The Prius Experiment

[freebeard]

I drove a car that had a little joystick on the inside of the door so you could do just that.

Lifted trucks at a stop light.

[redpoint5]

I didn't suggest rear facing lights, I suggested mirrors that direct the light back to the source. There's no illegal way to adjust side mirrors.

This is the best solution because it accomplishes 2 things with a single action:
1. Unblinds the driver who is being assaulted with illegal lighting from those behind
2. Informs those behind of their inappropriate lighting

[ps2fixer]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I want to invent side mirrors that detect when high beams are blinding the driver, calculate the angle needed to send the light back to the source, then move the mirrors to accomplish that. Would at least get the bozos to back off or pass. All of that should be relatively easy. The hardest part would be adding position sensors to the mirrors.

When I was in Miami, an Acura or Lexus was a poor man's ride, with exotic vehicles seen at every street corner. In Oregon, if you see a Lambo, you point and say "there's a Lambo". I'd see a Lambo or Ferrari every minute in Miami.

Crazy they'd own such expensive vehicles given how poorly people drive around there. I wouldn't take a nice car out in urban environments anyhow, because going fast between lights is pointless and the chance of some idiot damaging the car is high. Backcountry roads is where those vehicles belong.

Here's an idea to make it happen, look up how solar trackers work for solar panels, it's basically a hole with light sensors for the "spot" to be detected which direction is needed to be lined up. Should be a fairly simple thing to do with a stock mirror if you can control the mirror motors with a micro controller. Have a button you press and it hones in, press it again and it goes back to your preset location (assuming motors in good health).

I've been behind my dad before and he adjusts his mirror way to the side because of the bright light problems, with just dim lights on it was super annoying and pretty bright flashes on the bumps so I think it would be pretty effective as long as the mirrors are kept clean.

[redpoint5]

Properly adjusted projector lights have a sharp cutoff that will not blind drivers ahead. Problem is that differences in load will misalign the lights, which I assume is why some cars have self leveling lights.

Reflector bulbs tend to scatter light everywhere, so some blinding of drivers ahead will occur.

Speaking of all this, I probably need to lower the projectors slightly on the Mazda since I never adjusted them after installing the hitch.

[ps2fixer]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Properly adjusted projector lights have a sharp cutoff that will not blind drivers ahead. Problem is that differences in load will misalign the lights, which I assume is why some cars have self leveling lights.

Reflector bulbs tend to scatter light everywhere, so some blinding of drivers ahead will occur.

Speaking of all this, I probably need to lower the projectors slightly on the Mazda since I never adjusted them after installing the hitch.

I'll take any car from the 90's and older over any projector modern car ahead of me. That small scatter of light isn't blinding, that hard cutoff blinding that flashes you the brights on every bump is the worst design possible, it isn't just overly bright for oncoming traffic, but the line goes above and below oncoming traffic on bumps. It's also extremely bad on corners.

There's cars in my area that are older that are runing around with the brights on all the time because the newer vehicles are so blinding. Those vehicle's lights are generally dimmer appearing than the dim's on the newer vehicles when they hit a bump and the sharp line of light hits your eyes.

In a perfect world under perfect conditions, projector style headlights can be amazing, but we don't live in a perfect world... I'm in Michigan where hills and sharp corners aren't super common, and it's still a big problem here. Can almost always tell it's a newer car because the lights are the ultra white color which makes the glare problems worse.

There really needs to be better tech to combat the bright headlight issues. One idea I had was to basically make the whole windshield a screen, and with some cameras (IR probably), or some sort of laser based, work out the driver's location exactly and darken the area on the "screen" where the headlights shine through, same for the rear window. It's pretty sad when a newer car comes up behind me and the lights are so blinding there's 2 shadows in the shape of my car with my brights on and the vehicle behind me is on dims, the whole inside of the car is lit up too, doesn't help with visibility for other drivers that's for sure.

This issue makes me want to buy the brightest DOT approved lights so I can see down the road and screw the person with the newer vehicle that's blinding me. Running lights/Fog lights too, there's some people with 4-6 lights on the front of their vehicle always on at night.

I know everyone has their own opinion, but my take is, the newer lights are dangerous for other drivers unless you're on a perfectly flat and straight road. If I can't see the white line on my side of the road past the vehicle coming at me (when close enough), the lights are too bright.

[Blacktree]

I made a quick video with the pizza pan wheel cover results.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=903bNcieikY

Also, I decided to change up the video format. Up until now, I've been using a format where I install a mod in one video, then make another video later with the results. That format isn't working very well. So from now on, the mod and the results will be in the same video. Of course, that means I have to wait for the results to make the video. But if you're following this thread, you'll get that info before it hits youtube. Hopefully that will clear up some confusion.

[Blacktree]

Well, it finally happened. Last night I was driving on a back road, and hit a gnarly patch of pavement. Two of my wheel covers went flying (left front and right rear). I was able to recover them both, but one of them is broken beyond repair.



The one on the right went into a ditch, and I had to fish it out. The one on the left went off into the woods. Walking along a dark road at night, searching for car parts, wasn't exactly my idea of fun.

I was originally going to bolt the pizza pans to the wheels, but changed my mind because attaching them to the trim rings was "less permanent". But the wheel covers have proven to be effective. So the next step will be to bolt them to the wheels, like I originally planned.

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by ps2fixer

There really needs to be better tech to combat the bright headlight issues.

Adaptive headlights are the new thing.

Old car headlights were all the same — which was a fairly bright idea ?t=836

But, with their trademark timeliness, there’s actually good news on the glare front.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has approved for the first time
adaptive beam technology which can selectively dim portions of the driving beam,
blocking out small regions to reduce glare for other drivers while maintaining high illumination for you everywhere else.
It’s basically like if your headlights were high resolution projectors and a camera says
“ooh! there’s a car there, block out that part” but everything else stays bright!
So it’s like you have your high beams on all the time but other drivers don’t even know it!
That amazing tech has been on the European market since 2009.
But it took thirteen years to get approved here.

[hayden55]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I didn't suggest rear facing lights, I suggested mirrors that direct the light back to the source. There's no illegal way to adjust side mirrors.

This is the best solution because it accomplishes 2 things with a single action:
1. Unblinds the driver who is being assaulted with illegal lighting from those behind
2. Informs those behind of their inappropriate lighting

I just use the finger that god gave me. Use your imagination on how polite i am. Half the time its like an 09 Honda civic driving around with their bright lights on as often as it is a large truck. lol

My 1999 Lexus ls400 has front and rear ride height sensors for the headlight motors. If only that type of system would've caught on.

[Caddylackn]

I have thought of making a curtain of old CDs or DVDs glued to a piece of sheet that I can just pull a string and it comes down by the back window. Blocking their headlights from blinding me and throwing 100% of their bright lights back at 'em.

No way they won't get the hint.