I bet Craig says they're wrong ....

[Craiglxviii]

and look what happens when sbc gives up .as i understand it . NO brakes.! i stand to be corrected? on the aviation front ,i do believe their failsafes are pretty good ,but remmbe quantas a380 a small lump of fan blade pretty much screwed everything electronic,electrical in one wing .

The original application of SBC would drop to limited braking performance once the pump had life- expired. That was rectified in 2006. Say again, the new system is in MB’s whole fleet and I’m not hearing of widespread brake system failures...

The Quantas A380 incident was a piece of turbine vane segment doing around 35,000rpm explosively exiting the casing at a tangential velocity somewhere close to light speed. Slight exaggeration but it was doing somewhere in the anti- tank gun projectile range, kilometres per second. It took out the main databus for that wing but the aircraft was landed safely, because there was enough redundant data carrying capacity left for commands to be passed to other control surfaces. That’s a recommendation for the safety of the system, not a castigation of it. I can remember something similar happening to an L188 Electra (all fly by Bowden cable, mandraulic) where a similar issue happened- a prop blade detached and struck the fuselage underside. That severed the primary control cables and bent the longerons around the secondary cables. The pilot was able to land after discovering that his continued efforts had sawn the Bowden cables halfway through the buckled fuselage metal trapping them.

 

[C350Carl]

Maybe the solution is for new cars to come with a few hundred sets of polarised sunglasses. Then when someone complains they can give them a set to wear.....

As with anything people will ALWAYS complain, half of which will be jumping on the band wagon rather than actually having experienced a/the problem.

It was the same with DRL's. When they started to become more common place drivers were allegedly being dazzled by them in the daytime (the words bull and sh!t spring to mind).

I've seen some reports recently of new light tech on cars being banned. But I think it was only Audi's fancy Matrix Laser system and only in the US.

For me having seen a lot of the high end cars with these new systems over here (Audi, Merc and BMW) I've never been dazzled by any of them and the glare from the roads over here is horrendous in comparison to the UK.

 

[Craiglxviii]

If the article was from Lightmare then he’s a crank. (And a chopper to boot).

The US regulatory authorities are trying to reduce headlamp light intensity due to glare. I’ve not seen their fact and data to support the direction however.

 

[C350Carl]

This wasn't the original article I read. But came up from a quick google search.

https://www.wired.com/2017/01/bad-audis-swanky-new-headlights-arent-allowed-us/

 

[Craiglxviii]

This wasn't the original article I read. But came up from a quick google search.

https://www.wired.com/2017/01/bad-audis-swanky-new-headlights-arent-allowed-us/

This says a lot more about how mired in the 70s* US automotive lighting regulation is than the potential effects of the lamps on other drivers.

(*The 1870s. )

 

[C350Carl]

This is enough to make me want to buy an A7!

 

[Craiglxviii]

The system MB are bringing in is better. I’ve been drooling over it for months.

 

[C350Carl]

The system MB are bringing in is better. I’ve been drooling over it for months.

It will be a prohibitively expensive option though no doubt!

Audi have a similar system in mind to the Mercedes one you're talking about. http://www.audi.com/en/innovation/design/light_years_ahead.html

 

[Craiglxviii]

It will be a prohibitively expensive option though no doubt!

Audi have a similar system in mind to the Mercedes one you're talking about. http://www.audi.com/en/innovation/design/light_years_ahead.html

To be specific, the system is neither Audi or MB but Osram’s in a Valeo application... it’s based on a setup called SMARTRIX which is a smart matrix- geddit?- of 1024 LEDs in the upcoming EVIYOS revision, each of which is individually addressable. The unit has a beam pattern capable of 0.2 degree resolution and has no moving parts.

 

[M80]

Carl as impressive as the A7 advert is it isn't real life,
there were orange things front and back that kept flashing before the vehicle changed direction, that just doesn't happen with an Audi.

