Quote:
Originally Posted by mynameistory
This is the dangerous part. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but you're actually seeing worse than before, especially at highway speeds.
The LED bulbs are brighter, this much we know. However, their distance projection has been destroyed due to the focal point of the light source being enlarged in comparison with a halogen filament.
There is also a double whammy effect: since the foreground lighting is much brighter than before, your pupils constrict themselves, making them even less able to see in the dark. They focus entirely on your new, shortened range of visible light.
Please look at the diagram to see what I am trying to relate to you.
This is why LED bulbs are not fine, even if they "have a good cutoff" or "they're brighter than halogen".
And please don't think that I am denigrating LEDs as a whole. They are a wonderful technology and they are many times more efficient than halogen filaments. However, please do not conflate proper LED headlights with these terrible aftermarket examples. The optics and heat management for proper LED headlights are completely different than halogen assemblies. Trust me, when OEMs and real companies build "just another set of LED headlights on the road", they are not using computer fans and tiny blade heatsinks inside halogen lamps. There is a world of difference. |
That’s a nice illustration but no longer relevant with the automatic high beams now fitted to almost every car and truck. Even my 2020 4runner now has what was a common thing in the GM and Euro cars I owned more than 10 years ago. If I need to see farther down the road, the high beams come on. Boom. Like fkn magic. If a car is in the foreground, the lights dip so as not to blind them. It’s the best of all worlds.
Hell, the new MB lights use beam forming so the highs on is the default, and the light gets moved to where it’s needed. So many of these things are non issues with the use of technology but yet here we are discussing the merits of Edison’s light bulb.
