Modern Headlights 101 - Xenon, Matrix, and Laser Lights
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- Опубликовано: 22 окт 2018
- A closer look at modern headlight technology including HIDs, Matrix, and laser headlights.
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Anyone else find new headlights are absolutely blinding?! Daytime running lights are great... in the day
Get someone to fit some French-style selective yellow bulbs to their car and drive toward you with full-beam on and they'll still dazzle you less than some ass in a Range Rover with his super-white LED headlights on dip-beam.
Yeah. Modern cars with headlights really up high are just so annoying. That is literally the only reason why I actually started thinking about tinting my rear window at least a little bit
Usually on and conomy cars like Honda acura I've noticed that
here in Lithuania where i live the roads are soo uneven, worst in europe i guess, when i go to work i always blind people with my xenon headlights. The headlight motor cant keep up with the road xD but i always think, well its not my problem that country cant fix roads
DUDE! Meeting trucks with xenon is fairly common in Norway. The light beam is basically inline with the eyes of someone driving a normal passenger car. Its actually fucking dangerous. It doesnt help that the majority of roads are one lane each way.
I work as a driver at night, and almost all new cars lights are too bright AND aim too high. Well done manufacturers, thanks for blinding me all bloody night.
Special "sun"-glases with yellowish glas. This may help You.
i dont' understand that too. Makers probably think it will help to come christmas faster.
Worst culprits are nissan joke and qashqai and land rover products
I drive at night both two and from work this time of year and almost never have that issue. My car sets pretty low too
The Audi automatic head light dip does not appear to work very well in this video, i.e. it dips when the hi-beam hits the car ahead, which is too late!
I prefer those candle lights that the first cars used. A little headlight with a burning candle inside. Good in winter for defrost. :)
@@MrJustinUSCM Lol
HAISTA VITTU
They did not use candles, they used calcium carbide lamps: A small container with water and some calcium carbide rocks in there bubbles Acetylene which is burned at a small nozzle. Problem was that they got clogged and blew up shattering the head lamp.
I thought Xenon lights was just to show of until I had them in my old Audi, and ...wow! If you live in a place like Germany where winter's are dark and it rains often they are just awesome! The visibility of the road increases incredible.
yeah, my motorbike using halogen while my car using xenon, and guess what? I more aware of potholes while driving my car than riding with my motorbike.
@@jeremiahlf i sound like a 10 yo says one wanna-be-troll with a videoless channel that likes RC toys 🤣🤣🤣
Go on and finish your milk before your mum gets upset 😉
People for the love of god, if you’re going to do a HID upgrade, PLEASE get projector housings if your car doesn’t have them.
Even with projector housing a HID kit will still be illegal. So everybody needs to make that choice.
Mieczysław Beger where will that be illegal?
Properly aimed hid lights that are made for a specific housing do not blind any more than standard lights do
@@gmeister03 Everywhere? Halogen headlight assembly is designed, adjusted, tested and certified as such, with EU markings (in Europe) and homologation and other safety and compliance certificates. If you retrofit HID bulb into such unit you invalidate all those certificates and technically it becomes illegal as not being tested, licensed and approved by appropriate institutions. So while it might be aligned properly and pass inspection, if you have accident and bad luck, your insurance company might pick up on this and invalidate your insurance policy as you were driving a car with illegal, untested and uncertified modification. While it is just a possibility, the risk is on the owner of a car. Still, if it's done properly (actual HID reflector and lenses housing unit (inside headlight) being retrofitted, not just the bulb) and you are ready to spend few hundreds of £/$/€ than it can be done. Albeit someone might complain on lack of headlight washers and self leveling system. Uff, that's a long comment ;)
@@gmeister03 in my country it is counted as modified parts ,the law doesn't support this part (because thay are not allow to modification any mobile except they are use part from only factory and its hard to say.because a lot of copied brand and fake is hardly to determine)
And its ilegal. As a mobile modification law.
I just hate it when people install xenon lights so they can "see better" or for coolness, and their low beam looks pretty much like high beam
I tried them in my car and they make it worse. Yellow is better, especially in fog. White and blue is downright awful. You simply cannot see better with white light.
