Headlights glaringly are in ‘sorry shape’ in many US vehicles
Millions of Americans are driving around in the dark. That’s not a metaphor; it’s the state of U.S. headlight technology and maintenance compared with such places as Canada, Europe and Japan.
Only about half of 2018 model-year vehicles in the U.S. offered “adequate” headlights, and frequently only on expensive, option-laden models. That put good visibility out of sight for many American drivers, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an industry group that tests and advocates for safety features.
On top of that, experts say improper installation reduces the effectiveness of many advanced headlights, turning what should be safety aids into glaring annoyances for other drivers.
It’s easy to recognize the problems if you’ve been on the wrong end of a bright headlight aimed into your eyes, but harder for people driving cars with misaligned lights or those with cloudy, fogged-over lenses. They don’t know what they’re missing until they’re literally blindsided by an unexpected curve, construction zone or other obstacle their lights didn’t illuminate.
“A lot of headlights are in pretty sorry shape,” said John Bullough, director of transportation and safety lighting programs at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
Focusing light where it’s needed
Help is on the way, but there’s no telling when. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which sets standards for vehicle safety, is working on rules for a new technology called adaptive driving beam, or ADB lights. Automakers and suppliers are waiting impatiently to offer the superior systems they already sell in much of the world.
“Lighting technology has never accelerated
like it is today,” said Todd Morgan, senior vice president for global product development at lighting supplier Varroc, which has an engineering center in Plymouth, Michigan, just west of Detroit.
Like high-intensity and halogen headlights before them, LEDs initially were limited to luxury vehicles, but Morgan said, “LED lights are evolving and their cost is becoming reachable” for compact and subcompact cars and SUVs. Varroc’s goal is to make them and other new lighting technologies affordable for mass-market brands and vehicles.
ADB lights combine three features that are innovative and have been proved driving millions of miles in heavily regulated, safety conscious markets.
They consist of:
❚ Arrays of many LED lights
❚ Full-time high beams
❚ Systems to direct light away from other drivers’ eyes and toward street signs, or potential obstacles like a deer by the side of the road.
“We’re talking about a safety system with provable benefits,” Morgan said. “We have reams of data from Europe, but we don’t know when it’ll be legal in the U.S. It’s a huge shame.”
The latest ADB lights use digital cameras to detect oncoming vehicles, street signs, etc. Software turns selected LEDs on or off, keeping light out of oncoming drivers’ eyes.