High beam assist

[ajlsl600]

I too have ILS, it seems to react extremely quickly and I have very rarely been flashed certainly no more so than when I had manual control.

The worse cars to me for blinding you are where they are seemingly badly maintained and for some reason those older yellowy lights that seem to spread their beam around.

Should I buy another new car ILS would be too of my list as they make driving at night a far less dangerous task than the lights on some new cars I have owned which were positively awful and indeed dangerous.

Robin

of my cars the only one with less than great headlights is our Aclass. i might try bulbs otherwise we dont race around the district much so i can put up with it clk 320 and sl600 lights all grand

 

[ajlsl600]

M


You should test drive a car with modern ILS - mine are permanently on auto and I've never been flashed by an oncoming car.

I'm sure there are many motorists with your views (pun intended) driving around that would have been more than happy to flash me if they felt the need.

I fail to understand why people think that MB would put cars on the road with dangerous lights.

There are countless people who have illegal HID upgrades which are more likely to be the cause of dazzling oncoming drivers.

agree benz unlikely to fit dangerous lights. however benz AND others more than happy to sucker is into things THEYthink we need and present us with the large costs involved in repair and replacement of the same . doubt many would be sold as optional extras at costs i have heard. except to fleet operator at lower costs and eventually the unsuspecting , US!

 

[Srdl]

agree benz unlikely to fit dangerous lights. however benz AND others more than happy to sucker is into things THEYthink we need and present us with the large costs involved in repair and replacement of the same . doubt many would be sold as optional extras at costs i have heard. except to fleet operator at lower costs and eventually the unsuspecting , US!

I was happy to pay the £545 for the ILS option on my new car and am very pleased that I did.

 

[rorywquin]

agree benz unlikely to fit dangerous lights. however benz AND others more than happy to sucker is into things THEYthink we need and present us with the large costs involved in repair and replacement of the same . doubt many would be sold as optional extras at costs i have heard. except to fleet operator at lower costs and eventually the unsuspecting , US!

I think good lighting is essential - what I don't need is a fancy sound system, in car TV, touch screens etc

I had the earlier version of ILS in my SLK R172 (bought used) and when I started specing my SL, ILS was at the top of my extras list - as it turns out, it was standard on this model but I'd have paid to have them.

My stepdad always said that buying a car was nothing - maintaining it was where it got expensive. I always factor in the 'total package' when buying a car.

 

[Botus]

a search for " mercedes benz producing dangerously bright headlights " comes up with some points to read


Modern car headlights are too bright and are distracting drivers, the RAC has warned, as it is feared that "energy efficient" light bulbs are behind a rise in complaints.

Some 15 per cent of drivers have suffered a near-miss due to the brightness of some new car headlights, according to a new report by the motoring body.

Following a rise in complaints the Department for Transport set up a United Nations working group to explore why more drivers felt car headlights had become overly bright.

The rise in popularity of LED lights are among the potential causes of the problem being explored by the group.

RAC road safety spokesman Pete Williams said: “The intensity and brightness of some new car headlights is clearly causing difficulty for other road users.

"Headlight technology has advanced considerably in recent years, but while that may be better for the drivers of those particular vehicles, it is presenting an unwanted, new road safety risk for anyone driving towards them or even trying to pull out at a junction.

"Drivers also find it very distracting when they have to contend with being dazzled by bright lights in their rear view mirrors.

“While regulations specify that all types of dipped headlights must fall between a maximum and minimum luminosity the night-time driving experience of motorists of all ages is very different with many saying dipped beams of some modern vehicles are too bright.

“We look forward to seeing the progress of the United Nations’ vehicle lighting working group in April.”

 

[Craiglxviii]

The SMMT are now kicking off a working group to study this. It is pointed towards BLH or Blue Light Hazard. This is something many here have touched upon; we know that the main driver for BLH is to do with the styling trend of ever-slimmer headlamps forcing narrower projector units which causes incorrect light waveforms to set up. Those then bleed mainly blue light as spillover into the edge of the beam pattern.

Key vehicle marques-

Audi & VW
Ford
PSA
Renault

MB & BMW are conspicuous by their absence, I strongly suspect due to their maintaining proper 80+mm PES units in their headlamps.

So there you go. It’s official.

 

[Headhurts]

As stated earlier I have ILS on my car as do others so as well as driving my car I face others who also have ILS, I rarely get blinded by cars certainly less so these days than when I was driving an older Ford Escort years ago when it seemed to be a regular thing with much less cars on the road.

I suppose cars are better maintained these days with stricter MOT rules.

Some cars with older yellowy lights seemed to spread their light output and cause momentary distraction, that said I have owned cars that had dipped lights that were totally inadequate and downright dangerous.

