It's time to BAN HID's, or make some new laws

[Aharami]

oh. dont have HIDs, but dont feel the need to ban them

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: SVT Cobra

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
I've never, not once, had a problem with factory HID lights. Chances are that it was someone with an older non-HID BMW who put an aftermarket set in.

As for vision, the output of true HID lights is slightly greater in terms of lumens. Color temp has nothing to do with it; they simply put out more lumens. Period. They also manage that at 30-35 watts as opposed to the 55-60 watts of halogen bulbs and manage to last many times longer than traditional halogen bulbs. Properly aligned, they do NOT damage anyone's night vision.

(DISCLAIMER: I do not own a car that has HID lights.)

ZV

We are not talking about the same thing. Sure they have more lumens, but we see best in sunlight. I.E the full spectrum of light. These HID's put out less of the spectrum than conventional bulbs do because of their temperatures.

So it was foggy and you have a problem with someone running foglights?

I suggest you study light and it's effects.

I seriously doubt many HID owners are going out and realigning their headlights.

 

[skace]

fack bright lights, thats all I'm gonna say. Oh yea, and ****** people who take like 6 seconds to lower their highbeams despite the fact that they could have figured it out before coming over the hill.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Love the HiDs on my QX4. They don't emit a blue light though, just a nice pure white. Make a huge difference on dark roads.

 

[Fenixgoon]

sorry, but HID/xenon headlights provide much greater visibility when driving. i wish i could get a set

 

[soydios]

I prefer it if the oncoming car has HIDs, because they don't bleed upwards like halogens.

 

[DivideBYZero]

HIDs WIN!! SVT loses!!

 

[yhelothar]

meh.. I drive a miata that's 5 inches off the ground. Everyone's headlights are in my eyes.
The ones that bug me the most are the people who don't have their headlights properly aligned. That makes a FAR greater difference than having HIDs. Headlamps are only blinding if their shining directly at you.

 

[Sunner]

I drive a Saab 900 normally, but once in a while I borrow one of my parents' cars(Saab 9-5's, one 2003 Aero and one 2006 Biopower), both of those have bi-xenon head lights.
For example today, since my car is in for service, and I flat out refuse to take the bus/train to work
Anyways, I love those lights, they don't light up the whole damn neighborhood, but they sure do light up the road ahead of me much better than normal halogen lights.

I don't mind meeting them either, they don't blind me more or less than anything else really.
Dumbasses with lifted cars, misaligned head lights, etc etc will blind me regardless of what kind of lights they have.

 

[40sTheme]

No; stop making fun of him.
These blind me almost EVERY night I drive, and they are entirely aggravating.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: 40sTheme
No; stop making fun of him.
These blind me almost EVERY night I drive, and they are entirely aggravating.

Have your vision checked.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

HID's are awesome, i love them

the only time i dont love them is......... 3rd party fitted ones, and ones where they have purposefully purchased 8000k or above lamps because really they are more for show than actually being useful.

plus when you 3rd party it up or DIY some HID's then your bound to get it wrong have the alignment all over the shop. OEM HID's have auto self levellers to try make sure you dont dazzle anyone.

also you tend to notice HID's more, not because they are bright, but because they are simply a different colour and stand out from the normal yellow of halogen

OEM HID's are typically 4300K which is pretty close to normal halogens, they use projector lenses to split the light up though and it appears more white/blue than it should.

however i do agree that the high K kits are just useless. i mean blue or if you go 10-12k purple light is just no good for seeing at night, especially in the wet.

also you understanding of auto levelling is just plain wrong.

all auto levelling does is set the level of the lamps when the car is first turned on, based on vehicle load, fuel level etc. driving on bumpy up n down back roads is not the norm for most people, so they dont cater for it. even normal 55w halogens will dazzle you on roads like that when the front of the car is elevated enought to give the oncoming driver an eye full of dipped beam so the problems not limtied to HID's.

