Old Fart
02-17-2022, 03:03 PM
Intake: Love driving with your high beams on, but wish there was a way to tailor the amount of light to the road ahead? Luckily for you, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration moved quicker than expected (over a year in advance) in legalizing the use of Adaptive Driving Beam headlights for new vehicles. The agency issued this ruling (details here) after a request from Toyota, ad they expect it “improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists by making them more visible at night, and will help prevent crashes by better illuminating animals and objects in and along the road.” The rule was included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that was passed by Congress and signed by President Biden last November.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4-iwuzAey4&t=4s
Exhaust: As the video above shows, adaptive beams are a matrix of LED lights forming a high beam pattern, and it can turn off individual lights to keep from blinding others while still retaining high beam functionality elsewhere on the road. Note that this video is from 2014, so America is a bit behind the curve with this technology. Which comes as no surprise, as our headlights have been hamstrung by an inferior beam design set in place by Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108. While this new law can’t forgive the sins of not having H4 headlights in our classics, at least we’re getting what we deserve in the latest technology from new vehicles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4-iwuzAey4&t=4s
Exhaust: As the video above shows, adaptive beams are a matrix of LED lights forming a high beam pattern, and it can turn off individual lights to keep from blinding others while still retaining high beam functionality elsewhere on the road. Note that this video is from 2014, so America is a bit behind the curve with this technology. Which comes as no surprise, as our headlights have been hamstrung by an inferior beam design set in place by Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108. While this new law can’t forgive the sins of not having H4 headlights in our classics, at least we’re getting what we deserve in the latest technology from new vehicles.