Liam Pepper I think it depends on the car and housing it’s in. My car had factory BiXenon adaptive lamps and they’re extremely bright, way brighter than any car I’ve been in with halogens. They take a seconds to warm up, but it’s a very natural white glow at night. It usually doesn’t work well if people install HIDs in the factory halogen housing.
jacob stienecker u 2 thx
It's your states fault.
@@fossilfueled27 yellow is crap, best visibility comes from 8k hid bulbs with 55watt ballast which tones down the color to 6k which is pure white
Xenon all the way, they've been around long enough that the brightness and scatter patterns are perfect in cars like the BMW 3 Series, wheras the LED's that replaced them are dimmer, don't provide as good visibility, and are more likely to blind oncoming traffic. Oh, and not forgetting that sweet blue tint xenon's produce when you switch them on
nothing beats *pop-up headlights* !!! !!!
Definitely!
A shame these things have gone, I love the look. Hope they come back in the future...
Popup headlights are a style and arent relevant to this video. This is about light technology...
Also pop ups probably won't come back due to the pedestrian safety stuff...
Got see when delivering tofu
Nothing in the world aggravates me more when I see blind idiots with high beams at night. This is why I got 8 train horns. If you’re blind, you’ll be def by the time you pass me.
When one light goes out at night in the middle of nowhere you'll see who is the idiot?the one running with one headlight on or the guy temporarely using high beam
I bought a 52" led bar so i could blind back people using highbeams at me :D
Damn that's a great idea. Will make an excellent combo with my rear mounted high beams for the tail-gaters with their bright af lights
@@trilateralcommission6557 It's ILLEGAL to drive with your high beams on when other cars are around you, no matter what!!! Read the traffic law! It's not other's problem that your bulb went bad! Pull over and fix it! You can cause an accident blinding other drivers and could get sued for that! Again, read the law if you don't believe me. Vehicles with burnt headlights could not be on the road for any reason! Vehicles with modified lights are not street legal either!
@@111chicane that's true,I know the traffic laws,I meant in case a light goes out and you can't see.It can happen if you are in Arizona,life happens
You mentioned in the video that HID starts at 5000K but in fact most OEM HID headlights are 4300K
Yep
"Usually begins"
@@Jessersadler yeah, rarely xénons are not 4300k. So still false
I bought a golf and realized it had the intelligent high beam. It's my favorite feature of the car. Its amazing to just turn on auto high beam and watch the lights dance around putting oncoming cars and the cars in front in shadow while still letting me see more of the road.
It's surpiring that there are still new cars with this old school halogen lights and normal bulbs. LED shout be standart for safety and better comfort (longer life).
Problem is that when they break they are (still) way more expensive to replace.
@@erikoosterom make cheaper version with one or two exchengeable "bulbs". No fancy special fx needed.
If this will be standart in cars that means they will have to produce more.
Higher production = lower costs.
@@erikoosterom problem is they dont "break"
@@erikoosterom what do you mean by that led lights are 5€-15€
Mercedes and Peugeot owners might disagree with you on the longer life part...
I just switched from halogen to a 6000LM 6500K pure white LED. Brightness is amazing compared to the shitty halogens. The reason a lot of people blind others is because they dont align their lights after a replacement
Trust me there not 6000lm.
@@unclejohn5012 4000lm tops which is combined
My HIDs are 5000k and are pure white, 6000k+ is blue territory
@@IIGrayfoxII Eh possibly. But if measured to ANSI they might be 2000lm each. But theres too many factors to count in. Like quality of heqdlight housing, how clean the lense is, air quality etc
@@unclejohn5012 I have an old set which are 4,000lm but 2,000lm each.
It is hard to say how bright it is and where the lumen rating was measured at as well, the closer to the point source the brighter and this may be a false reading if they done the test at 1m from light source when another does it at 2m.
Inverse square law is a bitch
4,000lm @ 1m
1,000lm @ 2m
444lm @3m
250lm @4m
160lm @5m
Everyone's thinking that they are blinded by newer headlights chances are that our eyes is the one that is already damaged by daily exposure of phone screens.
