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I don't think I've seen a picture of the FL headlights at night and I've never really looked at mine when they were on. Now that daylight saving time is over I'm driving in the dark more and today I noticed for the first time the cool honeycomb looking pattern at the top of the headlights. Gives the lights quite a distinctive look. I had to take the pic from a slight angle as not to blind the camera. Just thought I'd share it. BTW, these are the upgraded intelligent LED headlights.
I've noticed more functionality with these lights the more I use them, like lighting up the side when indicating, makes a difference on a dark side road.
Still not convinced of the auto light function, I manually dip most of the time as they won't dip until it sees the other headlights, when as a driver I can clearly see them beyond a corner or hill. Going over the brow of a hill and waiting for auto dip will just give the other driver a momentary full face flash of the beam.
I've noticed more functionality with these lights the more I use them, like lighting up the side when indicating, makes a difference on a dark side road.
Still not convinced of the auto light function, I manually dip most of the time as they won't dip until it sees the other headlights, when as a driver I can clearly see them beyond a corner or hill. Going over the brow of a hill and waiting for auto dip will just give the other driver a momentary full face flash of the beam.
No, the DRL is the solid LED stripe that swoops up. The honeycomb pattern above it is only illuminated with the headlights fully on. Yeah, these lights are pretty cool. They do a little light show when they initialize and the high beams don't come on at once. They turn on in segments. It's most noticeable on a really dark road with the auto high beams on. It's like a light curtain opening in front of the car and if it sees oncoming traffic far enough ahead it starts shortening the beam instead of just turning off the high beams at once. They basically gradually turn off the closer oncoming traffic gets. Yes, it doesn't always see the cars early enough and I've been flashed by semis.
In your case they work differently, because in Europe they turn off parts of the beam to not shine light at oncoming cars. Audi calls it matrix lights. These lights are made up of 80 individual LEDs arranged in a matrix and so they can turn off individual LEDs and shine the light around the oncoming car.
Last edited by superswiss; Nov 11, 2019 at 03:32 AM.
No, the DRL is the solid LED stripe that swoops up. The honeycomb pattern above it is only illuminated with the headlights fully on. Yeah, these lights are pretty cool. They do a little light show when they initialize and the high beams don't come on at once. They turn on in segments. It's most noticeable on a really dark road with the auto high beams on. It's like a light curtain opening in front of the car and if it sees oncoming traffic far enough ahead it starts shortening the beam instead of just turning off the high beams at once. They basically gradually turn off the closer oncoming traffic gets. Yes, it doesn't always see the cars early enough and I've been flashed by semis.
In your case they work differently, because in Europe they turn off parts of the beam to not shine light at oncoming cars. Audi calls it matrix lights. These lights are made up of 80 individual LEDs arranged in a matrix and so they can turn off individual LEDs and shine the light around the oncoming car.
How do they work in the US? They just dip completly?
I was following a car last week and I had the main beam on all around the car in front except for a moving dark patch where the car was, was pretty cool!
How do they work in the US? They just dip completly?
I was following a car last week and I had the main beam on all around the car in front except for a moving dark patch where the car was, was pretty cool!
Yes, essentially they "dip". In the USA cars are required to have separate low and high beams, so the lights simulate it using the 80 LEDs. There aren't actual high and low beams. It just uses the matrix of LEDs to make it look like there are separate low and high beams. But that's also why it can gradually "dip" the high beams instead of just an on/off operation. Yes, what you saw is exactly the matrix style where it "projects" a dark patch over the car in front that moves as the car moves. The department of transportation is supposed to finally revise the headlight regulations here, so we can get the matrix style as well. I'm hoping MB will offer a software update for existing cars to enable it once it is legal. Audi has announced that they will do that on their cars.
No, the DRL is the solid LED stripe that swoops up. The honeycomb pattern above it is only illuminated with the headlights fully on. Yeah, these lights are pretty cool. They do a little light show when they initialize and the high beams don't come on at once. They turn on in segments. It's most noticeable on a really dark road with the auto high beams on. It's like a light curtain opening in front of the car and if it sees oncoming traffic far enough ahead it starts shortening the beam instead of just turning off the high beams at once. They basically gradually turn off the closer oncoming traffic gets. Yes, it doesn't always see the cars early enough and I've been flashed by semis.
In your case they work differently, because in Europe they turn off parts of the beam to not shine light at oncoming cars. Audi calls it matrix lights. These lights are made up of 80 individual LEDs arranged in a matrix and so they can turn off individual LEDs and shine the light around the oncoming car.
I also thought if the “curtain” analogy. That’s just what it’s like. Coolest lights I’ve seen on any car.
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