2005 Headlight and Taillight Technology

80deathtrap · Nov 15, 2003

From what I remember reading in Motor Trend a couple of years ago, pressure sensitive brake lights are not street legal. However, this summer I saw a BMW motorcycle that seemed to have pressure sensitive brake lights. The idea behind them is very intuitive, the brighter they are the harder the brakes are being pressed. I am very much in favor of having pressure sensitive brake lights.

I also like the idea of LED taillights, the tend to look very good but LEDs that can handle the voltage or put out the neccesary brightness tend to be expensive, >$1 a per LED.

Having both pressure sensitive and LED brake lights is an impossiblity I believe, unless you turn on/off LEDs as the brake pressure changes, because LEDs are either on or off they can't be modulated like a conventional light bulb.

An easy way to solve the expense problem of LED tailights and HID headlights is to combine them into an options package along with things like navigation systems or special apearance packages. That way those who want a no frills basic car can have one and those that want all the coolest gadgets can have one and neither person has to settle.

Kevin99GT · Nov 15, 2003

You guys and your "not DOT approved" and "not street legal" with the pressure-sensitive brake lights.

Do you just make it up to sound cool and informed?

Adaptive brake lights are standard equipment on pretty much every new BMW model (3 series coupe, cabrio; 5 series; 6 series, 7 series; X5 and Z4). They're made by Valeo. I'm sure a quick Web search will yield you some results.

When the brake lights are applied forcefully, the brake light area is enlarged to make them brighter (more lights = brighter) and more visible with the added total area (which, incidentally, would be quite easy to do with LED lights, since you're not increasing the brightness of the individual light, you're increasing brightness by adding more overall light).

And yes, they all have adaptive headlights, too, as well as cruise control that judges the distance of the car in front of you and slows you down if you get too close.

tylers65 · Nov 15, 2003

Kevin99GT said:
You guys and your "not DOT approved" and "not street legal" with the pressure-sensitive brake lights.

Do you just make it up to sound cool and informed?

Adaptive brake lights are standard equipment on pretty much every new BMW model (3 series coupe, cabrio; 5 series; 6 series, 7 series; X5 and Z4). They're made by Valeo. I'm sure a quick Web search will yield you some results.

When the brake lights are applied forcefully, the brake light area is enlarged to make them brighter (more lights = brighter) and more visible with the added total area (which, incidentally, would be quite easy to do with LED lights, since you're not increasing the brightness of the individual light, you're increasing brightness by adding more overall light).

And yes, they all have adaptive headlights, too, as well as cruise control that judges the distance of the car in front of you and slows you down if you get too close.

No, actually I had an idea for the adaptive tailights. I did a lot of research and was told by the DOT that they would not allow them on the roads. I actually spoke with the DOT! But yes, I suppose I said it just to sound cool.

Kevin99GT · Nov 15, 2003

BMW will be very disappointed they have to recall all their cars.

tylers65 · Nov 15, 2003

Kevin99GT said:
BMW will be very disappointed they have to recall all their cars.

I must admit, thinking back, it was about 1 to 1.5 years ago. Things do change. But I really can't think that BMW didn't have the idea for them less than 1 year ago.

MRWEWIII · Nov 15, 2003

2005Eleanor said:
Any leads on the headlight and taillight technologies that are going to be used in the '05 stang. Any ideas? H.I.D.'s (if they can make the Nissan Altima come with them, why not the stang? Same price range). I've heard adaptive headlights. Does this mean they will come on automatically or does this mean that they will adapt to the road like BMW's 2004 lineup?

I know the taillights will be sequential, but what about LEDs? What about brake pressure sensitive taillights?...light up brighter, or more lights light up under hard braking.

Ideas, thoughts, leads anyone?

dpjedi · Nov 18, 2003

tylers65 said:
I know of a company that invented and patentded a pressure sensative tail light. unfortunately, the D.O.T. denied them citeing that most drivers would not know why the lights were getting brighter.