At least thats what i think 😂
for people thinking technology might get it wrong occasionally blinding people, its still leaps better then people with hids in there reflector lights
Omfg why did I just find this channel I hated school but love learning shit like this. Awesome videos dude keep um up
Had the chance to drive a c-class with multibeam LED's. I loved them. The fact that they omit the area around another vehicle but still illuminate a ditch is amazing. I hope American car manufacturers catch up!
It's the American laws. They need to catch up first
Just love the way Xenons fire up in the morning. Different touch ;)
If you ever find yourself potentially blinded by folks with lights that are a little too bright to want to keep your eyes open to-
Look down and to the right of the road, ideally at the edge line of the road (assuming it has one), and just keep your car within that as you normally do.
I’m a new driver, and that’s just a little thing that a friend taught me when I got my first car a couple of months ago. It helps me a lot.
I just purchased a C300d with multibeam as standard and I am glad to see there performance(range and brightness) use high beam with the adaptive function or low beam only...be smart enough to understand that you may have the most powerful headlamps on the road but that just means that you don’t always need there full potential in most conditions!
What about the 1970 Citroën SM with adaptive head lights? ... IN 1970!!
Versal Mit Unterstrich I think they also changed with the angle of the car but I may be wrong. Regardless it’s really inventive for a car from the 70’s.
It was already in DS in the 50's.
Studebaker in 1947 had the same technology as the Citroen.
Car Throttle, I think you should have at least mentioned that each technology should be used in its own system, AKA HIDs and LEDs don't belong in halogen housings.
Wrong Philips does have a replacement system in LED that maintains the cut-off line
@@Kavi4GP In most housings, yeah. Not exactly an "upgrade" as in most housings it usually matches halogen brightness, not exceeds. It's a good design but not a great one.
@@Haloruler64 it is a good design, and it does provide better lighting. Our eyes function differently at night... During the day we see warm colors better because the light from the sun is a warmer (yellow.) At night, however, our eyes see cooler temperatures better because the vast majority of the light reflected by the moon is whiter. LED lights give off a whiter (cooler) light than halogens, and require less power to provide the same usable light. This is why street-lighting is all moving to LED fitments and away from the old sodium bulbs.
As for the bulbs for specific housings, that is not entirely true either. High quality LED bulbs that are designed for function over fashion do work just fine in Halogen and HID housings. The key is to get an LED bulb that outputs the light in as close to the same position as a halogen or HID bulb does. So... All those bulbs with "360 vision" marketing crap are cheap piles. You actually want the ones with a single LED on each side (and only two sides, not four.) This ensure the reflector housing or projector dish perform as they were designed to. With the bulbs that have a bajillion diodes... You just have a lot of extra light scattered in random directions that the systems were never designed to focus. Unfortunately, neither the bulbs nor the marketing of them is regulated by any government agency, in any part of the world.
@@CynicalDriver You have many, many things wrong there. Our eyes don't function differently at night. Warmer colors are still easier on the eyes, not to mention cooler colors (and LED in general) have lower CRI which cuts contrast and increases strain. Even factory LED headlights have poor CRI. Street lighting is moving to LED for energy savings and lifespan, not for visibility. In fact, LED streetlights suck for visibility due to narrower angle and bright spots.
And this entire paragraph is wrong. The ones with strips of tiny emitters like Lumileds in the shape of a filament are far superior to anything with a big COB or CREE emitter. Those simply don't work in any headlights. Anyway, in the US LED bulbs are illegal. Not that that matters... there are exceptions to the rule and some are safe to use.
@@Haloruler64 I am going to reply in two parts, and you are going to feel like a fool. Science trumps your opinions.
Looking at the comments below I can't help but remember back when everybody was complaining about how blindingly bright all of the new HALOGEN headlights in those new fancy aerodynamic fixtures were and wondering why anyone would need such bright lights in the city. Seriously. All of this has happened before and it will all happen again.