I would find it difficult to buy a car without this type of lighting system if or when replacing my current car.

Are some people maybe more susceptible to lights than others?

Robin

 

[Craiglxviii]

Robin,

Yes they are, there’s a population skew in lighting sensitivity with about 15% globally reporting greater sensitivity to bright lights. Interestingly the “problem” dominant wavelength of that light varies geographically, with a very rough Euro/USA/Australia- Asian - South America split across blue, yellow green and red respectively.

 

[Botus]

1 out of 82 considered good - and it was a Toyota

Curve-adaptive systems don't always lead to a better rating, the Mercedes-Benz C-Class earned a poor rating, even when equipped with adaptive low and high beams.

https://www.iihs.org/iihs/sr/statusreport/article/51/3/1

 

[Craiglxviii]

I’ll have a look at that in a bit. IIHS tests aren’t industry peer reviewed.

 

[Altamar]

Hi all. Having posed the original question I want to thank everyone for their contributions and feedback what I have discovered (with help from the suggestions some of you have made).

I was always happy the ILS was working properly and as a number of you have said, the HBA does not work in areas where there is any street lighting - even if that lighting is VERY dim - and that is probably the thing which was confusing me initially. Once I got out onto darker roads where there was no street lighting the HBA worked effectively and very quickly. There is also a minimum speed as you have said but that seems to be around 25-30 MPH so that is not really an issue.

So, my HBA is working as designed and I also learned I can override it by switching the light switch off auto.

I haven't quite found the combination of circumstances where I can get the light pattern to "draw a box around the car in front" as some of you have described but maybe I will work that out or maybe my car doesn't have that particular ability. I saw it on an E Class MB lent me and it was the cleverest thing I have even seen, so I will keep trying to find that functionality.

Anyway, thanks again for your help.

 

[Headhurts]

Hi all. Having posed the original question I want to thank everyone for their contributions and feedback what I have discovered (with help from the suggestions some of you have made).

I was always happy the ILS was working properly and as a number of you have said, the HBA does not work in areas where there is any street lighting - even if that lighting is VERY dim - and that is probably the thing which was confusing me initially. Once I got out onto darker roads where there was no street lighting the HBA worked effectively and very quickly. There is also a minimum speed as you have said but that seems to be around 25-30 MPH so that is not really an issue.

So, my HBA is working as designed and I also learned I can override it by switching the light switch off auto.

I haven't quite found the combination of circumstances where I can get the light pattern to "draw a box around the car in front" as some of you have described but maybe I will work that out or maybe my car doesn't have that particular ability. I saw it on an E Class MB lent me and it was the cleverest thing I have even seen, so I will keep trying to find that functionality.

Anyway, thanks again for your help.

The light blocking is an awesome feature and never ceases to amaze me how these lights do this and dance around when driving.

If yours has this facility it would be automatic so long as lights are set to auto and light stalk pushed forward.

Robin

 

[Cleck]

I have the HBA switched on permanently and it works brialliantly. I've experienced the 'boxing' feature, not only for cars I'm following, but also for oncoming vehicles. The high beam doesn't necessarily dip entirely, but sometimes simply blanks the part of the light which would otherwise blind the oncoming driver.

Obviously, I can't know for certain whether anyone has been dazzled by this system, but I do know I've never been flashed and I've even tried it out on a dark country lane near home with the wife driving her car in the same direction and the opposite direction and she said it wasn't dazzling at all.

I have the LED version now, and I had the Xenon version on my previous E-class, and I think both are superb.

 

[Jimbo1959]

I have this intelligent light system, I don't use it for one reason only.
You can't switch the dipped lights off or leave just side lights on while parked at the side of the road, if the system is set to operate. While it's not so bad when you are parked on the correct side, occasionally you have to park when facing oncoming traffic and consideration for others is something I like to practice. (It's one of my pet hates, when I see someone parked with their dipped beam on in the face of oncoming traffic, so dangerous too as, the light beam pattern is such, that you cannot see any pedestrians around the guilty parties car, very stupid thing to do, imho).
The only way to get the lights off in my Merc in this situation is to switch off the ignition, which is not always an option, imho.
Consequently, I have my lights on the manual setup, which gives you total control in every situation.

 

[LostKiwi]

I have this intelligent light system, I don't use it for one reason only.
You can't switch the dipped lights off or leave just side lights on while parked at the side of the road, if the system is set to operate. While it's not so bad when you are parked on the correct side, occasionally you have to park when facing oncoming traffic and consideration for others is something I like to practice. (It's one of my pet hates, when I see someone parked with their dipped beam on in the face of oncoming traffic, so dangerous too as, the light beam pattern is such, that you cannot see any pedestrians around the guilty parties car, very stupid thing to do, imho).
The only way to get the lights off in my Merc in this situation is to switch off the ignition, which is not always an option, imho.
Consequently, I have my lights on the manual setup, which gives you total control in every situation.

