safety of projector headlights?

Don't know where you read or heard that; it's not necessarily true. There are good and bad projector headlamps, and good and bad reflector headlamps (and good and bad HID Xenon headlamps, and good and bad tungsten-halogen headlamps). There are headlamps of all types that produce focused beams, and headlamps of all types that produce diffuse beams.

What about it? There are conspicuity requirements in the headlamp regulations in force worldwide such that frontal vehicle conspicuity at night or in bad weather is seldom a real problem, if ever.

Very true.

I cannot imagine where you've been hanging out that you would not by this late date be "used to" the visual signature of projector headlamps, which have been commonplace on roads worldwide for nearly two decades.

It sounds as though you ought to pay better attention.

The odds are good that you *would* want projector headlamps in such a situation, for they can be made so as to produce less upward stray light that bounces off rain, fog and snow and causes backdazzle in bad weather.

They can, depending on optical design.

Not sure what you're trying to say here -- it's not true as written.

No.

Lights play an important role in the well being of our cars. A vehicle without any car light can be dangerous to drive especially at night. It includes the headlights, taillights, corner lights, parking lights, warning lights, side markers lights and so on.

B.J. at

Two pinpricks of light stand out less than two standard thick beams unless they shine right into your eyes, like a laser pointer that only causes pain when it catches you full on. I found a photo that shows what I mean. The parking lights are actually brighter than the mains when seen indirectly.

"Used to" means what I normally see, which is a lot more standard beams. If a car with projector lights is partially hidden or there's congestion it's not as obvious what you're looking at. I've seen auxiliary lights on campers and trucks that look brighter from an angle than projector lights.

Rainstorm. Low visibility. Tiny headlights. Harder to see oncoming cars with them. Harder to see them in normal conditions, too. Not impossible, just not as bright or "fat" from the viewing perspective.

It's the same thing I was describing above with that photo. Standard lights and reflectors create a uniform "fat" area you can see easier in the distance. There is a glare effect that makes the light less directional and the beam looks more robust at the front end of the car. If they made one out of ten STOP signs only half size they'd be harder to see as well.

Kurt

Generic tip noted but already understood.

Kurt

I do notice a lot of projectors blind you when they hit the retina dead center. It can look like the driver has their brights on. But away from 90 degrees they get dimmer and dimmer to the viewer.

Kurt

I think what you're trying to say here is that headlamps that produce a sharp cutoff at the top of their low beam can produce relatively high glare when the car goes over a bump in the road or is pointed upward relative to the horizontal. That is true. But it's not a phenomenon limited to projector lamps.

Here:

That's why the parking lamps are required to remain lit when the headlamps are switched on.

Yep -- there are many auxiliary lights that produce more glare than many headlamps.

What do cheesy, "bling bling", most likely illegal (I take that back- DEFINITELY illegal since it mentions "clear corners"), sub-standard aftermarket headlamps have to do with factory-installed projector headlamps that actually meet lighting standards?

The image is of a Chevrolet pickup truck equipped with illegal, noncompliant aftermarket headlamps...and in this photo, neither the low beams nor the high beams are turned on. The only lights energized in this photo are the sidemarkers and the parking lamps (in phony-BMW "angel eye" form as well as in similar-to-stock form integrated into the turn signal below the headlamps).

I'm afraid this photo does not prove your point.

Around here many people drive new high end SUVs, with the so-called "headlamps that actually meet lighting standards". They are the ultimate MFFY device. One slight dip in the road and they go from a dim light to a blinding one.

I rode in a friend's car with one of these things. I noticed the very sharp line in the pattern, and I felt sorry for anyone approaching us having to deal with it.

I would like to see the damn things banned.

They don't need to be banned, they need to be properly regulated. Right now in North America (only), all headlamps are aimed the same regardless of their mounting height. This means trucks, vans and SUVs with high-mounted lamps have an enormous seeing-distance advantage over cars with low-mounted lamps, and it also means that drivers in cars are intensely glared by high-mounted headlamps.

Outside North America, headlamp aim requirements are linked to lamp mounting height, such that all vehicles have pretty much the same seeing distance and produce pretty much the same (low) level of glare. This is utterly simple and basic; US regulators continue to deride it as yet another dumb idea from the silly non-American rest of the world.

See PDF pages 34-39 (actual page numbers 16-21 of Attachment 3) of

DS

SUV's? I find them far less likely to be FUBAR than car headlamp systems, or at least the fact that the lamps are mounted high can allow them to have more down-angle, thus controlling the weaknesses of the lamps better. The WORST car headlamp system on the road, IMO, is the HID system on the Honda S2000. The lamps are so low that the aim has to be nearly horizontal, with the result that they're always blinding, even for mild road irregularities. (I've read that they're actually lower than the minimum allowable lamp height in some states, but those laws are woefully under-enforced and it may be a rumor)

No, the sharp line is a GOOD thing, provided that they're aimed correctly. It keeps the intense light below the eye level of oncoming traffic. The only thing I can imagine worse than the S2000 headlamp would be the same headlamp height, but with terrible optics in addition so that there is no restraint of upward stray light whatsoever (imagine an early 90s Ford pickup headlamp beam pattern, but with an HID light source!)

They'd only be aimed correctly if they pointed back in the windshield to show how much of a friggin nusiance they are.

I watched the light "line" bobble up and down other car's windshields with every bump in the road - just like I've been on the receiving end of many times before. They are a true hazard.

Then the lights aren't aimed correctly. My properly aimed E-code xenon projector units do not shine into opposing traffic windshields. In fact, the cutoff rarely goes much above the front mounted plate, if that.

Correct aiming is defined as follows:

1. For VOL, the left side of the cutoff should be 2.1 inches below horizontal at 25 feet ahead.

1. For VOR, the right side of the cutoff should be at the same level as the headlamp at 25 feet ahead.

2. For E-code the left side of the cutoff should be 3 inches below horizontal at 25 feet ahead.

Arbitrary definitions might be fine for perfectly level smooth roads, but they fail miserably in hilly, bumpy terrain, as featured here in the Real World (c).

You can't argue with a stump.

The "definitions" (you mean aim specs) aren't arbitrary, as such. They're improper in that the US standards aren't linked to headlamp mounting height (as is required in Europe), and the sharp-cutoff lamps really should be fitted with automatic self-levellers (as is required in Europe but not North America).

The problem isn't the technology -- it's the implementation and (poor) regulation.

Rigs like automatic levelers only cure the symptom IMHO, but they're better than nothing.

Apparently they can see what I'm talking about across the pond. I'd really like to see the damn things go until they're fixed here.

Er...the "symptom" is what you're objecting to. If it's eliminated (and it