HID headlamps a safety hazard?

Stigy

Was just watching BBC News and there was a piece on HID (High Intensity Discharge) headlamps, or Xenon as they're also known. Now I've never had an issue with these units as long as they're legally fitted ones and not dodgy import ones. The article went on to say that they dazzle and are a safety issue. I don't get dazzled by them, but can see how they'd make standard halogen units look insignificant and thus not very noticeable. I know that some people find night driving more difficult in the way lights effect them, maybe this is the issue?

What are your thoughts?

Here's the link to the article.

vikingaero

I don't see the problem with HID's mainly because when fitted as standard they have auto levelling and the HID bulb lasts longer than a Halogen bulb. Look at most cars with panda headlights and they are nearly all halogens. Also a significant proportion of halogens are misaligned especially on older vehicles. And how many halogen drivers bother to use the headlight levelling dial (where fitted) when the car is loaded or towing a caravan?

And the BMF? Well most motorbikes have headlights that are more dazzling than car headlights.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

i dont so much have a problem with them they are a great feature to a car, the only car with these fitted as stadard dazzle me are mercs, especially 4x4 types, and the s class the lamps on the s class seem to aim higher.

Lum

They're fine so long as they're aligned properly. I think the real problem is that new cars often don't have their alignment checked for the first 3 years of their life.

So annoying to have a "sporty" Audi behind you on the motorway with it's rock hard suspension causing the HIDs to bounce up and down and flash in your mirrors, especially since if the beam cut off is right on your mirrors then as they bounce the colour will flash blue/yellow/white.

Only seems to be Audis with that issue, BMWs are fine.

Mankysteve

One way to sort this would be to require all new cars, new windscreen and headlamps to be polarised, with the windscreens being 90odegrees to headlamps, It will take a few years for the full benefits to be realised, but it would dramatically reduce glare for many vehicles.

victor2

Hands up those who remember when halogen lights first became popular. Similar problems with them being so bright, but they came anyway and we accepted them.
Properly configured HID lights with auto levelling make night driving much safer for the driver and don't create a hazard for other drivers. Badly aligned headlights are a menace, the more so if they are HID.
Doubtless we'll see more and more of them and they'll eventually make halogen lights obsolete.

Lum

Mankysteve wrote: »

One way to sort this would be to require all new cars, new windscreen and headlamps to be polarised, with the windscreens being 90odegrees to headlamps, It will take a few years for the full benefits to be realised, but it would dramatically reduce glare for many vehicles.

So your solution is to make car headlights invisible to other drivers?

You'd also have to mandate a return to old-fashioned large sidelights instead of the stupid tiny piercing bulbs that modern cars have. Though I guess the modern daytime-running fairy-lights would also work.

ElkyElky

The HID headlamps are a major problem for me and no doubt millions of other people with eye problems. I'm all for bright headlamps but some are extremely bright, I find it more comfortable looking at the sun than I do some of the HIDs out there.

My eyes react badly to bright lights after they've adjusted to darkness so passing a car with HIDs on the motorway is literally torture for me and renders me blind until it passes (you know how you wake up during the night, turn the light on and your eyes go all weird... that's how it is for me looking at those !!!!ing bas!!!! lights).

Mankysteve

Lum wrote: »

So your solution is to make car headlights invisible to other drivers?
As the air would bounce some of the headlight beam around changing the polisation of the light would mean you would still see other car headlight you'd just not the glare. You'd also be able too see the ground there lighting up as well your own head lights

Lum wrote: »

You'd also have to mandate a return to old-fashioned large sidelights instead of the stupid tiny piercing bulbs that modern cars have. Though I guess the modern daytime-running fairy-lights would also work.

Only the outer lens would need polarising. Not the bulb itself.

I must admit its not a perfect system. For instance road signs would be dimmer due to the lack of roation of the light beams and you wouldn't be able to see vehicles head lamps in the distance as well.

Strider590

People always moan and complain about cars looking different to their own, it's jealousy!

A few years ago everyone was moaning about the DRL's fitted to Audi's, now even the worst new cars have them.

Lum

Mankysteve wrote: »

Only the outer lens would need polarising. Not the bulb itself.

I was referring more to the pointlessness of most modern sidelights as they are so small you can hardly see them anyway.