autolevelling does not dynamically adjust head lamp level on the fly

Why am I once again ranting about HIDs? Last night I got driven off the road by a moron in a BMW with them installed coming in the opposite direction. It was very foggy, so I was driving ten under the speed limit as it was very neccesary even though I knew the roads well, and this jackass comes along with HID fog lights, regular beams on, not high beams (and why is it that their fog lights are always on??!?!??! ffs, fog lights may look cool but they do not need to be on all the time), and I could not see a thing

i think thats more to do with it being a BMW driver than the HID's, most beemer drivers i encounter are terribly inconsiderate. especially the 3 series drivers, the 318i in particular, these are always riding my bumper on the way home from work. some with X5 drivers.

funnily enough though, 5 series drivers, and M3/M5 drivers seem more civil in their driving.

oh yeah i bet DBZ and RichUk are both inconsiderate bastages behind the wheel of their BM's i bet they'd ride my bumper like no tomorrow the filthy gits.:Q

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: Mojoed

Originally posted by: SVT Cobra
And, all those auto leveling devices do not work.

They do work. I think the real problem is the vast majority of cars out there do not have auto/manual leveling devices installed. Yes, these cars suck, I agree.

According to my cop buddy, enforcing headlamp laws is not something police even want to be bothered with. That's the real issue.

they do work but not as the OP seeming wants them too.... ie dynamically adjusting for quick elevation changes in the road. they only check once...when you turn the key

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: SparkyJJO

Originally posted by: RichUK

Originally posted by: JMWarren

Originally posted by: bigdog1218
HID's are for children in their crappy cars who think brighter lights automatically make them great and old people who can't see. HID's are ranked just below floor mats in actually meaning anything in a vehicle.

HOW DARE YOU! I love custom mats! They add atleast 10hp!

Go faster stripes > custom mats

Or those bean can mufflers

ugh I hate those things, sorry people but they are NOT cool.

yeah induction noise > fart can exhaust noise.

fart cans on your little citroen saxo suck compared to the amazing sound of BMW M3 CSL's sound...which is mostly induction noise

 

[Rubycon]

HID lights appear to have more of a "daylight" appearance to them, however the overall rendition quality suffers due the spectral response. (compared to actual daylight that is) The eye is much easier fooled than the ear as spectrum analysis of sources will reveal.

Perhaps the law should be amended to limit total lumens instead of watts. The efficacy of HID is on a magnitude of 3 times that of tungsten-halogen lamps. So if one were to purchase a 55W HID lighting system (per channel) they still may technically be within the laws of the WATTAGE limits but their overall light they are sending down the pavement is MUCH higher than the "legal beagle" running tungsten halogen lighting! :Q

When one considers the broad peaks in the blue and violet range and most cut off lenses refract the light, a blue corona outside of the "hot throw" range develops with this type of lighting that is very distracting. Again, this occurs in poorly engineering lamp sets and is not observed in factory lighting that has not been modified.

Here's a few spectral plots of commonly seen sources:

Common Tungsten-Halogen - Most common what motorcars on the road are using.

The blue coated bulb - I have no idea why they make these things. The envelope runs much hotter and the plot indeed shows a rise in the near IR region around 780 nM! :Q These are popular with the rice community - the light appears whiter to the eye but not quite "HID-esque".

4350°K HID lamp - Here we see a well blended spectrum. This lamp is very white and projects very far. There is a lot of blue in here as well. (hence the issue with a poorly designed optic causing blue fringe)

Human eye response peaks where this type of lighting has long lines. So not only is the efficacy better overall, things will show up better given the same lumen output.

Summary: Don't ban HID technology. It's a good thing. Like anything else, if it's misapplied or outright abused it's not only a nuisance it's a downright hazard.

 

[MedicBob]

Voted No, I like HIDs and do not have them.

 

[SirStev0]

I truly hate these lights. They are obnoxious. I especially hate SUV's behind me with those damn things.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
I drive a frickin' Miata and am not blinded. What's your excuse?

If we didn't know about Lola, I might have some questions for you, sir .