The problem with LEDs in cars is two-fold: Cost and compatibility. The actual cost of the LEDs themselves is fairly small although incandescent lamps are still cheaper by far due to them being around for so long. Where costs escalate is when the manufacturers design custom lamp assemblies that not only use whatever LEDs are best bang for the buck, but aren't even standardized within the manufacturer...let alone the industry. Unlike the incandescent lamps which have been a standard WORLD WIDE, for decades. Not to mention the computing power to control those fancy smart LED headlights. Oh and don't forget the R&D that went into making them work properly, this is basically generational leaps beyond the old incandescent lamps.
Right now we can have LED lights that are designed to replace incandescent lamps but most tend to be either several times the cost of the incandescent lamps they replace...or significantly lower in light output than even the "long life" incandescent lamps they are replacing. I think it would help get LED lighting into more base model cars if there were new standardized lamps being made specifically for automotive use that capitalized on how LEDs emit light.
Great video! I’ve a question: with xenon headlights and the automatic light switch, how is it good to behave on roads with many tunnels? Leave the automatic selector switch or fix the lights on?
Absolutely IMPORTANT! nice vid!
As someone living (somewhat) near to the arctic. I see that any improvements in the illumination of roads is not just good. But necessary.
The jewel eyes on my Acura are great!! They are just what need to be able to see at night 👍🏽
I hate driving in front of acura jewel eyes -_-
The Jewel eyes LEDs on Acura are the worst aligned lights ever produced! Even on the slightest bump you're blinding the oncoming traffic to the point, that they can't see shit! I hope it turns to a lawsuit and Acura is forced to recall all vehicles equipped with that crap!
plz make a video on type of oil filter
Both really good questions at the end of the video.
I have to say that I thought Xenon lights were a fantastic and worthwhile option for anyone who does a fair bit of night driving..but I've just got an Audi S3 with matrix LED's...they are next level headlights. Amazing vision around other cars and perfect when overtaking a car down a dark road and the car in front won't put his lights on full beam!👍☺
I love the Xenons, as well as the latest LED light techs.
It's difficult to drive a low seating position sports car when modern LED designs insist on shining directly into my face.
I feel you on that one
Totally agree and i drive a alfa 156 XD
Same happens in my Honda Civic. There are some bastards out there driving their SUVs or CUVs, and because of the high riding position, they neglect other cars and adjust their beams very bad on the road.
Toyota 86 over here. I feel the pain.
W203 owner too. I have 6000k bi-xenons and they are great, tho I've never been flashed by other cars for bright headlights. Occasionally I get flashed by old folks in shitty cars, thinking I'm on high beams.
I hate the headlights in those stupid crossovers that shine the light right in your face. Most car headlights are ok and don't irritate you, but crossover headlights are shit. Mini Cooper's ugly crossover is the worst offender, cause it's lights flicker.
Nice! Thank you for the lesson!
To everyone saying new lights are too bright, stop staring into them! You're not a deer.I like the HIDs in my C-class and E-class. My E420 has factory bi-xenons. My C220 came with halogens, but I installed oem bi-xenons.Both cars have 6000k bulbs and both cars also have 5000k xenon fog lights. (fog light upgrade only for looks)
I can see well in the dark, they look very cool with that bluish tint to the light and they are perfect to get left lane hoggers to move.
I really want the projector LED light (combination of xenon housing and LED). They look so intense and gangster on road at night XD
hasifaiman I think projector LEDs are the best.
Xenon seemed the best among all the technologies but my favorite is the laser ones.They look incredible on those new bmw's.
Important Leap Forward in car technology!!!
I installed some led drop-Ins for my Scion. I gotta say it’s insane how much better it is than the halis
One reason why new cars might blind you in the dark is that the camera sensing other vehicles is mounted on the windshield. Now when you get your cracked windshield changed in some shady shop, they don't calibrate the camera. It doesn't have to be many degrees off and it will blind oncoming traffic because the car aims the headlights to a wrong spot.
headlight for someone who lives in rural Australia is very useful and the brighter the better. we have a pair of halogen spotlights and they have a range of roughly 300 meters / 984 feet. I think laser light is worth it if they were available for cars like a ford or a holden.
Cool video. Great way to show everything.
