{"id":6172,"date":"2015-09-15T06:34:41","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T20:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.privatefleet.com.au\/?p=6172"},"modified":"2020-06-20T01:02:34","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T15:02:34","slug":"thoughts-on-auto-dipping-headlights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/safety-2\/thoughts-on-auto-dipping-headlights\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts On Auto-Dipping Headlights"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"headlight-types-and-functions_auto-headlights-at-night-02_02\"<\/a>We\u2019ve had automatic dusk-sensing headlights.\u00a0 We\u2019ve had cornering headlights and auto-levelling headlights. Now the latest in active safety for headlights is being seen in a number of new models: automatic dipping headlights.<\/p>\n

In a way, automatically dipping headlights use the same sort of light sensing technology as dusk-sensing headlights. However, instead of realising that there aren\u2019t enough photons hitting the sensors so the lights come on, this technology realises that all of a sudden there are far too many photons coming in so those high-beam headlights had better dip pronto so the oncoming driver doesn\u2019t get dazzled.<\/p>\n

Half of me thinks that this is a great idea. Haven\u2019t we all had experiences when an oncoming driver doesn\u2019t dip his or her headlights until the last minute, leaving you blinking and frantically trying to regain your night vision? (Safety hint: pull over if you can until you\u2019re no longer dazzled). It\u2019s always a bit of a puzzle as to what to do: do you flicker your lights between dipped and full to let the driver know that he\/she needs to dip in return \u2013 and run the risk of having two dazzled drivers driving at speed in opposite directions with all the risks involved in that \u2013 or whether you just grit your teeth and mutter something along the lines of \u201cstupid idiot\u201d, to put it mildly. Sometimes, you ARE that driver who forgets to dip the lights. There\u2019s also the situation where one or both of you decide to take the headlights off dip just a fraction of a second too early, giving the oncoming driver the full blast of your headlights on full (no joke with some of those very bright modern headlights).\u00a0 Auto dipping headlights would certainly get rid of this problem.<\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s another part of me that doesn\u2019t like this idea.\u00a0 This part of me kind of likes deciding when to dip the lights as an oncoming driver approaches.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of like playing chicken legally and safely \u2013 who\u2019s going to be the first to dip the lights?\u00a0 There have been a few incidents during long night-time drives on those road trips to the relatives who live a long, long way off that deciding when to dip the headlights has been the main way to keep the driver (and the passengers) alert, as it breaks up the monotony of night-time driving.\u00a0 If it hadn\u2019t been for the shall-we-dip-yet-or-shall-we-wait decision, the risk of nodding off with the hypnotic effect of white lines and reflectors flicking past repetitively would have been a lot higher. This part of me thinks that this \u201csafety feature\u201d to keep you awake, focussed and alert outweighs the risk of a bit of dazzling.<\/p>\n

I also have a host of questions. Do these headlights have a manual override so you can dip the headlights if you want to, like when you\u2019re part of a funeral cortege? Do they dip automatically when you get to a built-up area? Do they pick up cyclists, motorbikes and those cars that only have one working headlight? You never get to test-drive new cars at night (even car salespeople need to sleep sometimes), so how do you test this out?<\/p>\n

What do other people think about the prospect of auto-dimming headlights? Love them or hate them?<\/p>\n

Safe and happy driving at all times of day,<\/p>\n

Megan http:\/\/credit-n.ru\/offers-zaim\/vashi-dengi-zaim.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve had automatic dusk-sensing headlights.\u00a0 We\u2019ve had cornering headlights and auto-levelling headlights. Now the latest in active safety for headlights is being seen in a number of new models: automatic dipping headlights. In a way, automatically dipping headlights use the same sort of light sensing technology as dusk-sensing headlights. However, instead of realising that there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-safety-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6172"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11651,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6172\/revisions\/11651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}