Now onto HIDs. My car has factory installed HIDs and I don't mind them coming at me as well. Although I feel even worse now if I accidentally leave my high beams on when someone's coming. It rarely happens, but for me, one time is one time too many. When it comes to how well you can see with HIDs... mine are like a fricken wall of light when high beams are on. With low beams, they're a lot more moderate and shouldn't bother other drivers.

What I find annoying is cars that sit higher than mine blinding me with ease even though they have their low beams on!

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer
HID's are awesome, i love them

the only time i dont love them is......... 3rd party fitted ones, and ones where they have purposefully purchased 8000k or above lamps because really they are more for show than actually being useful.

plus when you 3rd party it up or DIY some HID's then your bound to get it wrong have the alignment all over the shop. OEM HID's have auto self levellers to try make sure you dont dazzle anyone.

also you tend to notice HID's more, not because they are bright, but because they are simply a different colour and stand out from the normal yellow of halogen

OEM HID's are typically 4300K which is pretty close to normal halogens, they use projector lenses to split the light up though and it appears more white/blue than it should.

however i do agree that the high K kits are just useless. i mean blue or if you go 10-12k purple light is just no good for seeing at night, especially in the wet.

also you understanding of auto levelling is just plain wrong.

all auto levelling does is set the level of the lamps when the car is first turned on, based on vehicle load, fuel level etc. driving on bumpy up n down back roads is not the norm for most people, so they dont cater for it. even normal 55w halogens will dazzle you on roads like that when the front of the car is elevated enought to give the oncoming driver an eye full of dipped beam so the problems not limtied to HID's.

autolevelling does not dynamically adjust head lamp level on the fly

Why am I once again ranting about HIDs? Last night I got driven off the road by a moron in a BMW with them installed coming in the opposite direction. It was very foggy, so I was driving ten under the speed limit as it was very neccesary even though I knew the roads well, and this jackass comes along with HID fog lights, regular beams on, not high beams (and why is it that their fog lights are always on??!?!??! ffs, fog lights may look cool but they do not need to be on all the time), and I could not see a thing

i think thats more to do with it being a BMW driver than the HID's, most beemer drivers i encounter are terribly inconsiderate. especially the 3 series drivers, the 318i in particular, these are always riding my bumper on the way home from work. some with X5 drivers.

funnily enough though, 5 series drivers, and M3/M5 drivers seem more civil in their driving.

oh yeah i bet DBZ and RichUk are both inconsiderate bastages behind the wheel of their BM's i bet they'd ride my bumper like no tomorrow the filthy gits.:Q

If you ever see a yellow M3 riding you like a racehorse, then it's probably me,

 

[Tobolo]

I am with you on this one. Those things blind you horribly at night. Our state does have a law banning the bright whites but I have never seen them be enforced.

 

[markgm]

I'd first want to see all lights lowered so that trucks and SUVs aren't aiming their lights directly in my face. Then I'd like to see emission tests replaced with headlight aiming tests. After that I'd like fog lights to automatically turn off after 20 minutes like the rear defroster does, so that people can't drive with them on all the time. After that, we can talk about HIDs.

Aftermarket HIDs are usually less annoying that the factory HIDs. The 'flash' of HIDs over a bump is very annoying.

 

[Imyourzero]

My Maxima has factory HIDs. I don't really care if they annoy you; they are by far the best headlights I've ever used. I can see a LOT better at night with them, and if it bothers you, oh well.

 

[Hyperlite]

Originally posted by: SVT Cobra

Originally posted by: sicko
People like you needs to be banned from driving at night.

Um no I see fine at night, and acutally you are not supposed to have even your regular lamps on in heavy fog, only fog lights if it is possible

a) that is not possible in any car i have ever driven (though that isn't saying a whole lot)

b) i have properly aligned Silverstars in my car and people still flash their brights at me. regardless of what lighting type you are using, you are going to piss someone off eventually, warranted or not.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I have factory HID lights on my car so I vote no.

 

[deerslayer]

They used to really irritate me. I drive a truck now though, and most lights don't bother me anymore.