Lights

[integrale_evo]

Yes it’s been around for ages, and yes it’s often crap, humans can see the glow of oncoming lights around a corner and dip before even seeing the car. Auto dip lights need to see the bright light itself before they dip so there’s a good chance the oncoming driver has already had a does of full beam before it does it.

I really don’t like modern led lights at all, all the clever masking and moving about just doesn’t work properly in the real world with lots of traffic, they seem to have weird bright sports and aiming. Just because it’s not aimed at you at that moment you can still see a harsh bright light source.

[Matty]

For me, automation in cars (lights, gearboxes, wipers etc) is making people lazy and inconsiderate and seems to be (source: trust me bro) the reason no fucker indicates any more.

We need to bring back mandatory re-testing ever 5-10 years. Geniunely struggle to understand why I need to constantly repeat various health and safety standards at work every 12 months but I can pass my test at 17 and drive a 2-ton weapon around for the next 50 completely unchallenged.

[Jobbo]

Auto main beam is something I’ve tried then turned off in every car I’ve had it - first was my F11 5-series. That was probably the best implementation in fact. But they’ve all been really slow to turn the main beams back on, and turned them off below about 30mph. I live a mile down a country lane which is pitch black; I tend not to exceed 30 on the way out of the village but want full beams on.

Matrix lights work better, in my experience, bur basic on/off auto main beam never works well.

[Mito Man]

For me, automation in cars (lights, gearboxes, wipers etc) is making people lazy and inconsiderate and seems to be (source: trust me bro) the reason no fucker indicates any more.

We need to bring back mandatory re-testing ever 5-10 years. Geniunely struggle to understand why I need to constantly repeat various health and safety standards at work every 12 months but I can pass my test at 17 and drive a 2-ton weapon around for the next 50 completely unchallenged.

I agree with the first paragraph although I think the mandatory retesting stuff is pointless. Driving standards are shit because people are lazy and on their phones or distracted or on drugs which isn’t solved by more driving tests.
In the pursuit of making cars more automated, isolated and easier to drive you have people who are getting more bored and thus finding ways to entertain themselves but we’re still years away from autonomous cars.
so it’s this shitty crossover phase with smart but stupid cars and stupid and distracted drivers.

[Jimmy Choo]

I've got a set of yellow tinted clip on glasses which seems to help but I do look like a total berk wearing them.

viewtopic.php?p=175462

As stated on that thread - I don't find them beneficial in full darkness as any reduction in glare is offset by a reduction in overall brightness.... which I don't want at night.

I thought I had mentioned it somewhere.

[Ascender]

People keep telling me they auto dip and do it all magically so they don't affect oncoming traffic, I call bollocks on that.

Mrs Mik's E-Tron has the Matrix LED lights that do the "make black hole around other cars" shizzle. Best headlights on any car I have ever driven.

They do occasionally get befuddled though and momentarily light up something (ie another car) that you didn't want lit up - and they are feckin bright - so you often then receive a return of their full beams.

I went for the laser lights on the M3 and they're the best lights I've ever used by a country mile. They do all that fancy stuff - weird when you see it adjusting at night like eyeballs moving around to make sure they're illuminating what they want. It's also the first set of automatic lights that always work and I've yet to have someone coming the other way flash their lights at me because they've adjusted too slowly or are misaligned.

I think the biggest pain for me is the height of new cars as everyone wants a jacked-up mini-SUV, so that with bright lights mean I'm forever being blinded by cars coming the other direction or sitting too close behind.

[integrale_evo]

Now making this evenings news. 8/10 people find them too bright.

I heard it on the radio earlier but googling couldn’t find any recent stories to link to. New seems itv have picked it up.