Calling Los Angeles-based car shoppers: Have you recently traded in (or plan to trade in) a car with negative equity (i.e. the amount you owe on your auto loan is greater than the car's value)? A reporter would like to speak with you; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 11/6 for details.
Automatic High Beams? No, Thanks - 2014 Jeep Cherokee Limited Long-Term Road Test
Edmunds.com
Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,315
Automatic High Beams? No, Thanks - 2014 Jeep Cherokee Limited Long-Term Road Test
The Edmunds.com long-term 2014 Jeep Cherokee includes the ability to activate automatic high beam headlamps. We promptly disabled them.
0
Comments
I think it is somewhat ironic that as they make headlights brighter the hard cutoffs become more necessary and the overall reach/coverage of many of the lights suffers. The quest for brighter bluer light leads to patterns that leave you feeling isolated in what you can see. A little light bleeding higher or off to the left more wasn't as bad when it wasn't so overpowering and wouldn't disorient oncoming drivers.
And that, unfortunately, leads a growing number of drivers to alter their headlights making them completely terrible for drivers coming towards them. HID kits in standard headlights that turn them into super bright flood lights that send a wall of light up in front of them. Even HID lights in standard projector housings allow a lot more bleed past the cutoff because the position of the bulb actually changes, which kills other drivers night vision. Then there is the ever popular LED or HID conversion in fog lights which also makes them into flood lights.
That's actually not correct, though it is entirely true that many cars come out of the factory with badly aimed headlights.
Also, low beam headlights become quite useless to you at a surprisingly low speed. At 45mph, you're actually starting to overdrive them. This has been the case for decades, though a "sharper" cut-off can make you more aware of this than a "softer" one. You've always been going too fast for low beams, you only now realize it. Fun exercise: drive down the road with your low beams at various speeds and measure the time it takes an object that enters your headlight range to reach your car. Now think about how much time it takes for you to come to a complete stop or safely avoid an obstacle at those speeds. Yeah...
Josh Jacquot said: "I wasn't surprised to find myself reaching for the stalk to click on the high beams when navigating my neighborhood."
You shouldn't ever be surprised about that. Using different terminology, your "high" beam is your "main" beam while the "lows" are your "dipped" beams for when traffic is present. Most people don't use their high beams enough.
P.S. Thanks for not being the car runs high beams regardless of other drivers.