When will we see LED's in automotive headlights?

[Mr.Jay]

LED is gonna be the new standard I think soon considering higher end brands are already messing around with laser headlights and stuff (BMW) and they are going into production cars already (i8 will have laser headlights)

[Neutral_Eyes]

Cost prohibitive for mainstream cars. If there is a "fad" for LED headlights, it'd be with the retrofit guys, and most of them are paying way too much to do it wrong anyway. If the car was designed to make use of it, great. Otherwise, it seems like a waste and a hassle just to look cooler?

BMW's already 1up-ing the LEDs anyway.
http://wot.motortrend.com/bmw-shows-...rk-126103.html

[RRnold]

Originally Posted by Neutral_Eyes

Cost prohibitive for mainstream cars. If there is a "fad" for LED headlights, it'd be with the retrofit guys, and most of them are paying way too much to do it wrong anyway. If the car was designed to make use of it, great. Otherwise, it seems like a waste and a hassle just to look cooler?

BMW's already 1up-ing the LEDs anyway.
http://wot.motortrend.com/bmw-shows-...rk-126103.html

I would think the laser headlights would be the most expensive with LED's being less expensive than xenon and even halogen. The main problem with LEDs as headlights is that they produce so much glare.

LED headlights are brighter than xenon and are more efficient. They may look cooler b/c they are indeed running cooler!

[MF_DEUCE]

Originally Posted by RRnold

...8 yrs before this becomes mainstream seems a bit long don't you think? Speaking of which, I was watching Back To the Future 2 a couple days ago and it's hilarious to see their vision of what 2015 would be like from a 1989 perspective.

Wasnt that generation the one that claimed we would all own flying cars/hovercrafts by now? lol

"The Jetsons" must have been their crystal ball.

[n2oinferno]

The Prius has LED headlights as an option. If I remember correctly, it's a dual projector setup. One projector for front throw and a second diffused projector for fill lighting.

I like HID, and after having a car with a proper HID (as in OEM, not this "shove this kit into a halogen projector/reflector") setup I'd rather have it than halogen. But if LED were an option it'd be nice. Probably never have to change the bulbs and low power consumption. I imagine that the biggest issues to overcome are heat management and costs. Same reason that LED home-use bulbs are expensive and bulky.

[serialk11r]

I call bullshit on the BMW laser thing, 2 times the efficiency despite having to excite a phosphor, bullshit. If they are using solid state lasers, there is no way a good white LED that is 3 colors mixed together would be less efficient than a solid state blue laser that loses part of its energy through the phosphor. If it's a gas pumped laser, efficiency is possible but those have questionable durability and are bulky.

[Mr.Jay]

real facts or marketing trend/hype

either way laser headlights is going into production cars

[jimmillion]

For parts of the world where it snows part of the year, LED head-units wouldn't create enough heat to melt the snow build up in front of the lights.

This was the case when they installed LED traffic lights in some parts of the US. The build up of snow in the openings made telling what colour the light was nearly impossible.



Although this is an issue that can be easily fixed if addressed properly - but can lead to a lot of recall's and accidents if not noticed beforehand.

- just my 2 cents

[spin9k]

Originally Posted by JIMs|a|MILLION

For parts of the world where it snows part of the year, LED head-units wouldn't create enough heat to melt the snow build up in front of the lights.

This was the case when they installed LED traffic lights in some parts of the US. The build up of snow in the openings made telling what colour the light was nearly impossible.



Although this is an issue that can be easily fixed if addressed properly - but can lead to a lot of recall's and accidents if not noticed beforehand.

- just my 2 cents

That's pretty cool.. er I mean cold . Those old 'unintended consequences' rearing their ugly head again lol! At least there shouldn't be ice forming on the LEDs, just snow that can blow away.

[Longhorn248]

Originally Posted by JIMs|a|MILLION

For parts of the world where it snows part of the year, LED head-units wouldn't create enough heat to melt the snow build up in front of the lights.

This was the case when they installed LED traffic lights in some parts of the US. The build up of snow in the openings made telling what colour the light was nearly impossible.



Although this is an issue that can be easily fixed if addressed properly - but can lead to a lot of recall's and accidents if not noticed beforehand.

- just my 2 cents

Just another reason why I'm glad that I don't live up in the chilly north, although the 100+ degree summers aren't all that fun either.

[Sony]

As someone who works in the technical side of entertainment industry, LED are a big part of what I do.

The current problems with LED's that need to be overcome before they become completely mainstream (they are VERY VERY close) are mainly heat and being able to be focused as well as cost.

You wouldn't think Heat would be a problem with LED's, however it's a HUGE problem, LED's have such a narrow operating range for tempurature, the high powered LED's you see in headlights and some lighting fixtures require large heatsinks which take up space, making them difficult to integrate into a small headlight enclosure. That being said, major strides have been achieved within only the last 2 or 3 years, especially in the entertainment industry where are are starting to see more and more LED based high powered fixtures. For instance the Vari-Lite VLX which contains seven 170 watt LED's, in order to keep the LED's cool enough the fixture has a built in water cooling system. In cars the problem comes from fitting a heatsink into a small headlight enclosure and also trying to keep LED's cool in a hot engine bay. However I don't see these being major issues for very much longer, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if the 2nd Gen FT-86 or even the TRD/STI version had LED Headlights.

Focusing LED's is the other problem, LED's flood light everywhere in all directions making it difficult to build a reflector to focus the light only where you want it to go. Unlike normal filament based light sources where most of the light irradiates out of the sides of the lamp. This would kill any DOT approval that could be given to LED's. Again however major strides have been made in this front using micro reflectors built into the LED's themselves, they are now more easily focused so I don't really see this being a problem for much more than 1 or 2 more years.

[Longhorn248]

Why can't they just use multiple LEDs with narrow viewing angles to focus light into a lense? I'm not very up to date with the high wattage LEDs, most of the work I've done with them involve the small low powered ones and surface mount stuff.

[Sony]

Originally Posted by Longhorn248

Why can't they just use multiple LEDs with narrow viewing angles to focus light into a lense? I'm not very up to date with the high wattage LEDs, most of the work I've done with them involve the small low powered ones and surface mount stuff.

That is basically whats being done, but LED's naturally are wide output light sources. They output in all directions, so like I said the newer ones are using micro-reflectors built into the LED's themselves to create narrow angle output, which they can then use to focus the light.

[spin9k]

Like these, some focused for low beam, some for high.

The US Military has acquired more than 100,000 Truck-Lite 24 volt 7” round LED Headlamps since the release in 2007 for use on both new and existing wheeled and tracked vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan. After passing rigorous testing and design improvements through corporate laboratory and field studies, Truck-Lite’s 24v launch is currently active on a number of military vehicles. The LED Headlamps have also undergone extreme weather testing at military installations in Panama, Arizona and Alaska with exceptional results! From this success, the 12-volt version is being introduced with countless possibilities for the commercial market. These items are subject to U.S. export control laws