"remember, the best time to use very bright lights is when you're in a lifted truck in the city/suburbs where there are a ton of incoming traffic. This way, the light can hit multiple cars and blind people causing them to lose their sight and/or crash." - car manufacturers.
the worst is those "squatted" trucks, the ones who lower the rear end while leaving the front jacked ? you blow right past the limitations of adjustment when you do this, so no matter what, your blinding oncoming traffic along with low flying aircraft... these people are the epitome of narcissistic morons in my opinion.
The real problem with LED is the high blue light content. This blue light is not much of a problem in normal conditions...It's a huge problem in wet conditions. The blue light scatters easily off water particles or even dirt/salt on the windshield. This creates a glare. GLARE IS REAL but very difficult to measure. There are highway driving videos that show LED streetlighting and HPS side by side done in the rain. You'll see under HPS, the orange light cuts right thru the rain and wet surface to provide decent visibility...The Blue LED light scatters, and everything appears very dark because too much stray light is entering the eye. The LED lighting gives a false confidence of visibility when glare produces significant gaps in visibility. Additionally, old people are far more affected by blue light glare than young people. The cornea yellows with age and blue light scatters passing thru the yellow lens, making everything in the field of view appear darker as a result. That's why old people HATE cars that use white headlights and young people don't really understand why. The young people generally think those old people just don't like the new white color or are exaggerating the glare. I'm a lighting engineer...I could go into the details of Rayleigh scattering, veiling luminance, and disability glare from cold white light - the effects on visibility especially for the elderly, and especially during inclement conditions (rain, fog or snow)...But the bottom line is that all street lighting and headlights should be warm white 3000K CCT max, though I'd push for warmer 2700K.
Not just old people, 19 here with slight astigmatism,.. newer leds make it almost impossible to see, no not retrofits on older cars, im talking about 2023 -2024 vehicles,.. hate them leds...
Hey Dan, I myself am really into lighting and have plans to become a lighting engineer. I'm wondering what kind of careers there are in this particular field? Do you work for DOTs as a lighting install planner or do you work more closely with the fixtures / diode assemblies? I'm 16, and thinking of going into either materials or lighting engineering. Thanks, Max.
Headlights back in the olden days: “Good evening, friends; please allow us to comfortably brighten your late-night adventures!” Headlights these days: *_”I HAVE QUADRUPLE THE POWER OF THE FUCKEN SUN.”_*
I completely agree, and that’s why I like my halogen headlights although I have had to replace one of my assemblies cuz the vertical adjuster was messed up. Standard price for the assembly was like $700 but I managed to find a reman unit for about $400.
I had to replace a headlight on my 2010 CL 550 after a small accident and just the one headlamp was almost $7k. To be fair even in 2010 Mercedes headlights were very complex. They were adaptive bi-xenon headlights that also projected infrared light for the Nightview night vision camera. Still insanely expensive though.
My Subaru Outback's headlight was replaced when someone merged into me one time. Was AUD$3000 for the headlight alone (we have the LED Matrix version in Australia).
this was also an issue with HID's as people would get kits to run them in the older reflective halogen housings, basically LEDs and HIDs should only be run in projector housings that shape the beam, although i do have LEDs on my van which used sealed beams, but the LED housings do have cutoffs so they dont blind drivers more than normal (sadly high profile vehicles will always blind cars just do to their height) but i dont really drive that van at night so its less of an issue. although there are supposed to be LEDs with the proper filament pattern that can work in reflector housings, i still wouldnt recommend them, My biggest complaint is i do a lot of bad weather driving so the whiter LED's/HID's cause a bit to much back scatter from rain/snow, sorta wish more of the newer lights came in the lower kelvin color temps
I bought 7 inch round LED headlamps for my old Prado from Aliexpress and it's so much better driving with them, especially when it gets foggy. No regrets.
@@jjjacer As I understand it, you can get a way with HID bulbs in standard halogen housings because the 'bulb' emits light similarly to the halogen bulb. But LEDs do not emit light with the same 360 degree pattern as HID or halogen bulbs and so you end up less effective light patterns.
@Mobitz2.3-4 Have you tried Philips, Osram or Bevinsee? These are really good! I recently replaced my H4 halogen to Bevinsee V45 H4 and it works great: sharp cut off line, no flickering, no glare, no blinding traffic, and still awesome light in the night. Philips and Osram even have some types that are getting official road-legal clearance in some countries.
@@eptdy yes, they were around for decades but at least the script was written by a human being. But also voice overs in the very recent past were just created with very simple voice syntheseis tools and now because of a huge leap in AI technology it's possible to create a voice model very precisely imitating a voice of any given person.
@@chrislee6650 Those _are_ their low beams. And they're not mis-aimed or mis-installed aftermarket parts, oh no. OEMs intentionally manufacture LED arrays, which are installed at the factory, with the express purpose of vomiting out as many candela as possible even on the "low" setting. Blinding oncoming traffic is a feature, not a bug.
Headlights that follow the turning of the steering wheel were available on 1967 onwards Citroen DS models, with up to 80 degrees of arc. I believe they were cable operated.
The problem with that, is that it is another thing to fail and on an older vehicle, most will not be repaired if there is no safety inspection to catch the fault, so they become perpetually mis-aimed.
@@cavalierliberty6838 the big three being (as is usually told) afraid of the tucker is also the reason why the US market DS didnt have the swiveling headlights, as US regulations require that thry were fixed
Cable operated are the best. The cyclecars had cable and pulling operated steering. Older airplanes used it for their rudders. Cheap, works well, hardly ever wears out, but if it ever does it's cheap and easy and quick to replace. How things should be built. How they were.
The problem isn't the headlights per se, it is how good quality hid and led are only available on expensive cars. There is also this misconception that 6500k being the "daylight" color ia the best option for visibility. Based on trial and error I find the 4000k range to offer the best balance between visibility and comfort to the eyes, the 6500k scatters too much in rain and wet surfaces simply absorb it.
Totally agree. I tried putting 6000k LED bulbs in my car, and it felt outright dangerous to drive at night in the rain. Switched to 4200k bulbs and some 2700k fog lights and it is a HUGE difference. Bigger number isn't always better...
4000K to 4500K is the best since it's *WARM WHITE* Anything beyond that is just being obnoxious. 2500K is also good but mainly for fog lamps or aux lamps/lights that you need when going off road or if you plan adding more lights to make you more visible when it rains, snows or when it gets foggy.
Finding any 6000+ kelvin clour temp LED that can accurately render colour isn't going to happen. 4500k to 5000k has the best CRI and would therefore make better headlight bulbs for city driving especially. They choose 6500k as it projects further due to there being less yellow coating on the chip.
True I’ll talk about most Indian manufacturers motorcycles the entry to mid range motorcycles use terrible 6500 k bluish purple led that speed to scatter disperse a lot even in the dry and are an eye sore to oncoming traffic or if in your rear view mirrors I’d rather have a great halogen than a decent led or hid on my bike
While the tech is impressive, what I miss about 90s headlights is that I never had white and blue spots seared into my eyeballs by oncoming traffic because we were stationary at a red light. Bonus round, my neighbor across the street likes to leave his car on in his declined driveway for up to an hour. Just completely oblivious to his white LED headlights beaming into 3 houses.
Yeah, 11:55 claiming that LED's don't emit heat is completely false. Heat is big concern for the design and usually the main cause for early failure. 16:10 Laser-light is also not a future solution, it was widely available across BMW models including 3-series and not just limited to prototypes or exotics (16:45) but has now been superseded by adaptive matrix LEDs. Also at 8:21, the kelvin value is referred to as intensity of light, which is again completely false.
Another advantage of sealed beam was that they were standardized. You could go into a Walmart and buy an inexpensive standard size seam beam light which would fit in any car.
@@TheLucanicLord there may be reasons to replace the headlight itself and not just the bulb, for example my 1993 disco that was rotting in a field had still working light bulbs but the headlights had rust on the reflective surface. (I prefer the replaceable light bulb design just trying to play devil's advocate)
with halogen it's pretty similar, the housing may vary from car to car, but the bulbs have standardized system like H4 or H7. That way we can even carry some spares in the car without sacrificing much space and when one burns out, it could be changed out on the side of the road
@@isaackikkert6960 combining three LEDs (surprisingly red, green and blue) onto a common socket and then balance them to seem white. However, you only get three wave-lengths, meaning colour reproduction under such light will be very off as all other wave-lengths present in white light is missing.
I was thinking the same thing. Only time those words belong in the same sentence is if we're talking about a compound (think Teflon), which in not the case in the video. Probably meant to say that the bulbs contain a mixture of inert gas with a small amount of a halogen.
