chikoo

in the midsize category is the Prius - when equipped with the Tech Pkg LED lights

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Toyota Prius v is the only midsize car out of 31 evaluated to earn a good rating in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's first-ever headlight ratings.

The Prius v earns a good rating when equipped with LED lights and high-beam assist. To get those headlights, consumers must purchase the advanced technology package, which is only available on the highest trim level. When equipped with regular halogen lights and without high-beam assist, the Prius v earns a poor rating.

"The Prius v's LED low beams should give a driver traveling straight at 70 mph enough time to identify an obstacle on the right side of the road, where the light is best, and brake to a stop," says Matthew Brumbelow, an IIHS senior research engineer. "In contrast, someone with the halogen lights would need to drive 20 mph slower in order to avoid a crash."

Among the 44 headlight systems earning a poor rating, the halogen lights on the BMW 3 series are the worst [OP note: Good thing I have the Osram Nightbreaker HID on my 3 series]. A driver with those headlights would have to be going 35 mph or slower to stop in time for an obstacle in the travel lane. A better choice for the same car is an LED curve-adaptive system with high-beam assist, a combination that rates marginal.

The best available headlights on 11 cars earn an acceptable rating, while nine only reach a marginal rating. Ten of the vehicles can't be purchased with anything other than poor-rated headlights.

A vehicle's price tag is no guarantee of decent headlights. Many of the poor-rated headlights belong to luxury vehicles.

http://www.iihs.org/iihs/news/deskto...ed-improvement

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

why did they only rating midsize cars?

and their ratings seem just designed to get a good headline.

mmarshall

IMO, though, an even better system is what Cadillac first pioneered with the nighttime infrared cameras. It's based on much the same technology as what the military uses.

Sulu

But this is a computer-generated, head-down display that takes a lot of training to get used to, and to match with reality. Truly effective headlights allow for a natural, head-up driving position, little different from daylight driving.

For enhanced vision (as the infrared system in the Cadillac and MB systems are) to match head-up driving, you need augmented-reality that would overlay the computer-generated image on the real-life display through the windshield.

chikoo

Ah. that would be awesome to have a HD 4K bigscreen TV instead of the windshield

LeX2K

Oh crap I just had a terrifying glimpse of the future. The entire windshield is going to become a high definition display what you see will be computer generated and augmented from the myriad of sensors and cameras. You will see ads when the car is self driving.

RXSF

useless test until the US changes headlight laws that allows us to get the fancy LED high beams that other countries get

bagwell

if you watch the video, at the end he says they plan to test more cars soon.

tex2670

What does this have to do with headlights? Military grade night vision goggles would give a similar image with no light at all.

tex2670

I really wish those Euro anti-dazzle high beams were available here.