The U.S. government has left headlight regulation mostly untouched for half a century. This means, while Europe experiments and reaps the benefits of matrix LED lighting and so forth, the U.S. is stuck with relatively primitive technology.
The latest headlight study performed by the IIHS found only 1-in-31 new vehicles sold in the U.S. were granted a “good” rating, with the rest spread out between “acceptable”, “marginal”, and “poor.” In particular, four General Motors vehicles were combed from the list, and scored a “poor” rating for their visibility.
The Buick Verano, Cadillac ATS, Chevrolet Malibu and Chevrolet Malibu Limited all scored poor ratings in the study, along with the Hyundai Sonata and Kia Optima, the Mercedes-Benz C-Class and CLA, the Nissan Altima and Volkswagen Passat.
The worst vehicle on the road regarding visibility may surprise, you though. The BMW 3 Series posted the worse performance of them all.
The NHTSA agreed the time has come to update regulations to help create safer visibility standards in U.S. vehicles.
“The ability to see the road ahead, along with any pedestrians, bicyclists or obstacles, is an obvious essential for drivers,” IIHS said. “However, government standards for headlights, based on laboratory tests, allow huge variation in the amount of illumination that headlights provide in actual on-road driving.”
Will we soon be able to experience the grand technology that is matrix LED lighting? We hope so, since Opel has already introduced the system on its affordable Astra K.
Comments
new fl buick encore comes to something full led headlamps but i dont have read this led lamps what comes new encore. idont see enything like this . system seems cheap and easy but i dont know. where i can read this headlamps what encore has
The IIHS is generally full of crap and loves to drive headlines. I find this the case here too.
Most cars today have better head lamps as ever. All are well suited to provide safe driving. In some cases I find some very annoying to be driving into their path.
Now could they be better? Yes if the government would open the door a bit on regulations to where companies could improvement them more and also look to retain cost. So many of the new systems are so expensive should you be in an accident that they can be a problem in repair and insurance cost.
My GMC has projection lights and they do one hell of a good job but I do get flashed often because some think I have my brights on.
The future has got to be balanced with more open regulations, controlling cost and continued improvement. Regulations have held us back. If they cost too much it hurts the repair and too little they turn a fogged yellow like the old Ford headlamps. You need to be able to find that sweet spot that covers all areas.
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Let’s not totally blame government. Toyota, Honda, Mazda and many other car makers managed to choose higher quality head lamps.
“The government made us do it” is a very lame defence.
My Sierra headlamps aren’t the best. I’ve had better luck with non projectors than projector lamps. Go figure. But I agree with this study.
My 2011 Cruze has horrible standard beam light, even with Silverstar bulbs. I’m not sure of the cause since the headlight fixtures are a large, open design.
The high beams look closer to the light output I would expect from standard beams than high beam light. As an experiment, I’ve run the high beams into oncoming traffic a couple times. It was telling that only an occasional driver would flash me. In my Suburban, everyone would flash me for high beams.
I actually had aftermarket HID’s installed (professionally) for a short time but had to remove them because the left side kept going off, even after they tried a replacement set. It was almost like it was a controller, overheating or something. It would come back on after I restarted the car. The light was awesome from the HID’s! Too bad it wasn’t reliable.
Man, don’t experiment with high beams on oncoming drivers – experiment in your garage or in the darkness around your house, please.
It seems that IIHS was focused on low beams, testing these in the darkness at relatively high speed in conditions when there is no external illumination from the road poles or whatever (e.g. a lot of rural roads or e.g. some interstates). Clearly, high beams are the beams to use for these conditions, provided that one does not blind the driver(s) of the oncoming vehicle(s). Just switch high beams on and off appropriately (or some vehicles do this automatically these days).
“The U.S. government has left headlight regulation mostly untouched for half a century.”
So the right side headlight is okay?
Its not just the bulbs that are the issue-its also the shape of the headlight housing, the reflectors, etc. But I have driven various vehicles at night and definitely some could use improvement. IN particular, I drove a 2015 Acadia SLE trim and found that on the highway at night I was overdriving the low beams even though I kept the speed to 90 kmh-100kmh. I think too much testing is done in cityscapes with street lighting or reflecting highway dividers and not enough is done in rural areas.
I call BS on the thought that government is responsible. A proactive company would provide the best alternatives . We don’t want government intervention but then want to blame for not writing more regulations to define auto design. BS.
BTW I am lifelong owner of GM brands beginning with 57 Chev convertible. And now a 14 Buick.
WE own a 2018 buick envision which cost over $40m. The head lights are terrible. Like driving with kerosene lamps.. Sure be nice if GM would come up with an update to protect the owners and others on the highway. We had a 2013 equinox which had great lights.. Thank you.