There should be legislation to get rid of these painful blue headlights. They need to taken out of production, and cars with such existing headlights should be mandated to be retro-fitted with proper headlights. Though I am in my 70's I find that even young people complain, many claiming they will no longer drive at night. I believe that millions of people find driving at night almost unbearable. It is not merely a case of some drivers not using their low-beams. Low beams will shine into the eyes of oncomers when cresting even the slightest hill. I find myself blinking at blue headlights that were already on low beam, even on flat ground. . I am happy to hear about "matrix" type lights. I have often thought that a cluster of very narrow light-beams that can be selectively turned off is the solution, though quite expensive, and could take many years to produce enough variations to retrofit the millions of annoying blue lights that already exist. Such a "lazer" cluster should contain way more than the dozen or so individual lights, perhaps about 100. This way these large [usually yellow] traffic signs with their much too retro- reflective lettering won't wash out the visibility of everything else around them. I believe it is time for national legislation to address the safety concerns these new blue lights are causing. Even if it causes their manufacturers considerable monetary pain, they should never have been produced in the first place. Time for a forum on Facebook, perhaps ?
I am guessing because cold white light is better for visibility, just like how they replace the older warm white LP and HP Sodium Vapor street lights with cold white LEDs.
I use a 2700 kelvin led light for night hiking for this very reason… and I can run it dim so I can enjoy the stars as well Newer LED lights should allow for color temp adjustment and brightness on vehicles I dislike the LEDs on current vehicles because they’re too blue and cause fatigue and glare… Older HIDs allowed for options - you can upgrade the projector for a more focused beam pattern onto the road and you can choose 4300 kelvin from osram or phillips..
@@rps215 The white LEDs were chosen simply because they were energy efficient and you know, because of the whole "save the planet" bullshhttt. Lots of modern street lights that are LED actually use warm white LEDs now or at least ones that lie between 4000K to 4500K or even 5000K since people and manufacturers have found that super bright white is bad for everyone's eyes.
@@rps215 cold (6500k) colour isn't better per se. Those LEDs project further as there is less colour coating on the chip, but for colour rendition (therefore better subject identification and therefore better shadow really so better depth perception) 4500k is far better. In all hosety 4500 or 5000k would be better for drivers and other road users. But as projectikn is slightly less it doesn't market as well and it doesn't give that fresh look that makes the car look newer or higher spec than a halogen version... so we get the crappy 6500k versions.
Maybe because this is a UA-cam channel made by Americans, who are unaware of this French car. Let's not forget that at the time the Citroen DS was marketed, the European and American markets were largely closed to the import of foreign cars.
The DS not only had swivelling headlights but had high level lights at the rear (although just the indicators). It also had a single spoke steering wheel and hydropneumatic suspension. Way ahead of it's time. Then there was the SM with a Maserati engine (and the swivelling lights too). And lets not forget the XM which was essentially double glazed at the back.
My idiot elder brother drove a Citroën with drive lights that moved with the steering. He chose to NEVER use low beam, instead switching between high beam and the 'drive lights' only.
Worse: he shows a DS of the second model. I too was waiting for the third 'nose' (year 1968). The lamp lighting the inside of the curve could swing 80 degrees! A very dear miss!
It is sadly. I can always instantly sniff out this unnatural and emotionless way of speaking. It's a shame more and more videos are using these voiceovers
@@I_hunt_lolis We can mostly thank India for that. They get ChatGPT to crank out "The History of Automobile Headlights" real quick, then they get another piece of software to read it in somebody else's voice. Easy UA-cam monitization.
@@I_hunt_lolis Yes indeed. That's I keep telling channels, who use that stuff. I mean, some AI voices aren't too bad, but it's usually worse than a person - I say usually, some people have very annoying ways of talking.
A properly designed aftermarket halogen light unit from a company like Cibie or Marchal or even Bosch gave you a round or rectangular light that replaced the original sealed beams of the era and had a light output that actually let you drive comfortably and safely at night. Replacing the standard 55/65w bulb with a 75/100w Osram bulb would give you a low beam that increased your seeing distance without being obnoxious to an incoming driver while giving a high beam equivalent to a rally drivers. Replacing a busted glass headlight took a couple of minutes. This was in the 70's for Chrisake! 50 years ago! And we drove every bit as fast as you do now!
@@unsmarties2235eyes do adapt to brightness,by taking in less light and in return making everything more dark. Sounds really safe doesn't it? No chance you will miss a pedestrian because of that.
Ive been driving for almost 20 years 10 of those as a trucker and its all been fine till these L.e.d lights came out . Hurts your bloody eyes ! Theres no adjusting lol . @unsmarties2235
Here’s another game, if the content isn’t total mass produced garbage to farm views and ad money and is actually interesting and without errors does it really matter?
@William.Driscoll Who are you talking to? This video is 100% made to farm views and ad revenue, and has multiple significant errors. That’s the real problem. In just a few more years, 75% of the videos on youtube will be this garbage. Quality content will be a thing of the past. And yet people still mindlessly defend it.
LEDs DO get hot, because manufacturers try to get as much light from them as possible. This in turn reduces the LEDs lifetime significantly, where as if they used just slightly less power they would function for many many years. But manufacturers want to sell lots more than one set per car....
Dude thank you so much for making this video. I started watching it and I fell asleep almost immediately and when I woke up you were still talking. Best damn nap I've ever had. Thank you seriously
I drove at night more than a few times, Company Vehicle had a "Light Bar"!, A very Expensive Light Bar, It only made the area brighter that the Low Beam covered, Making the LED pointless at Highway speeds
I've added a $30 single row 22" light bar to my Jeep Cherokee that comes on automatically with when I turn the brights on, I can see much farther down the road. Whoever put yours on didn't do it right or they got a flood instead of a spot beam pattern. Mine is a cross between flood and spot. The outer lights are flood which really light up the sides of the road way better. The center ones are spot and shine light way farther down the road than using just the high beam of the HID lights. (mine use the shutter style). All that with the light bar mounted below the front license plate. If it was mounted higher I would get even more performance out of it.
It depends on what that light bar was designed for. Some is just to light right ahead of you for off-roading ie camping at night. Off road lights design for speeding in rally or so have a further throw
Light bars are not to be used on public roads. Please turn the darn thing off and keep it off until you need more light for close quarters off public roads. Thank you.
I think HIDs are better than LEDs and the other newer ones. With my Lincoln MKZ I'm glad I went with standard adaptive HIDs instead of the LED option. If an LED fails you can't simply replace the individual bad diode, the whole headlight assembly needs replacing (up to $1,000+ for an MKZ). It's a lot cheaper to replace a $150 HID bulb. Plus LEDs are usually more blinding to other drivers than HID. The IIHS has studied this for years and rates so many cars with LED lights poor for excessive glare
Now get those LED drivers to keep the auto high beam lights off. They see the switch and turn them on in the city when it is not needed and blind the other drivers. Tesla and Honda are the worst.
Where I live people drive with the high beams in the city All the time because they "can't see" You can't see because the other person has high beams too you nitwit. Cops used to make people look into the lamps but stopped immediately after it. became news.
The video made a statement that LED headlights don’t blind oncoming traffic but even low beams that use LEDs seem to blind me whenever I drive in low light conditions. It could just be my sensitive eyes but some of the people who I interact with echo similar statements about LED headlights
All of my bikes and cars use pre halogen era lighting, works as great as it did back in the day, and so simple, it's good enough to see and to be seen but not enough to burn people's retina out. I also have a few kerosene lighting systems, i actually use my carbide lamp on my bike from the 30s which i restored, it shines very bright and you have enough for hours without needing to refill anything.
What I would love to have seen included in this comparison along with the light output and temperature, is the cost of replacement bulb/LED and unit. Sure these latest LED matrix and adaptive laser lights seem very clever, and they are. But that comes at a considerable price! I'm pretty sure we'd be looking at a four-figure bill to replace one of these units when they fail / get damaged. And lets face it, halogen and xenon did the job well enough for most situations without bankrupting you or rendering the vehicle scrap... There is such a thing as too much complexity and I think we crossed that line a while back. Not just with headlights, but car technology in general.
I own an Audi S4 cabriolet that is the poster boy for what you are outlining. Brilliant engineering is cheek by jowl with stuff Rube Goldberg would ridicule.
Something people forget about lamps is as you mention that manufacturers designed the housings with specific bulbs in mind. You can't just drop in a different bulb type and expect it to work, this is a main issue plaguing brighter bulbs like Xenon and LED where people would drop them into housings designed for Halogen because their brighter. Ofthen paired with never aiming the housings meaning the beam pattern gets thrown off and often thrown right into oncoming traffic.
@@user-mf5to8mb3h I own an F150 and aim my headlights as good as I can. Honestly as someone who drives large vehicles the worst drivers are actually the ones in beat up sedans and the really over modified vehicles. Most pickups often just are just fine they may not dim their high beams but they aren't as eye curdling as the 05' civic with xenons just pointed at your eyeballs.
