance and among other light sources it dulls their effectiveness.
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Yep, 50% of the time it's only half lit and not bright at all.

Ignoring the functionality of it. These and the strip lighting are not going to age well.
 
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bigmike20vt said:
dont they? i thought some (not all) emergency vehicles had spinning lights which essentially is the same as animated .... perhaps i am showing my age a bit :D
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The old ones spun, but they spun fast enough it looked like a flash. They are LED and just flash now. They are also blue and blue is seen before any other colour.
 
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I recon the OPs system needs recalibrated, I’ve been using a Polo with adaptive matrix headlights for the last couple of days and they have been great. Never flashed and paid attention to cross roads after the OP mentioned it wasn’t dimming for car’s at them and it picked up and dimmed down for every one. It was also picking up the headlight beams on hilly roads of cars before they came over the hills as I would.

I’d be surprised if the software/camera isn’t the same across the VAG range so I’d ask them to check the calibration of the system.

EDIT just realised the Q8 owner with the issues isn’t the OP.
 
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Maccy said:
Sorry, what? It's 2023, grow up.
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Gay /ɡeɪ/
Adjective
brightly coloured; showy.
"a gay profusion of purple and pink sweet peas"

TheVoice said:
The problem is they appear less bright by being animated because you're not getting the full impact of all the light at once. Same reason emergency vehicles don't use sweeping/animated flash schemes, from a distance and among other light sources it dulls their effectiveness.
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Each individual LED is still more than bright enough, particularly on Audis.
Certainly I always notice them... even from 400yds away.
 
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