Adaptive headlights

[nealeb]

Anyone have the adaptive headlights, either xenon or LED? I'm interested in comments about how much better or otherwise they are compared to the "standard" xenon lights. I read in the brochure about steering lights around corners, some kind of kerb light for low-speed manoeuvring, and so on, but I'm not clear exactly what they do or how well they do it. I think that the LED headlights might have even more "clever" features but I'm not sure how many cars there are on the road with these fitted.

As an aside, I find it interesting that you see more discussion about cosmetic features like how many spokes your wheels have than about "functional" items. Takes all sorts - I'm more concerned about seeing that corner coming up than what I look like going round it!

[dropkickwalker]

Not really answering your question, but the standard S-Line LED and Xenon lights are amazing! The road is lit up with SO MUCH white light, it's hard to see how it could be improved...

[shabazmo]

I have xenon without adaptive lights and wish I had orderred adaptive lights or high beam assist. The problem is the continuous dipping of headlights because the light beam stops suddenly and full beam is required on most country roads. I hope this info helps

[nealeb]

I'm inclined to agree based on what I have seen on various You-Tube clips with demos of the system. They concentrate more on the adaptive bit, which seems to be about steering based on nav system predictions of road shape and looks a bit like black magic! But the high-beam assist bit should be useful as well; coming home on country roads in the dark this evening full beam was great (on the straight bits!) when no-one else was around but as soon as you go to dip the sharp cut-off means that a lot of the road goes dark. I think that the LED headlights go one stage further and shape the light to suit either oncoming or same-side-but-in-front traffic; the idea seems to be to put out light everywhere except where there is someone else already. In any case, having a machine to dip them more quickly than I can react when someone pops up in front would be well-received by anyone coming towards me

[nealeb]

As I mentioned in another thread, I had originally ordered adaptive Xenon but was delivered a car with the standard Xenon. As a result, I ended up test-driving the adaptive Xenon lights last night on another demo car from the dealer, and I probably spent around 90mins driving around in the dark to try them out under various conditions.

Overall conclusion is that the standard Xenon headlights are very, very good at illuminating the road, and I have never driven at night with so much light laid down in front of me. However, that is also their disadvantage. The cut-off when you go to dip, which you get a bit paranoid about in order not to dazzle other drivers, is extremely sharp. Once dipped, there's plenty of light just in front of you but in place of the "leakage" of light you get from conventional halogen bulbs there is just darkness beyond that, so there's a dark stretch between you and the lit area in front of the oncoming car. I think that this is what Shabazmo has found with his lights. The high-beam assist lights, though, are continuously dipped from main to full dip based on what the camera on the rear mirror mount sees ahead. Whether you are following a car and its taillights are picked up by the camera, or a car coming towards you, or even (almost always but it can get caught out) a car waiting to pull out from a side road, the lights are progressively dipped so that they are not quite dazzling the other driver. It keeps as much light on the road as possible, and it does work pretty well.

The test car also had the full adaptive "steer round corners" lighting, and while it's very difficult to actually see this working, on fast-ish winding country roads there always seemed to be light on the road, even when the road curved. It was good. There is a YouTube clip taken by an American TT driver where you can actually see the beams swinging from side to side but I think that he chose a particular type of road (plenty of bends on a fast road but with wide verges which show the beam movement more clearly than hedges). I've actually gone for the LED headlights which have even more sophisticated beam shaping. According to a diagram I found on the Audi website these will actually use different dip patterns on each side of the car so that the offside dips to avoid dazzling an on-coming driver while the nearside stays higher to illuminate the edge of the road. We'll see just how well this works when the car arrives but I can believe that having a bunch of separate light sources in the LED assemblies allows more flexibility than the single light source in the Xenons.

I also noticed the "junction lights" come on - as you slow on approach to a junction you get almost sideways-pointing lights to show up the corner. Not quite convinced about this one but it might be useful. Didn't have a chance to take the car to France either to test the "work out which way to dip" function driven by the nav system

Overall, though, if you are getting Xenon (as an extra or with the S-line as standard) I would suggest that you try to get a go at the high-beam assist as a minimum and maybe the adaptive lights as well before you commit. You can easily compare it with the manual-dip version as this is still possible even with high-beam assist fitted (just use the standard headlight position on the light switch rather than auto, or disable in the MMI). Do it quick 'cos it will be more difficult to get a good test come the summer months and ligher evenings!

[auto union]

Have them on our Q7 and am a big fan especially as we are in the countryside with no street lights and winding lanes. The Q7 and A8 also have additional lights which operate when more lock is used shining at almost right angles as well as the main headlights moving with the steering.

[nealeb]

Coming home tonight in my non-adaptive headlights A6, I realised how much better the adaptive lights were when I tested them the other day. The A6 with adaptive lights also has the "sideways" lights that auto union mentions, although I couldn't figure out exactly the conditions under which they came on

[f33nix]

For a VW Passat - But should be for the Audi too.

They operate below 40mph, above 40mph they become static.
The extra cornering light comes on below 25mph only and when you are indicating left or right then it lightens up the correct side only.
Also if you are below 25mph and you are turning bends.

I find also when I stop both sides will come on to illuminate the paths.


Correct me if I am wrong but high beam assist was to slow the shutter down when it flips from high to dipped on bi-xenon so that you get a gradual reduction in light and not as shabazmo describes where you go from very bright to what seems like very dark and with sharp cut-off.

I do have a PDF on my NAS drive (offline at moment) and if you wish I can upload for you to see.
The doc contains no trade secrets it is just like a brochure but explains things better.

[auto union]

Our Q7 (2012 Model Year) works above 40mph with full or dipped headlights (Audi state that these start working from approx 12mph) and the additional "sideways" lights come on when (and only when) a certain amount of steering lock is applied and work at speeds of 25mph or less. The lights do need to be set to "Auto" for them to work in adaptive mode.

[nealeb]

In my experience, the high-beam assist doesn't change the amount of light or soften the cutoff between light and dark; it is able to move the shutter gradually and in a controlled way so that the beam progressively lowers as a car approaches. This avoids the all-or-nothing effect of manual switching between main and dip. Seems to work pretty well. It's more than just slowing down shutter movement; for example, if you are following a car and its taillights trigger the assist mechanism, the lights will start to dip just enough not to dazzle the driver in front and as you get closer or further away, the beam height will adjust accordingly. I'm not entirely clear if this is black magic or a pair of trained imps behind the lights heaving away on a couple of levers...

As for speed and adaptive lights - they seemed to be working in my test car at any speed, certainly not restricted to under 40. The cornering lights also came on when I was not indicating, but only at lowish speed. I wasn't really studying them too closely, though, just aware that every so often the area to either side at the front was suddenly brighter!

Just confirmed the spec for my replacement car this morning which will have LED headlights. I'm hoping that these will be like the adaptive Xenon but even better. By the time it arrives, though, the evenings will be starting to get lighter