You can put Osram and Philips LED into any headlights. They have Retrofit lineup for non projector H* type lights. In the EU there are a few countries(like Germany and Austria), where you can use their LED produtcs and you get the TUV licence trough the manufacturing company(the process is in the user manual). You dont have to adjust anything, the Retrofit LED "bulbs" working as the original halogen ones out of box.
No, they are not for ANY Headlight. Those for ANY Headlight arent allowed on most places on the earth because they are not a point lightsource and do not work with the reflectors, causing light to spill everywhere. However, there are Osram replacements for SPECIFIC CARS and ONLY for THAT CAR matching the reflector and those you can use legally.
I got the Osram ones (Philips won't make any for my car) and just as a precaution, I took the car to check the adjustment. It was spot on out of the box!
True, but they have to obtain specific type approvals for each individual vehicle make and model and headlight variant. If your car is not on the list, the retrofit is not approved. They have approved bulbs for a Golf MkII, but not for my RAV4.
I would like to use it in my (even projector) halogen lamps, but my country has butthurt "technical inspectors" who "knows better" than any engineers in the European Union. Yes, I live in Hungary, where properly described TUV licenses worth nothing even installed by certificated specialists. Not only for bulbs, but everything - springs, brakes, exhausts etc. You can buy these LED-things, but only in "off-road" use. Which is also illegal since "off-road" is a public road until it hasn't been under the status of private road. Duck it...
Except not in the US, where it is illegal to put drop-in LED bulbs into incan headlight housings. In fact, it is difficult to find major brand LED drop-ins for headlights in the US for this reason, why the market is mostly dominated by illegal imports who have no accountability, can just close shop and open under a different name and can't be prosecuted in china. You cannot adjust them to make them legal in the US. You also cannot adjust them to improve driving with more light, without blinding others more than it improves driving.
I love LED headlights, however manufacturers need to reconsider making every light as bright as possible, and aftermarket LED headlights need to be heavily regulated. The cheap ones you get on Amazon have no beam pattern and scatter everywhere, blinding other road users and not doing their job of lighting up the road in front of you very well
@@TheBananermanThefirst They're also only available on a configuration that automatically diverts them under the oncoming trafic, or left, or right. My friend with an X5 had lasers and drove 1000 km behind me and it didn't bother me at all. It was better than any small car.
Good video. Just want to say these days headlights are just too powerful and have in fact become a danger to drivers. There is no need for "laser headlights" in my opinion. Car manufacturers have now become light polluters. Instead of making quality cars, they are using cheap childish LED lightings to entice buyers. And the biggest offenders are Audi and Merc.
When I learnt to drive, the car's headlights were yellow. Usually, it was only the bulb itself that was yellow, with a white lens. It was great to drive in the rain, fog, or snow. Yellow lights were mandatory in France since the 30s, I believe. I learnt to drive on my father's 1969 Citroën DS. There were no such innovative and original car in America or anywhere else. The light also turned to follow the steering wheel.
I like how you explained how the headlights work in a way I could understand. I went from an 08’ Ford Fusion that had H1 LED headlights to a 2023 Nissan Sentra S that has H11 LED headlights. The headlights of my Sentra are way brighter than my Fusion’s were and the visibility on them is great!
As a Fellow driver, the Last 3 are Heavily Hated when approaching fellow drivers. It’s night but some annoying BMW feels it can revert time and blind you with this Laser and Projector head lights.
"dazzling other drivers" This phrase pops up numerous times. With good reason. HID and LED light on new cars dazzle other drivers even on low beam. They are obnoxious and dangerous. let's say it like it is. A few points:- Higher kelvin light temp is not always a good thing. If the CRI rating is low, then you lose colour and visibility may actually be degraded despite typically having higher lumens than a halogen. Higher kelvin light temp is bad for other drivers. It "Dazzles other drivers". Higher kelvin headlamps when seen at a distance tend to throw dazzling blue and purple light colours for oncoming drivers. Very annoying and "dazzling". Lower kelvin halogen headlights do not dazzle the human eye at night, nor show twinkling of other colours. Lower kelvin headlights are far superior in fog conditions. Higher kelvin reflects back from the fog badly. I also suspect newer headlights also dazzle because the light source seems to be projected directly forward from the light source and through a small hemispherical lens straight into your eyes. This is a suspicion, I haven't pulled them apart so don't quote me, but in any case, the same lumens coming from a smaller lens typical in new cars, is just going to be more intense for others to look into. Halogen bulbs have an opaque cap on top of the bulb. The light reflects backwards onto a metallic reflector of your headlight which has a large surface area (compared to tiny hemisphere lenses), and then forwards. So the light source is diffused over a larger surface area, and you are not looking directly at the light source, so therefore less dazzling to oncoming drivers. No oncoming halogen bulb headlight car has ever dazzled me on low beam during country driving. Numerous HID and LED cars have dazzled me, even if they are behind you, they are very bright and distracting through your mirrors. I honestly think headlight developments have outpaced the automotive design safety standards bodies globally, and they are caught short in the area of specifying allowable light Lumens, kelvins, CRI, and light spread and other headlight design standards, such that now driving the country at night is becoming unsafe and I don't really like doing it anymore.
Thanks for the information. I've installed the after market LED to the old casing and am not happy with the result. Will change the casing. Thanks again🙏
My theory is that most people who are blinded by LED lights often drive cars with dimmer headlights. When I upgraded to a more modern vehicle with very bright LEDS, I rarely feel blinded on the road. When driving my old pickup I notice that I’m being blinded constantly. In my sedan everything is illuminated much brighter in general so I believe that makes other bright oncoming headlights less noticeable if at all. However I am still blinded by trucks and large SUVS that sit higher than my sedan.
The whiteness of the light emitted is unnatural and does not mimic sunlight because it is a frequency-focused beam by definition - we are told in the commentary that it commences with a blue laser beam, meaning it comes from the violet end of the visible spectrum. Sunlight gives a broader frequency range from red to violet, which is more attuned to our optic receptors.
@@johnangelico667sunlight on a clear day is quite high on the Kelvin scale (about 6500K) so quite blue compared with halogen lamps, however as you said a lot of modern headlights don’t have a full black body spectrum because they aren’t made by just heating something up. Good LEDs can be made to have a pretty full spectrum at almost any colour temperature and can give a good beam with full coverage. They are pretty expensive though. I haven’t seen the laser ones they sound like they would be best for the same long distance light throw as an LED light bar or old school spot driving lights hopefully they would be turned off if you were driving at them.
@ 13:11 - Throwing LED's into a halogen housing WILL work depending on the design & manufacturer. The real problem is replacing the signal indicators with LED's. Ideally its best to replace the flasher relay with one that's LED compatible.
I have some old carbide mine lamps. I didn't realize they were used on cars. Laser lights are nice, but HIDs remain my favorite headlight. The bright blue glow of 10000k bulbs is awesome
In addition to glare, as we age the ability of the pupil to adjust to variations in brightness begins to degrade… sometimes fairly drastically in a short period especially with conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. So the oncoming headlights blind and then as they pass the older driver is unable to readjust to the darkness. This makes seeing animals, pedestrians, or curves in the road difficult or impossible to see. If the older driver slows down to compensate for this especially on freeways or back roads where people drive at high speed they risk being hit from behind or continually blinded by cars behind them approaching quickly. The new computer controlled headlights which dip to keep from blinding the windshield or the rear window are very helpful. But some of these also rotate to illuminate signs or even pedestrians or bicyclists blinding them and other drivers and animals and creating even more dangerous situations especially at higher speeds. And it’s not just the headlights. Many of the new taillights, turn signals and emergency blinkers are ridiculously bright. We need new regulations based on sound science to balance the safety of everyone in the environment. These should not be choices made by the car designers for aesthetic purposes or vehicle owners who just want to be the brightest thing on the road.
When tail, brake and indicators used bulbs, the defining factor was power. Tails were 5W and brakes and indicators were 18 or 21Watt. There should now be a brightness rule. Europe is introducing this.
Interesting video. I remember when xenons first came out in the mid 90's, I think the Mercedes E class was the first car to use them widely. They immediately stood out from other vehicles due to that blue/white beam.
The biggest problem I have around me is too many guys compensating for something by driving lifted trucks and their headlights end up at my eye level.......
Just because technology can advance, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s an improvement. The whiter the headlamp, the greater blinding of others and the more ‘bounce’ back to the driver from reflective signs and lane markings designed to reflect less bright lights, which tires the eyes thereby reducing alertness and causing reduced night vision.
Excellent informative video. Thanks for explaining the operation . Do these multi electrode plugs need to be gapped ? You did not address that . Thanks again. 👍
Excellent presentation. I had to replace my HID lamp in my 2009 Range Rover Sport HSE and it was very problematic. But, I was successful in replacing this with an LED with no degradation in performance. So yea - headlights now are very complex and replacing these can be quite the headache.