You aren't supposed to park on the wrong side of the road between the hours of darkness.

 

[Jimbo1959]

You aren't supposed to park on the wrong side of the road between the hours of darkness.

I know Alistair, but it's amazing the amount of diddies that don't seem to be aware of it. My main place of concern is at my lads work which is out in the countryside and parking can be a bit haphazard especially when they're busy.I've lost count of the amount of fools I've seen parked on the wrong side of the road with their dipped beam on there, it really cheeses me off. I'm getting too old for the boxing match that a polite request that they turn them off quickly degenerates into. (Youngsters these days have no bl**dy manners!).

 

[ajlsl600]

Yes youuu diiid


There is a lot of tech for tech sake around but, I'm pro anything that will make the road safer for me (meaning make other drivers safer on the road). However a lot of it can be quite distracting for drivers (e.g. my wife never uses cruise control because "it's too complicated" )

whats simpler to maintain and use than a decent headlight bulb and a stalk with a ball/spring and 2 poles to get hi and lo beam . another black box ,costing £? to fix,more likely replace when it goes wrong aint my idea of an answer.. i am 60 plus and now use glasses and still seem to manage with no known difficulty. perhaps a contributory factor would be that i am not tearing about the countryside at night ? with all this "stuff" now on our cars perhaps it would be just as beneficial to make cars that cant exceed 50 mph after dark, cant see a lot of support for that!!! more likely indignant outrage.. ,even from me , but overall it may have the same safety result as lights that see round corners, auto dip and "box" in the car in front. . everyone to their own

 

[A.J.]

I have this intelligent light system, I don't use it for one reason only.
You can't switch the dipped lights off or leave just side lights on while parked at the side of the road, if the system is set to operate. While it's not so bad when you are parked on the correct side, occasionally you have to park when facing oncoming traffic and consideration for others is something I like to practice. (It's one of my pet hates, when I see someone parked with their dipped beam on in the face of oncoming traffic, so dangerous too as, the light beam pattern is such, that you cannot see any pedestrians around the guilty parties car, very stupid thing to do, imho).
The only way to get the lights off in my Merc in this situation is to switch off the ignition, which is not always an option, imho.
Consequently, I have my lights on the manual setup, which gives you total control in every situation.

Each to their own Jim. I leave mine on Auto everything, just makes life a little easier and lights come on at the right time rather than you forget them

 

[rorywquin]

I have this intelligent light system, I don't use it for one reason only.
You can't switch the dipped lights off or leave just side lights on while parked at the side of the road, if the system is set to operate. While it's not so bad when you are parked on the correct side, occasionally you have to park when facing oncoming traffic and consideration for others is something I like to practice. (It's one of my pet hates, when I see someone parked with their dipped beam on in the face of oncoming traffic, so dangerous too as, the light beam pattern is such, that you cannot see any pedestrians around the guilty parties car, very stupid thing to do, imho).
The only way to get the lights off in my Merc in this situation is to switch off the ignition, which is not always an option, imho.
Consequently, I have my lights on the manual setup, which gives you total control in every situation.

Spurious reasoning.

My car and my wife's car (and I'm sure yours as well - been on MBs for a long time) have a 'P' position on the light switch....Select P and push the indicator to the side you want parking lights - Ignition off - why wouldn't you use this?

If you are parked then you should be able to turn off your ignition 'most' of the time......seems to me you are 'cutting off your nose to spite your face' as you would benefit from your ILS more (in your general daily driving) than the 'inconvenience' that you have for the times when you are parked facing oncoming traffic (which is apparently illegal at night) and don't want to turn your engine off.

 

[rorywquin]

whats simpler to maintain and use than a decent headlight bulb and a stalk with a ball/spring and 2 poles to get hi and lo beam . another black box ,costing £? to fix,more likely replace when it goes wrong aint my idea of an answer.. i am 60 plus and now use glasses and still seem to manage with no known difficulty. perhaps a contributory factor would be that i am not tearing about the countryside at night ? with all this "stuff" now on our cars perhaps it would be just as beneficial to make cars that cant exceed 50 mph after dark, cant see a lot of support for that!!! more likely indignant outrage.. ,even from me , but overall it may have the same safety result as lights that see round corners, auto dip and "box" in the car in front. . everyone to their own

Perhaps you should drive a car with ILS and see the difference!

The world has moved on from manual gearboxes without synchromesh, high beam switch on the floor, b&w tv's with no remote and manual washing machines with mangles. And yes, I'm old enough to remember those things - closer to 70 than I'd like to be.