I like my HIDs in my 300 it has auto dim and turns the light for curves
Please do a video on reflector vs projector headlight housings.
I have got the latest Mercedes high-resolution multibeam LED. It’s extraordinary but often when I’m going uphill folks coming towards me complain. However, in UK over the week the traffic flow is constant so the chance to go high beam is very slim.. :-D
I wanted to fit my car with leds but after installing a good set of Philips halogens I don't see the reason for leds they are bright enough and don't dazzle other drivers also it's insane how blinding are headlights in new cars
I was driving the other night and a car a little ways out oncoming had purple headlights that twinkled like a star but as it got closer the lights became bluish white. Does anyone know what that is?
Good video
2:30 The new 3 series, X5 and X7 also have Laser lights…
I've got this LED tech in my car Works well for the most part but not at greater distances from oncoming traffic or if you're behind a car at longer distance like might happen at night on a motorway.
I was a little bit underwhelmed when I started using it.
However it works well in more close quarters like on those twisty roads shown in the video.
I have an 02 infiniti i35 and it comes stock with xenons
what type of video editing or making software used in this video
can anyone tell me
please
Matrix headlights are amazing.
I'm enjoying those AFL adaptive Xenon lights in my Mokka. I just sometimes feel guilty of blinding people when they go to high beam, than a car approaches and sometimes it takes a while for system to turn it down to low beam...
It would be great to see if you make a video about the different intelligent LED technologies. VW for example doesn't use a matrix system, they use rolls inside the headlight to dim the beam. They even had this system before LEDs became standard. They used it in the 2010 Touareg with Xenon.
The worst headlights that are properly aligned beat the best headlights out of alignment
Edit: spelling
What, you'd opt out of the headlight assault 'race'?
What's your view on the 'arms race'?
I’ve had halogen in my old Volvos, xenon in my Qashqai and now LED in my Leaf and got to say LED are a whole other league. Much brighter and so much safer than halogen! With the halogen i wasn’t always sure if the headlights were on...
you had bad halogens/Headlights the OEM spec would need to meet certain light output and distribution to be made road legal
I love my HID lights.
Thanks, Car Throttle Extra, for including information on 'Matrix / Multi-beam / Intelligent' headlights. With the UPPING of light output the only reason I can conceice of against them is failure to recognize wild animals or livestock. Yet you can only present Audi as an investigator of this technology that would 'know' what to do with that prodigious amount of light.
Modern cars now have led headlights and tail lights, but I understand that halogen bulbs are easy to replace and cheap, and they are available almost everywhere. But what if the stock led headlights/taillights of modern cars break? Do LEDs burn out often as halogen? I mean if a halogen burns out, you could just go out and buy a new one. How about for modern cars with stock leds? Do they have to go to their dealership and spend days without their car just cos of some led lights that went bad? Or do LEDs last forever not like Halogen bulbs? Thanks for answering
The new minis have the worst blinding headlights of these new generation lights ! You can tell its mini coming from the continue flicker between white and blue light as the car gets close . ...ok that's my grip done and over with
I do need a bright headlight, so xenon does help me. In most of my driving trip, my driving was done during the night which has less traffic but more chances of deer encounter.
I hope you do not get this wrong: modern headlight technologies do not make you feel blinded (by the light), because they are so much brighter than old halogen ones. The major difference is the surface the headlight uses for this output! Old halogens usually work with a reflector which means the output appears on a big surface. Bigger, but less bright. Xenon's use a lens, so much smaller surface but brighter. Than you have new super small and super bright LED. So of course the small LED appear to be much brighter. Same is for rear lights as well. (All according to properly adjusted headlights)
I still prefer and love the halogen headlights.❤️
I'm flashing a lot of new cars recently because the lights are so bloody bright. My xenons are poo but I love the thought of having Led lights,im currently looking for a kit for mine but it's not happening 😥
those are some pretty cool lights (all german cars)
These new headlights are great for the driver but blind everyone else like people go down city streets with there brights on when there are street lights on
Small correction, LEP flashlights use yellow phosphor, not phosphorus. Pretty easy to mix up since Phosphor plural is very close to phosphorus the element, the etymology is to blame here.