Two corrections: 1. Automotive LED lamps DO heat, and a lot! The majority of LED lamps on the market (OEM or not) need active cooling for that reason. 2. LED lamps will work on halogen lights, but they have to be very well developed by the manufacturer and very well selected and tested by the customer. There are some youtube channels specialized just on that testing. However, people first should check if the use of LED lamps is legal in the respective countris, because it may be not.
That logic comes from flying aircraft. They have landing lights and taxi lights. Once you land and clear the runway that light gets turned off to prevent blinding other pilots. Same rules should apply with driving.
Back in the day Xenon headlights were limited to the top end cars and there was another clear advantage to the halogen ones: manufacturers used them in green or purple apart from the blue/blueish which got everybody´s attention
HID's still have superior optics vs LED's. Especially incorporating adaptive Bi-Xenons with their precision rotating and wider beam patterns. Bi-Xenon's for low beams but fast flashing LED's for high beams is the best blend. Oncoming traffic won't have a problem with my high beam LED's -which they'll never see in the first place.
I'm surprised ,you haven't told if adaptive lights has been used in very early 70's Citroen SM. In this car has been implemented many advanced technologies as proportional steering power force based on car speed. But thanks for your job. 👍
Those new projector style lights are a pain as on the edge of their beams they are quite blue, so if one is following you and goes over some undulations in the road, you can easily get a kind of flashing white & blue light kind of making one think the police are approaching.
I've got BMW Laser lights on my 7 Series and they are very impressive although they are not on very often. Generally it's the adapted LED high beams that are illuminating due to on coming cars or insufficient speed.
I like the ones that you could pull into a car parts place, spend maybe a burgers worth of money on then install it in the parking lot in about 5 minutes. Not the new ones that if you break the headlight the car is a write off and if you do decide to replace it you have to remove the whole front of the car.
Wow interesting thank you so much, so does this means in the long run in few years we must see torch lights laser beam torch light the be excellent can't wait to buy one😮😊
A thing worth noting is that modern LED globes can emulate halogen globes pretty well, making LED conversion for halogen headlights actually quite feasible! Make no mistake, there's always going to be junk LED globes that don't comply well with reflectors, but some work exceptionally well, providing even better beam placement than the halogens they replace! I've used a few great H4 alternatives, but the downside I've encountered is short lifespan likely due to the dependence on an integrated fan for cooling, as the dust boots on some cars can interfere with airflow, and the fans themselves can fail causing the LED to overheat and fail. This is the only reason I'm not currently using LED globes myself, as I was changing them about as often as I was changing halogens anyway
LEDs can't legally and practically replace halogen bulbs in halogen reflectors. For one, a filament is a point source. LEDs have a heat sink/driver board between them so the light source will not be perfectly aligned to where the filament was. Two, vehicle lighting is federally regulated and type-approved. If a headlight is designed for an H9 halogen, for example, it can only legally be replaced with an H9 halogen.
Note on LEDs: The actual semiconductor emits a single wavelength, aka color. White LEDs emit in the near UV. A little less than 400nm (nanometer; 10^-9m; 0.000 000 400m). It uses the old fluorescent light trick. That is the LED UV light excites that yellow phosphor, which remits the light over several wavelengths, that appear white to our eyes. Problem is that phosphor has a finite life. That's the life limiting factor of "white" LEDs. "White light", in theory, is the mixture of all the wavelengths in the visible spectrum. In practice, only 3 colors are needed. Red, Green, and Blue, were chosen, when done with phosphor, for CRT color TV sets, and was grandfathered to newer technologies. As for the red and amber lights, those can be single color LEDs, that inherently emit those colors, from the semiconductor, with no phosphor intermediary. Red LEDs are the oldest color of LEDs, going back to the 1960s. Emerald green, blue, violet, and near UV LEDs did not come into being until GaN (Gallium Nitride) LEDs where developed in 1994. Hence, for color lamps, no colored filter is needed. Just use the semiconductor mix, for the desired color.
So there was a mention of the 1948 Cyclops car which was a prototype but no mention of Citroëns DS which did have fully steering and yaw dependent headlights from 1967 the inner main beam units were attached via links to the front steering & links onto the suspension so that the headlights were always pointing at the correct angle & height! Full scale production model too!
I have halogens. Whenever I enter a parking lot or any well lit area off the road especially where there are pedestrians, I turn off my main beams and drive with just the fog lamps as a courtesy to the pedestrians. Once I put the car in park I turn my lights off. But people are so lazy and just put the lights on automatic mode.
"remember, the best time to use very bright lights is when you're in a lifted truck in the city/suburbs where there are a ton of incoming traffic. This way, the light can hit multiple cars and blind people causing them to lose their sight and/or crash." - car manufacturers.
Obviously the car manufacturers to the drivers are listening to you. lol
Impossible LED lights don't blind people, the video said so. Don't worry about any past experience telling you otherwise.
the worst is those "squatted" trucks, the ones who lower the rear end while leaving the front jacked ?
you blow right past the limitations of adjustment when you do this, so no matter what, your blinding oncoming traffic along with low flying aircraft...
these people are the epitome of narcissistic morons in my opinion.
The outcome is that more vehicles will be sold. - car manufacturers
I totally agree.
The real problem with LED is the high blue light content. This blue light is not much of a problem in normal conditions...It's a huge problem in wet conditions. The blue light scatters easily off water particles or even dirt/salt on the windshield. This creates a glare. GLARE IS REAL but very difficult to measure. There are highway driving videos that show LED streetlighting and HPS side by side done in the rain. You'll see under HPS, the orange light cuts right thru the rain and wet surface to provide decent visibility...The Blue LED light scatters, and everything appears very dark because too much stray light is entering the eye. The LED lighting gives a false confidence of visibility when glare produces significant gaps in visibility.
Additionally, old people are far more affected by blue light glare than young people. The cornea yellows with age and blue light scatters passing thru the yellow lens, making everything in the field of view appear darker as a result. That's why old people HATE cars that use white headlights and young people don't really understand why. The young people generally think those old people just don't like the new white color or are exaggerating the glare. I'm a lighting engineer...I could go into the details of Rayleigh scattering, veiling luminance, and disability glare from cold white light - the effects on visibility especially for the elderly, and especially during inclement conditions (rain, fog or snow)...But the bottom line is that all street lighting and headlights should be warm white 3000K CCT max, though I'd push for warmer 2700K.
Not just old people, 19 here with slight astigmatism,.. newer leds make it almost impossible to see, no not retrofits on older cars, im talking about 2023 -2024 vehicles,.. hate them leds...
I'm old people and I approve of this comment.
I believe that blue spectrum light as in LED's is not good for the eyes.
46, legally blind. Agreed 👍
Hey Dan, I myself am really into lighting and have plans to become a lighting engineer. I'm wondering what kind of careers there are in this particular field? Do you work for DOTs as a lighting install planner or do you work more closely with the fixtures / diode assemblies? I'm 16, and thinking of going into either materials or lighting engineering. Thanks, Max.
Remember when you could walk into the parts store and say "I need a headlight" and the only question was "Round or rectangle?"😂
My car has LEDs so I doubt I’ll still have this thing by the time any of the LEDs burn out lol
I remember when the only question was "dual or single headlight setup ?"
Sealed beam era.
'High beam, low beam, or dual?'
It doesn't matter what shape your car's headlight is, from inside its bulb and reflector both are always round or oval
Headlights back in the olden days: “Good evening, friends; please allow us to comfortably brighten your late-night adventures!”
Headlights these days: *_”I HAVE QUADRUPLE THE POWER OF THE FUCKEN SUN.”_*
Apt!
And the only place I can shine on is your fucken eyes!
Exactly 🥲
I have crashed from passing your sun
"LET'S BLIND ANYONE IN MY WAY, ME ME, ME!"
I would rather change a $20 bulb than a $1500 headlight housing. I work at a collision repair/ body shop and I deal with it every day
I completely agree, and that’s why I like my halogen headlights although I have had to replace one of my assemblies cuz the vertical adjuster was messed up. Standard price for the assembly was like $700 but I managed to find a reman unit for about $400.
I had to replace a headlight on my 2010 CL 550 after a small accident and just the one headlamp was almost $7k. To be fair even in 2010 Mercedes headlights were very complex. They were adaptive bi-xenon headlights that also projected infrared light for the Nightview night vision camera. Still insanely expensive though.
My Subaru Outback's headlight was replaced when someone merged into me one time. Was AUD$3000 for the headlight alone (we have the LED Matrix version in Australia).
Used to be that anybody with a screwdriver could replace headlights without taking the front end apart.
Why I buy base model stuff with halogen reflector or projectors...
13:10 tell that to all the idiots that put LEDs in their old car lights thinking it’s better, blinding everyone while having a worse light.