On saying that I now see quite a few cars that have lovely little cute indicators that are invisible when used. Their own lights disguise them at night and some extra sunlight does the same during the day.

Back to over bright headlighting, and yep I have believed for a long time things have gone too far.
I drive on unlit rural roads regularly, that often are very narrow and sometimes only have width enough for one.
When narrow, and I'm travelling at 30+ the new oncoming lights can cause me to lose sight of the n/s edging, resulting in my using their headlights as my extreme o/s guide, clearly there are risks there especially if the oncoming is cyclops. Knowing the roads I know when to stop if approached by another when only wide enough for one, an unfamiliar driver might leave the stopping too late.
I sit high in the Viano for those in go cart sport cars I can only imagine how much worse it must be.

Then the argument that the likes of I (if I had HID's, which I haven't) and 4x4's being worse as they are higher I believe can be countered. A higher light can angle down to a greater degree to still illuminate the road ahead, they only become a nuisance when close up. To clarify that point and back to the go cart if the lights are angled down the driver sees very little distance in front so his angle must be more horizontal for the drivers own safety, so worse for the oncoming traffic.

 

[C350Carl]

Carl as impressive as the A7 advert is it isn't real life,
there were orange things front and back that kept flashing before the vehicle changed direction, that just doesn't happen with an Audi.

That's BMW as they're optional extras and the option is believed to be hidden in the small print somewhere. No one has found it yet to confirm! Audi, they are fitted as standard. It's just the bellend drivers that don't use them.

 

[LostKiwi]

I sit high in the Viano for those in go cart sport cars I can only imagine how much worse it must be.

I won't drive my Smart Roadster in winter for that very reason. Wet roads are a nightmare for reflected light.

Then the argument that the likes of I (if I had HID's, which I haven't) and 4x4's being worse as they are higher I believe can be countered. A higher light can angle down to a greater degree to still illuminate the road ahead, they only become a nuisance when close up.

And that is part of UNECE regs from memory. Once the height of the centre of the headlight exceeds a certain amount above the road the cutoff on the beam needs to be angled down by an extra percent or two.

 

[Craiglxviii]

And that is part of UNECE regs from memory. Once the height of the centre of the headlight exceeds a certain amount above the road the cutoff on the beam needs to be angled down by an extra percent or two.

Correct. Beam pattern definition is a function of height above ground and not just a fixed angle regardless.

 

[Botus]

funny enough I saw my parents today, they had been reading an article along the lines that the new LEDs fitted to the latest cars with be made illegal very soon

they only read the times and the telegraph

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-ne...zzling-car-headlights-under-government-review

 

[M80]

Being an out of touch and an ill educated pleb I had never considered that we were paying the UN, as well as others, to consider the 'world harmonizarion of vehicle regulations'.

So after Westiminster have done their bit, then Brussels, we go to a peace keeping organisation in New York to see if they agree.

Delete if considered to be political.

 

[Craiglxviii]

they only read the times and the telegraph

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-ne...zzling-car-headlights-under-government-review

That article says that car headlamps are under review of a UN working party. (It also conflates “the survey sample set” with “the entire driving population of the U.K.” too so I’m wary about drawing conclusions based on its accuracy).

They’ve ALWAYS been under review of a UN working party since UNECE was introduced.

I’ll reiterate. The brightest car headlamps are now less bright than they were 15 years ago by a factor of 30%. We just control beam shaping better nowadays.

That article is a space filler. There are similar working parties on everything from window regulators to emblems to energy absorbers.

 

[Craiglxviii]

Being an out of touch and an ill educated pleb I had never considered that we were paying the UN, as well as others, to consider the 'world harmonizarion of vehicle regulations'.

So after Westiminster have done their bit, then Brussels, we go to a peace keeping organisation in New York to see if they agree.

Delete if considered to be political.

The UN does way, way more in terms of regulations harmonisation and the like (stuff that’s good and works) than it does in peacekeeping g (which usually fails).