Cool!

That changed this year. Tesla enabled adaptive headlights this spring and I read that Rivian did more recently. Audi is in process but can’t do it with an over the air software update

At least in my state, the annual inspection is supposed to check headlight alignment. However I’ve never heard of anyone getting a fail on that so I doubt they do

Yes adaptive headlights are excellent. It’s finally coming to the US. I believe Tesla and Rivian have them and Audi is in the process.

It is definitely entertaining driving around with them on, watching the dark spot follow oncoming traffic

I’ve also seen referential self-leveling headlights but never paid attention to what those are

Given that many things, including reflectors, reflect light directly back, yes it is beneficial to have the headlights close to the drivers sightline

My Subaru has those and it doesn’t do what you expect. In that case, it’s literally another set of lights synchronized with the steering wheel. There are no moving parts.

I’ve had people come up to me to point out that “only my right foglight is on” thinking I have a burned out bulb. Nope, turning right lights the right side.

I seem to remember from a documentary on the Tucker that the moving parts caused reliability issues

It’s an arms race. People are blinded by the glare of oncoming headlights in their old cars, so search for a way to safely drive their next car.

I was tempted for my older car because it was getting really difficult to drive at night with how dim those headlights were, relative to oncoming glare. I see replacement LED bulbs “for off-road use only” advertised as much brighter. Turns out replacing the bulbs (with new correct ones) and cleaning the windshield made some difference. Enough

I get the conundrum but apply some context here. Diseases of old age are irrelevant to natural selection

And how often do you think people used to die of Alzheimer’s before reproducing?

Diseases of old age are irrelevant to natural selection

And I imagine that’s it. At some point Tesla installed the hardware for adaptive headlights. So maybe a transition around that? Where the lights were brighter but adaptive could not be supported

That’s a lot of work/cost to just find out whether something needs to be done.

Almost makes you want each part to report an id ……. Until you think about vendor locks and surveillance

I found it weird there are about 20,000 vehicles of concern for models that sold millions. I wonder what happened, how are those relative few different?

That being said, they are really bright but now that we finally have the adaptive beams enabled, it seems to make a huge difference