You need adjust the lights after you put them in, that's why it blinds people.
this was also an issue with HID's as people would get kits to run them in the older reflective halogen housings, basically LEDs and HIDs should only be run in projector housings that shape the beam, although i do have LEDs on my van which used sealed beams, but the LED housings do have cutoffs so they dont blind drivers more than normal (sadly high profile vehicles will always blind cars just do to their height) but i dont really drive that van at night so its less of an issue.
although there are supposed to be LEDs with the proper filament pattern that can work in reflector housings, i still wouldnt recommend them, My biggest complaint is i do a lot of bad weather driving so the whiter LED's/HID's cause a bit to much back scatter from rain/snow, sorta wish more of the newer lights came in the lower kelvin color temps
I bought 7 inch round LED headlamps for my old Prado from Aliexpress and it's so much better driving with them, especially when it gets foggy. No regrets.
@@jjjacer As I understand it, you can get a way with HID bulbs in standard halogen housings because the 'bulb' emits light similarly to the halogen bulb. But LEDs do not emit light with the same 360 degree pattern as HID or halogen bulbs and so you end up less effective light patterns.
@Mobitz2.3-4 Have you tried Philips, Osram or Bevinsee? These are really good! I recently replaced my H4 halogen to Bevinsee V45 H4 and it works great: sharp cut off line, no flickering, no glare, no blinding traffic, and still awesome light in the night.
Philips and Osram even have some types that are getting official road-legal clearance in some countries.
It's sad that it all has been written and read by AI.
I had a hunch that the voice-over was AI
Man I didn't even realize that until you said it
Why do we call these voice overs AI now? They've been around for decades and we never called it AI.
@@eptdy yes, they were around for decades but at least the script was written by a human being. But also voice overs in the very recent past were just created with very simple voice syntheseis tools and now because of a huge leap in AI technology it's possible to create a voice model very precisely imitating a voice of any given person.
Oh wow, that’s lazy and pathetic. Glad I read the comments before watching the video.
I really hate LED/Xenon headlights because when I drive at night, I'm blinded by those modern cars coming the other way.
Me, too.
@@chrislee6650 Those _are_ their low beams. And they're not mis-aimed or mis-installed aftermarket parts, oh no. OEMs intentionally manufacture LED arrays, which are installed at the factory, with the express purpose of vomiting out as many candela as possible even on the "low" setting. Blinding oncoming traffic is a feature, not a bug.
Thats because most people who drive their cars never actually read the manual how to operate it.
Its xenon light that it can blind you
USA drivers lol
Headlights that follow the turning of the steering wheel were available on 1967 onwards Citroen DS models, with up to 80 degrees of arc. I believe they were cable operated.
The tucker had a middle headlight that turned with the steering column.
The problem with that, is that it is another thing to fail and on an older vehicle, most will not be repaired if there is no safety inspection to catch the fault, so they become perpetually mis-aimed.
@@cavalierliberty6838 the big three being (as is usually told) afraid of the tucker is also the reason why the US market DS didnt have the swiveling headlights, as US regulations require that thry were fixed
Cable operated are the best. The cyclecars had cable and pulling operated steering. Older airplanes used it for their rudders.
Cheap, works well, hardly ever wears out, but if it ever does it's cheap and easy and quick to replace.
How things should be built. How they were.
Some cars in the '30s had swiveling auxiliary lights. Someone might have had them even earlier.
The problem isn't the headlights per se, it is how good quality hid and led are only available on expensive cars. There is also this misconception that 6500k being the "daylight" color ia the best option for visibility. Based on trial and error I find the 4000k range to offer the best balance between visibility and comfort to the eyes, the 6500k scatters too much in rain and wet surfaces simply absorb it.
Totally agree. I tried putting 6000k LED bulbs in my car, and it felt outright dangerous to drive at night in the rain. Switched to 4200k bulbs and some 2700k fog lights and it is a HUGE difference. Bigger number isn't always better...
4000K to 4500K is the best since it's *WARM WHITE*
Anything beyond that is just being obnoxious.
2500K is also good but mainly for fog lamps or aux lamps/lights that you need when going off road or if you plan adding more lights to make you more visible when it rains, snows or when it gets foggy.
Finding any 6000+ kelvin clour temp LED that can accurately render colour isn't going to happen. 4500k to 5000k has the best CRI and would therefore make better headlight bulbs for city driving especially. They choose 6500k as it projects further due to there being less yellow coating on the chip.
^this!
True I’ll talk about most Indian manufacturers motorcycles the entry to mid range motorcycles use terrible 6500 k bluish purple led that speed to scatter disperse a lot even in the dry and are an eye sore to oncoming traffic or if in your rear view mirrors I’d rather have a great halogen than a decent led or hid on my bike
While the tech is impressive, what I miss about 90s headlights is that I never had white and blue spots seared into my eyeballs by oncoming traffic because we were stationary at a red light. Bonus round, my neighbor across the street likes to leave his car on in his declined driveway for up to an hour. Just completely oblivious to his white LED headlights beaming into 3 houses.
Gonna be honest this video watches like a highschool presentation done at last minute
especially considering the surprising amount of misinformation and bullshit in the video, it was painful to watch
Like what? Seemed solid to me
And the AI voiceover sounds uncanny.
Yeah, 11:55 claiming that LED's don't emit heat is completely false. Heat is big concern for the design and usually the main cause for early failure. 16:10 Laser-light is also not a future solution, it was widely available across BMW models including 3-series and not just limited to prototypes or exotics (16:45) but has now been superseded by adaptive matrix LEDs. Also at 8:21, the kelvin value is referred to as intensity of light, which is again completely false.
Yeah it’s read and written by AI, and then set over likely stolen footage
Another advantage of sealed beam was that they were standardized. You could go into a Walmart and buy an inexpensive standard size seam beam light which would fit in any car.
Inexpensive? Not compared to just buying a bulb.
@@TheLucanicLord there may be reasons to replace the headlight itself and not just the bulb, for example my 1993 disco that was rotting in a field had still working light bulbs but the headlights had rust on the reflective surface. (I prefer the replaceable light bulb design just trying to play devil's advocate)
with halogen it's pretty similar, the housing may vary from car to car, but the bulbs have standardized system like H4 or H7. That way we can even carry some spares in the car without sacrificing much space and when one burns out, it could be changed out on the side of the road
The conversion housing that accepted bulbs was the way to go in the early 2000s.
@@floundario3011and in the older cars you could change the bulb, unlike many newer ones that require major dismantling to do so.
About the LEDs : in cars and home lights, the semiconductor produce a blue light. It goes through a phosphorus coating that actually glows white.
Phosphor, not phosphorus.
And yet we have the LED street lamps that have the filament detonating in the housing, and the "phsyicodelec" theme happens 🤪🤪
So how do RGB LEDs work?
@@isaackikkert6960 combining three LEDs (surprisingly red, green and blue) onto a common socket and then balance them to seem white.
However, you only get three wave-lengths, meaning colour reproduction under such light will be very off as all other wave-lengths present in white light is missing.
@@Ithinkiwill66 What the Hell is that?
"Combining the words Halogen and Inert in the same sentence is criminal! " - Chemistry student
I was thinking the same thing. Only time those words belong in the same sentence is if we're talking about a compound (think Teflon), which in not the case in the video.
Probably meant to say that the bulbs contain a mixture of inert gas with a small amount of a halogen.
There should be legislation to get rid of these painful blue headlights. They need to taken out of production, and cars with such existing headlights should be mandated to be retro-fitted with proper headlights. Though I am in my 70's I find that even young people complain, many claiming they will no longer drive at night. I believe that millions of people find driving at night almost unbearable. It is not merely a case of some drivers not using their low-beams. Low beams will shine into the eyes of oncomers when cresting even the slightest hill. I find myself blinking at blue headlights that were already on low beam, even on flat ground. .
I am happy to hear about "matrix" type lights. I have often thought that a cluster of very narrow light-beams that can be selectively turned off is the solution, though quite expensive, and could take many years to produce enough variations to retrofit the millions of annoying blue lights that already exist. Such a "lazer" cluster should contain way more than the dozen or so individual lights, perhaps about 100. This way these large [usually yellow] traffic signs with their much too retro- reflective lettering won't wash out the visibility of everything else around them.
I believe it is time for national legislation to address the safety concerns these new blue lights are causing. Even if it causes their manufacturers considerable monetary pain, they should never have been produced in the first place. Time for a forum on Facebook, perhaps ?
The thing is, it’s really not that hard to make warm white LED headlights. I don’t understand why this is so rare!
Oh Yh, that’s true!
I am guessing because cold white light is better for visibility, just like how they replace the older warm white LP and HP Sodium Vapor street lights with cold white LEDs.