White(yellow) Phosphorus the element releases light due to chemiluminescence, glows in the dark when it reacts with oxygen.
Phosphor the material emit light when they absorb radiant energy.
White(yellow) phosphorus is used in munitions, an example of it outputting light is in tracer munitions where it burns producing light.
Phosphors is commonly used in LEDs to output white light, by absorbing blue light.
Does anyone know the type of lights used in the strip lighting (like BMW taillights and daytime running lights)?
it is led
@@govinlock8568 Thanks Govin!
Lazer lights look aaswweessoommmee
I have pretty sensitive eyes, and I've never had a problem with people putting HIDs in reflector housings, unlike a lot of people here. Even if they are blinding, I just look to the side of the road. Sure, projectors are far superior, but reflectors really aren't that bad in a lot of applications (with a few exceptions, depending of the design of the reflector).
This needs to be legalized in US asap..
informative:)
Smart lights sound good
The lights that dim automatically remind me of GM’s Autronic Eye/Guide-Matic. GM’s system didn’t work as well but hey, that was atleast 30+ years ago. I just ordered a Guide-Matic phototube for a 1975-1979 Cadillac Seville, and even though I won’t use it on my own Seville it’s still cool to have. Great video, guys!
What happens when the computer decides to dim a portion of the beam and there is something in that path you need to see?
Good knowlage
Some of these rare new type lights cause glare to car in front via rear view mirror.
Those cars make it very hard to drive. But not sure whether they are just too bright, making it hard to see the road in front.
I’m sure the best headlight set up would be led Cree bulbs for low beam and led osram bulbs for high beams since their equivalent to the laser headlights and the crew will give you a wide range
Laser lights are the future
What about Led strips?
My BMW X2 has LED Lights and ohh god they are sooo goodd
I couldn’t imagine life before matrix headlights. I literally drive with high beams on everywhere with bothering anyone
I went from a Mk4 Mondeo with halogens to a Mk5 Mondeo (Fusion) with adaptive LED headlights. The difference is amazing. Vastly better than the old technology, and make night time driving a lot easier.
For us average folks that cant afford a BMW or Audi the next best option is a projector retrofit from the retrofit source.
Morimoto D2S 4.0 projectors with a 50w Morimoto ballast and 5500k Morimoto bulbs and you're looking at great light output with a nice cut off that wont blind on coming traffic (if aimed properly of course).
Last year I bought a new car with the intelligent LED lighting option. It's an expensive option (about €1700), but it is absolutely worth it!
I think it also has something to do with brand identity. Cars can now easily be identified just by the lights.
I simply installed 70w halogen headlights instead of 55w in my FiST.
Pretty much no difference during the start of the evening, but when it is actually night time they light up the road much better.
Still looking for LED's. But they are expensive and have plenty of canbus errors, even those who are 'canbus error free'.
Get the Philips units with the Canbus adaptor
Another problem is sometimes LED daytime running lights are so bright that, on a lit road, people forget to turn their lights on when it gets dark.
Even my 2018 Suzuki Swift has full LED headlights with auto highbeam as standard.
Matrix is the stop gap until laser becomes widespread and cheap to produce.
When I changed cars I went from Halogen to Xenon and from a driver's perspective it's much safer. Even when I'm driving I feel like Led or Laser Headlights on incoming cars affect me less than Halogen.
Music track please?!
HID with high Ks look so badass ^^
Audi R8 lights are good on anyday :)
Xenons work at 4300K as per OEM Spec not 5000K. Philips owns the patent to xenon technology. Matrix is developed with Hella and Philips.most LED headlights use Philips chips.
I had to have my headlight on my 2017 Audi TTS replaced. It was 2k per light. He said the laser lights are 5k per headlight.
Bmw adaptive led headlights are excellent
I want those laser lights.
E32
New lights a great, I have friends who drive with halogens and in the rain at night it's almost impossible to see
Innovation is key.
But amber color lights are easier on the eyes. Hence the reason why ios and Android have that amber tint when it gets dark outside after a certain Time.