I use a 2700 kelvin led light for night hiking for this very reason… and I can run it dim so I can enjoy the stars as well
Newer LED lights should allow for color temp adjustment and brightness on vehicles
I dislike the LEDs on current vehicles because they’re too blue and cause fatigue and glare…
Older HIDs allowed for options - you can upgrade the projector for a more focused beam pattern onto the road and you can choose 4300 kelvin from osram or phillips..
@@rps215
The white LEDs were chosen simply because they were energy efficient and you know, because of the whole "save the planet" bullshhttt.
Lots of modern street lights that are LED actually use warm white LEDs now or at least ones that lie between 4000K to 4500K or even 5000K since people and manufacturers have found that super bright white is bad for everyone's eyes.
@@rps215 cold (6500k) colour isn't better per se. Those LEDs project further as there is less colour coating on the chip, but for colour rendition (therefore better subject identification and therefore better shadow really so better depth perception) 4500k is far better.
In all hosety 4500 or 5000k would be better for drivers and other road users. But as projectikn is slightly less it doesn't market as well and it doesn't give that fresh look that makes the car look newer or higher spec than a halogen version... so we get the crappy 6500k versions.
14:48 the Citroën DS did it better😝 And why didn’t he mention it, that kinda got me mad
Maybe because this is a UA-cam channel made by Americans, who are unaware of this French car. Let's not forget that at the time the Citroen DS was marketed, the European and American markets were largely closed to the import of foreign cars.
The DS not only had swivelling headlights but had high level lights at the rear (although just the indicators).
It also had a single spoke steering wheel and hydropneumatic suspension.
Way ahead of it's time.
Then there was the SM with a Maserati engine (and the swivelling lights too).
And lets not forget the XM which was essentially double glazed at the back.
My idiot elder brother drove a Citroën with drive lights that moved with the steering. He chose to NEVER use low beam, instead switching between high beam and the 'drive lights' only.
Worse: he shows a DS of the second model. I too was waiting for the third 'nose' (year 1968). The lamp lighting the inside of the curve could swing 80 degrees! A very dear miss!
Damn, the fact that something as miniscule as that got you mad has me bricked up rn
This voice has got to be a machine. The timing on some of these words is completely unnatural.
Yup, it's AI. You gotta say, AI narration has come a long way in a short time, it took me 2 minutes to realize, it's not a person.
It is sadly. I can always instantly sniff out this unnatural and emotionless way of speaking. It's a shame more and more videos are using these voiceovers
@@I_hunt_lolis We can mostly thank India for that. They get ChatGPT to crank out "The History of Automobile Headlights" real quick, then they get another piece of software to read it in somebody else's voice. Easy UA-cam monitization.
@@I_hunt_lolis Yes indeed. That's I keep telling channels, who use that stuff. I mean, some AI voices aren't too bad, but it's usually worse than a person - I say usually, some people have very annoying ways of talking.
A properly designed aftermarket halogen light unit from a company like Cibie or Marchal or even Bosch gave you a round or rectangular light that replaced the original sealed beams of the era and had a light output that actually let you drive comfortably and safely at night.
Replacing the standard 55/65w bulb with a 75/100w Osram bulb would give you a low beam that increased your seeing distance without being obnoxious to an incoming driver while giving a high beam equivalent to a rally drivers.
Replacing a busted glass headlight took a couple of minutes.
This was in the 70's for Chrisake! 50 years ago!
And we drove every bit as fast as you do now!
I am convinced that our sense of engineering and design is actually degrading with time.
How safe is it when oncoming traffic is blinded by your headlights?
Like normal. You need to train your eyes to adapt to the headlights. Of course, high beams are significantly brighter which cause a distraction to it.
@@unsmarties2235ok adapt to look at the sun
@@unsmarties2235eyes do adapt to brightness,by taking in less light and in return making everything more dark. Sounds really safe doesn't it? No chance you will miss a pedestrian because of that.
Ive been driving for almost 20 years 10 of those as a trucker and its all been fine till these L.e.d lights came out . Hurts your bloody eyes ! Theres no adjusting lol . @unsmarties2235
@@unsmarties2235umm noooo just stop making over bright lights it's not a train your eyes situation
Laser lights. Great. Melted retinas are fine as long as it’s the other guy.
Lasers: vaporizing retinas since 1980s
Absolutely love it when the new, modern headlights blind me and make it really hard to see! Makes driving fun and exciting!
Let's play the game - Is the narrator a human or an AI?
Here’s another game, if the content isn’t total mass produced garbage to farm views and ad money and is actually interesting and without errors does it really matter?
@TH3C001 You sound like a bot defending this crap. Knock it off. Nobody is on your side.
@@TH3C001No
I agree with his take, and not yours.
Good day.
@William.Driscoll Who are you talking to?
This video is 100% made to farm views and ad revenue, and has multiple significant errors. That’s the real problem. In just a few more years, 75% of the videos on youtube will be this garbage. Quality content will be a thing of the past. And yet people still mindlessly defend it.
The headlight getting to bright these days. Most new cars blind me when they pass me on the otherside of the road.
I bought yellow (blue-blocking) clip-on/flip-up lenses for my glasses so I won't be permanently blinded by all the oncoming 6500K blaster beams.
Smart idea
As an Optometrist, I use blue block lenses for night driving. Much better. Go see your local optom for blue block driving lenses. Specsavers has them.
LEDs DO get hot, because manufacturers try to get as much light from them as possible. This in turn reduces the LEDs lifetime significantly, where as if they used just slightly less power they would function for many many years. But manufacturers want to sell lots more than one set per car....
Dude thank you so much for making this video. I started watching it and I fell asleep almost immediately and when I woke up you were still talking. Best damn nap I've ever had. Thank you seriously
I drove at night more than a few times, Company Vehicle had a "Light Bar"!, A very Expensive Light Bar, It only made the area brighter that the Low Beam covered, Making the LED pointless at Highway speeds
A light bar is made for driving offroad, at crawl speeds. Don't be the moron who has it on while on public roads, in traffic.
Whoever fitted it didn’t calibrate it right, take it somewhere and get it fixed
I've added a $30 single row 22" light bar to my Jeep Cherokee that comes on automatically with when I turn the brights on, I can see much farther down the road. Whoever put yours on didn't do it right or they got a flood instead of a spot beam pattern. Mine is a cross between flood and spot. The outer lights are flood which really light up the sides of the road way better. The center ones are spot and shine light way farther down the road than using just the high beam of the HID lights. (mine use the shutter style). All that with the light bar mounted below the front license plate. If it was mounted higher I would get even more performance out of it.
It depends on what that light bar was designed for. Some is just to light right ahead of you for off-roading ie camping at night. Off road lights design for speeding in rally or so have a further throw
Light bars are not to be used on public roads. Please turn the darn thing off and keep it off until you need more light for close quarters off public roads. Thank you.
Remember when you could go buy headlights without having to take out a mortgage
I think HIDs are better than LEDs and the other newer ones. With my Lincoln MKZ I'm glad I went with standard adaptive HIDs instead of the LED option. If an LED fails you can't simply replace the individual bad diode, the whole headlight assembly needs replacing (up to $1,000+ for an MKZ). It's a lot cheaper to replace a $150 HID bulb. Plus LEDs are usually more blinding to other drivers than HID. The IIHS has studied this for years and rates so many cars with LED lights poor for excessive glare
The main problem with LEDs is that they are disgusting looking. 12:00 illustrates the obnoxious flickering. Some literally make me nauseous.
Now get those LED drivers to keep the auto high beam lights off. They see the switch and turn them on in the city when it is not needed and blind the other drivers. Tesla and Honda are the worst.
They just need to be upgraded to a halogen light.
My Volvo XC90 with full adaptive headlights automatically dips to low beam when it detects street lighting.
@@calebdanielherman4913no
Where I live people drive with the high beams in the city All the time because they "can't see" You can't see because the other person has high beams too you nitwit. Cops used to make people look into the lamps but stopped immediately after it. became news.
@@calebdanielherman4913or acetylene 😂
The video made a statement that LED headlights don’t blind oncoming traffic but even low beams that use LEDs seem to blind me whenever I drive in low light conditions. It could just be my sensitive eyes but some of the people who I interact with echo similar statements about LED headlights
All of my bikes and cars use pre halogen era lighting, works as great as it did back in the day, and so simple, it's good enough to see and to be seen but not enough to burn people's retina out. I also have a few kerosene lighting systems, i actually use my carbide lamp on my bike from the 30s which i restored, it shines very bright and you have enough for hours without needing to refill anything.
Fitted my 96 Nissan President with aftermarket Laser H4's, although initially skeptical, and WOW!! Thoroughly impressed!
What I would love to have seen included in this comparison along with the light output and temperature, is the cost of replacement bulb/LED and unit.
Sure these latest LED matrix and adaptive laser lights seem very clever, and they are. But that comes at a considerable price!
I'm pretty sure we'd be looking at a four-figure bill to replace one of these units when they fail / get damaged. And lets face it, halogen and xenon did the job well enough for most situations without bankrupting you or rendering the vehicle scrap...
There is such a thing as too much complexity and I think we crossed that line a while back. Not just with headlights, but car technology in general.
And this is one of the reasons a slight bump at parking speeds car result to five figure damages.
I own an Audi S4 cabriolet that is the poster boy for what you are outlining. Brilliant engineering is cheek by jowl with stuff Rube Goldberg would ridicule.
Believe it or not the Citreon DS had headlights that turned as your turned the steering wheel back in the 1950s.
Wrong. The DS was indeed introduced in the 50's, but the turning headlights only came later on in its life
@@horvathr95 How much later? It was still a long time ago.
@@Andronicus2007 just google it, probably in the 60’s early 70’s
Something people forget about lamps is as you mention that manufacturers designed the housings with specific bulbs in mind. You can't just drop in a different bulb type and expect it to work, this is a main issue plaguing brighter bulbs like Xenon and LED where people would drop them into housings designed for Halogen because their brighter. Ofthen paired with never aiming the housings meaning the beam pattern gets thrown off and often thrown right into oncoming traffic.
American pickup truck owners are notorious for doing just that. And they are blinding AF.
@@user-mf5to8mb3h I own an F150 and aim my headlights as good as I can. Honestly as someone who drives large vehicles the worst drivers are actually the ones in beat up sedans and the really over modified vehicles. Most pickups often just are just fine they may not dim their high beams but they aren't as eye curdling as the 05' civic with xenons just pointed at your eyeballs.
You can put Osram and Philips LED into any headlights. They have Retrofit lineup for non projector H* type lights. In the EU there are a few countries(like Germany and Austria), where you can use their LED produtcs and you get the TUV licence trough the manufacturing company(the process is in the user manual). You dont have to adjust anything, the Retrofit LED "bulbs" working as the original halogen ones out of box.
No, they are not for ANY Headlight.
Those for ANY Headlight arent allowed on most places on the earth because they are not a point lightsource and do not work with the reflectors, causing light to spill everywhere.
However, there are Osram replacements for SPECIFIC CARS and ONLY for THAT CAR matching the reflector and those you can use legally.
I got the Osram ones (Philips won't make any for my car) and just as a precaution, I took the car to check the adjustment. It was spot on out of the box!
True, but they have to obtain specific type approvals for each individual vehicle make and model and headlight variant. If your car is not on the list, the retrofit is not approved. They have approved bulbs for a Golf MkII, but not for my RAV4.
I would like to use it in my (even projector) halogen lamps, but my country has butthurt "technical inspectors" who "knows better" than any engineers in the European Union.
Yes, I live in Hungary, where properly described TUV licenses worth nothing even installed by certificated specialists. Not only for bulbs, but everything - springs, brakes, exhausts etc. You can buy these LED-things, but only in "off-road" use. Which is also illegal since "off-road" is a public road until it hasn't been under the status of private road.
Duck it...
Except not in the US, where it is illegal to put drop-in LED bulbs into incan headlight housings. In fact, it is difficult to find major brand LED drop-ins for headlights in the US for this reason, why the market is mostly dominated by illegal imports who have no accountability, can just close shop and open under a different name and can't be prosecuted in china.
You cannot adjust them to make them legal in the US. You also cannot adjust them to improve driving with more light, without blinding others more than it improves driving.
Talk about the fogging of the plastic headlight housing.
I love LED headlights, however manufacturers need to reconsider making every light as bright as possible, and aftermarket LED headlights need to be heavily regulated. The cheap ones you get on Amazon have no beam pattern and scatter everywhere, blinding other road users and not doing their job of lighting up the road in front of you very well
16:46 - Lasers are not limited to prototypes. You can have them on all BMW's over $60k.
But they're used just for high beam.
I love having my retinas burned by lasers
@@TheBananermanThefirst They're also only available on a configuration that automatically diverts them under the oncoming trafic, or left, or right.
My friend with an X5 had lasers and drove 1000 km behind me and it didn't bother me at all. It was better than any small car.
led light, just bright enough you have no idea if they have the indicator on until 10 feet away
Good video. Just want to say these days headlights are just too powerful and have in fact become a danger to drivers. There is no need for "laser headlights" in my opinion.
Car manufacturers have now become light polluters. Instead of making quality cars, they are using cheap childish LED lightings to entice buyers. And the biggest offenders are Audi and Merc.
When I learnt to drive, the car's headlights were yellow. Usually, it was only the bulb itself that was yellow, with a white lens. It was great to drive in the rain, fog, or snow. Yellow lights were mandatory in France since the 30s, I believe. I learnt to drive on my father's 1969 Citroën DS. There were no such innovative and original car in America or anywhere else. The light also turned to follow the steering wheel.
Also leds do wear over time so the light output is getting lesser when they get older.
Replacing them will be very expensive.
Everything in life wears
@@benchmark3332 Yes, but a $20 halogen bulb is a lot cheaper than a $2000 LED headlight housing.
yes... LED bulbs do not last as long as advertised.
I like how you explained how the headlights work in a way I could understand. I went from an 08’ Ford Fusion that had H1 LED headlights to a 2023 Nissan Sentra S that has H11 LED headlights. The headlights of my Sentra are way brighter than my Fusion’s were and the visibility on them is great!
I love the Adaptive LED Headlights on my 2015 M550d 😍
0:01 why what it crying!
As a Fellow driver, the Last 3 are Heavily Hated when approaching fellow drivers. It’s night but some annoying BMW feels it can revert time and blind you with this Laser and Projector head lights.
15:33 😂 Just watching this for fun and noticed that the example includesa traffic sign from my Home region.
Beste Grüße aus der Altmark
"dazzling other drivers" This phrase pops up numerous times. With good reason.
HID and LED light on new cars dazzle other drivers even on low beam. They are obnoxious and dangerous. let's say it like it is.
A few points:-
Higher kelvin light temp is not always a good thing. If the CRI rating is low, then you lose colour and visibility may actually be degraded despite typically having higher lumens than a halogen.
Higher kelvin light temp is bad for other drivers. It "Dazzles other drivers".
Higher kelvin headlamps when seen at a distance tend to throw dazzling blue and purple light colours for oncoming drivers. Very annoying and "dazzling".
Lower kelvin halogen headlights do not dazzle the human eye at night, nor show twinkling of other colours.
Lower kelvin headlights are far superior in fog conditions. Higher kelvin reflects back from the fog badly.
I also suspect newer headlights also dazzle because the light source seems to be projected directly forward from the light source and through a small hemispherical lens straight into your eyes. This is a suspicion, I haven't pulled them apart so don't quote me, but in any case, the same lumens coming from a smaller lens typical in new cars, is just going to be more intense for others to look into.
Halogen bulbs have an opaque cap on top of the bulb. The light reflects backwards onto a metallic reflector of your headlight which has a large surface area (compared to tiny hemisphere lenses), and then forwards. So the light source is diffused over a larger surface area, and you are not looking directly at the light source, so therefore less dazzling to oncoming drivers.
No oncoming halogen bulb headlight car has ever dazzled me on low beam during country driving. Numerous HID and LED cars have dazzled me, even if they are behind you, they are very bright and distracting through your mirrors.
I honestly think headlight developments have outpaced the automotive design safety standards bodies globally, and they are caught short in the area of specifying allowable light Lumens, kelvins, CRI, and light spread and other headlight design standards, such that now driving the country at night is becoming unsafe and I don't really like doing it anymore.
Thanks for the information. I've installed the after market LED to the old casing and am not happy with the result.
Will change the casing. Thanks again🙏
Great, adaptive headlights turn with the auto, almost guaranteed to blind a driver coming from the other way.
LED lights are so bright they give me a headache with oncoming traffic. They should be outlawed
My theory is that most people who are blinded by LED lights often drive cars with dimmer headlights. When I upgraded to a more modern vehicle with very bright LEDS, I rarely feel blinded on the road. When driving my old pickup I notice that I’m being blinded constantly. In my sedan everything is illuminated much brighter in general so I believe that makes other bright oncoming headlights less noticeable if at all. However I am still blinded by trucks and large SUVS that sit higher than my sedan.
Yes they should. The weird headlights of today are poorly designed, aimed, and not
Oh please
The whiteness of the light emitted is unnatural and does not mimic sunlight because it is a frequency-focused beam by definition - we are told in the commentary that it commences with a blue laser beam, meaning it comes from the violet end of the visible spectrum. Sunlight gives a broader frequency range from red to violet, which is more attuned to our optic receptors.
@@johnangelico667sunlight on a clear day is quite high on the Kelvin scale (about 6500K) so quite blue compared with halogen lamps, however as you said a lot of modern headlights don’t have a full black body spectrum because they aren’t made by just heating something up.
Good LEDs can be made to have a pretty full spectrum at almost any colour temperature and can give a good beam with full coverage. They are pretty expensive though.
I haven’t seen the laser ones they sound like they would be best for the same long distance light throw as an LED light bar or old school spot driving lights hopefully they would be turned off if you were driving at them.
@ 13:11 - Throwing LED's into a halogen housing WILL work depending on the design & manufacturer. The real problem is replacing the signal indicators with LED's. Ideally its best to replace the flasher relay with one that's LED compatible.
I have some old carbide mine lamps. I didn't realize they were used on cars.
Laser lights are nice, but HIDs remain my favorite headlight. The bright blue glow of 10000k bulbs is awesome
AI generated channel
This video was illuminating
In addition to glare, as we age the ability of the pupil to adjust to variations in brightness begins to degrade… sometimes fairly drastically in a short period especially with conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. So the oncoming headlights blind and then as they pass the older driver is unable to readjust to the darkness. This makes seeing animals, pedestrians, or curves in the road difficult or impossible to see. If the older driver slows down to compensate for this especially on freeways or back roads where people drive at high speed they risk being hit from behind or continually blinded by cars behind them approaching quickly.
The new computer controlled headlights which dip to keep from blinding the windshield or the rear window are very helpful. But some of these also rotate to illuminate signs or even pedestrians or bicyclists blinding them and other drivers and animals and creating even more dangerous situations especially at higher speeds.
And it’s not just the headlights. Many of the new taillights, turn signals and emergency blinkers are ridiculously bright. We need new regulations based on sound science to balance the safety of everyone in the environment. These should not be choices made by the car designers for aesthetic purposes or vehicle owners who just want to be the brightest thing on the road.
ironically, they are not the brightest minds on the road lol
When tail, brake and indicators used bulbs, the defining factor was power. Tails were 5W and brakes and indicators were 18 or 21Watt. There should now be a brightness rule. Europe is introducing this.
Interesting video. I remember when xenons first came out in the mid 90's, I think the Mercedes E class was the first car to use them widely. They immediately stood out from other vehicles due to that blue/white beam.
The biggest problem I have around me is too many guys compensating for something by driving lifted trucks and their headlights end up at my eye level.......
Just because technology can advance, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s an improvement. The whiter the headlamp, the greater blinding of others and the more ‘bounce’ back to the driver from reflective signs and lane markings designed to reflect less bright lights, which tires the eyes thereby reducing alertness and causing reduced night vision.
Me: is that Headlights or FLASHBANG?
Remember "dip don't dazzle" ? Now it's dazzle or xtra dazzle.
Excellent informative video. Thanks for explaining the operation . Do these multi electrode plugs need to be gapped ? You did not address that . Thanks again. 👍
Nice little piece. Well done. Upload more videos on speakers.
Try a Tucker for steering headlights and Cadillac for auto-dimming headlights.
Excellent presentation. I had to replace my HID lamp in my 2009 Range Rover Sport HSE and it was very problematic. But, I was successful in replacing this with an LED with no degradation in performance. So yea - headlights now are very complex and replacing these can be quite the headache.
Two corrections:
1. Automotive LED lamps DO heat, and a lot! The majority of LED lamps on the market (OEM or not) need active cooling for that reason.
2. LED lamps will work on halogen lights, but they have to be very well developed by the manufacturer and very well selected and tested by the customer. There are some youtube channels specialized just on that testing. However, people first should check if the use of LED lamps is legal in the respective countris, because it may be not.
That logic comes from flying aircraft. They have landing lights and taxi lights. Once you land and clear the runway that light gets turned off to prevent blinding other pilots. Same rules should apply with driving.
Back in the day Xenon headlights were limited to the top end cars and there was another clear advantage to the halogen ones: manufacturers used them in green or purple apart from the blue/blueish which got everybody´s attention
"But can your headlights play Tetris?"
HID's still have superior optics vs LED's. Especially incorporating adaptive Bi-Xenons with their precision rotating and wider beam patterns. Bi-Xenon's for low beams but fast flashing LED's for high beams is the best blend. Oncoming traffic won't have a problem with my high beam LED's -which they'll never see in the first place.
Very interesting. Current BMW headlights seem to be designed to blind other drivers, but that's ok because we don't matter.
That matrix lighting display was fantastic.
Why does it feel like everyone now drives around with their hi-beams on?
I'm surprised ,you haven't told if adaptive lights has been used in very early 70's Citroen SM. In this car has been implemented many advanced technologies as proportional steering power force based on car speed. But thanks for your job. 👍
Beautifully explained!
I love the 2023's Dacia Duster LED headlights ! I see the whole road ahead of me.
1:59 Finally, blinker fluid
Those new projector style lights are a pain as on the edge of their beams they are quite blue, so if one is following you and goes over some undulations in the road, you can easily get a kind of flashing white & blue light kind of making one think the police are approaching.
I like the Halogen the most. They smoothly turn on unlike the newer ones that immediately turn on when you switch them on.
I've got BMW Laser lights on my 7 Series and they are very impressive although they are not on very often. Generally it's the adapted LED high beams that are illuminating due to on coming cars or insufficient speed.
This video was... dare I say? *illuminating* ?😜
I like the ones that you could pull into a car parts place, spend maybe a burgers worth of money on then install it in the parking lot in about 5 minutes. Not the new ones that if you break the headlight the car is a write off and if you do decide to replace it you have to remove the whole front of the car.
Never thought headlights could be so cool and intresting
Wow interesting thank you so much, so does this means in the long run in few years we must see torch lights laser beam torch light the be excellent can't wait to buy one😮😊
When will you do a follow-up on motorcycle headlights? Adaptive m/c headlights have to deal with quite large changes.
The Wagon R 2010 headlight in the thumbnal looks sick 🔥👌🏻 also in 6:18
A thing worth noting is that modern LED globes can emulate halogen globes pretty well, making LED conversion for halogen headlights actually quite feasible!
Make no mistake, there's always going to be junk LED globes that don't comply well with reflectors, but some work exceptionally well, providing even better beam placement than the halogens they replace!
I've used a few great H4 alternatives, but the downside I've encountered is short lifespan likely due to the dependence on an integrated fan for cooling, as the dust boots on some cars can interfere with airflow, and the fans themselves can fail causing the LED to overheat and fail. This is the only reason I'm not currently using LED globes myself, as I was changing them about as often as I was changing halogens anyway
LEDs can't legally and practically replace halogen bulbs in halogen reflectors. For one, a filament is a point source. LEDs have a heat sink/driver board between them so the light source will not be perfectly aligned to where the filament was. Two, vehicle lighting is federally regulated and type-approved. If a headlight is designed for an H9 halogen, for example, it can only legally be replaced with an H9 halogen.
This is the reason I switched to kerosene fueled head lights on my car. Haven't had an issue since.
Wholesome Content! Yellow light is better. White light is partially blinding when staring at it for a prolonged period.
Nice and informative
But which year was the xenon and LED introduced?
This video has officially made me blind with the closeup shots of lights, geez. 😵💫
Note on LEDs: The actual semiconductor emits a single wavelength, aka color. White LEDs emit in the near UV. A little less than 400nm (nanometer; 10^-9m; 0.000 000 400m). It uses the old fluorescent light trick. That is the LED UV light excites that yellow phosphor, which remits the light over several wavelengths, that appear white to our eyes. Problem is that phosphor has a finite life. That's the life limiting factor of "white" LEDs. "White light", in theory, is the mixture of all the wavelengths in the visible spectrum. In practice, only 3 colors are needed. Red, Green, and Blue, were chosen, when done with phosphor, for CRT color TV sets, and was grandfathered to newer technologies.
As for the red and amber lights, those can be single color LEDs, that inherently emit those colors, from the semiconductor, with no phosphor intermediary. Red LEDs are the oldest color of LEDs, going back to the 1960s. Emerald green, blue, violet, and near UV LEDs did not come into being until GaN (Gallium Nitride) LEDs where developed in 1994. Hence, for color lamps, no colored filter is needed. Just use the semiconductor mix, for the desired color.
So there was a mention of the 1948 Cyclops car which was a prototype but no mention of Citroëns DS which did have fully steering and yaw dependent headlights from 1967 the inner main beam units were attached via links to the front steering & links onto the suspension so that the headlights were always pointing at the correct angle & height! Full scale production model too!
I have halogens. Whenever I enter a parking lot or any well lit area off the road especially where there are pedestrians, I turn off my main beams and drive with just the fog lamps as a courtesy to the pedestrians. Once I put the car in park I turn my lights off. But people are so lazy and just put the lights on automatic mode.
Thinking about upgrading from carbide lamps to electric ones, but not sure if the technology is already developed enough.
1:07 The sad thing is a Cybertruk would struggle on these roads.