Personally, I think they are an excellent idea! I also can't see why the D.O.T. thinks that no one on the entire plannet has any common sense to be able to figure out that if the brake lights on the car ahead of them are getting brighter, then perhaps it is a sign that perhaps they might think of stopping

Those are the same people responsible for the demise of a real oil pressure gauge in the Mustang They didn't understand why the needle moved.

Troublemaker357 · Nov 19, 2003

Does anyone remember the claim about adaptive headlights? Does this mean that the headlights will follow the level of the road, as well as the turn of the road?

Active front lightning started appearing in cars in Europe around late 2002. Adaptive lighting is available in 2 different systems. Static and Dynamic. A dymanic system uses steering sensors, electric motors and micro controllers to swivel the headlamp modules when turning. A static system uses an extra lamp in the headlamp module to provide light when turning.

StangVert00 · Nov 23, 2003

From what the concept pictures look like of the '05 'Stang, the headlight fixture looks very silimar to a 1966 Ford T-Bird headlight "bucket".
I have one. (A '66 T-bird)

StangVert00
'00 Performace Red GT 'Vert

TheShagg · Nov 24, 2003

80deathtrap said:
Having both pressure sensitive and LED brake lights is an impossiblity I believe, unless you turn on/off LEDs as the brake pressure changes, because LEDs are either on or off they can't be modulated like a conventional light bulb.
QUOTE]

Sorry, you believe wrong you CAN vary the intensity with the current.

Boss 351 · Nov 26, 2003

BamaGT said:
One Mustang concept car had speed-sensitive taillights--the Milano concept which became the 1971 Mustang. They were yellow while coasting, green while accelerating, and red while braking.

http://www.desoto58.com/dreamcar/ford/milano72.jpg

Are you serious? I had that thought the other day. "Why are all the lights red even when we are going forward?". I had come up with the idea of green, yellow, and red tail light setup.

Maybe as soon as we would see yellow, we'd step on the gas to make it accross before the lights go red and KABOOOM! lol

viperx6x9x · Jan 4, 2004

maybe its just me but you ever have to look at HID headlights from oncoming traffic at night? even on low beam they still blind you. You find out real quick how bright the high beam is when you flash them and they flash back. Their nice for your vision, but personally i wouldn't like to see them become a standard thing because i hate trying to see the road ahead of you when an oncoming car has such bright lights on. And as many mustangs that are on the road, being one of the best selling cars around, you would be seeing really bright low-beams constantly.

as for that "static" lighting system you mentioned, ford has used a similar setup before. I know my moms '01 windstar has little cornering lights. when you turn one of your turn signals on the corresponding corner light comes on to light up the area a little for you. I dont know what other vehicles ford uses this on since that windstar is the newest ford i've driven lately. You dont really notice that light being on when looking at another windstar on the road so you kinda have to drive the thing to know it has them.

mustang50v8 · Jan 4, 2004

is it me or does this thing look like it does have hid?
http://www.maximum-cars.com/temp/mustang/image.php?imagenum=6

Goat1981 · Jan 5, 2004

tylers65 said:
No, actually I had an idea for the adaptive tailights. I did a lot of research and was told by the DOT that they would not allow them on the roads. I actually spoke with the DOT! But yes, I suppose I said it just to sound cool.

This is cool. I also had this same idea a few years ago (never did anything about it)....but I thought to myself "I think it would be a good idea that if someone were slamming on their breaks, the break lights should do something special like be very bright or flash very rapidly to warn the people behind them" Looks like the idea has been around for some time. Figures. Stupid BMW.

I hope the new Mustang has HID lights atleast as an option.

Stangston · Jan 5, 2004

LED tail lights are nice, but I saw a Cadillac the other day with several of the LED's not functioning, and all I kept thinking about was a ferris wheel that hasn't been kept up.

ncaruso · Jan 5, 2004

At least twenty years ago city busses around here had a third tailight that was Green when accelerating, yellow when coasting and red when the brakes were applied. they haven't used them in years....

Is it true about the sequential tailights? I had a '70
Cougar and loved those things....

SnkBtn99 · Jan 5, 2004

All this talk about pressure sensitive brake lights .... The brakes are either "ON" or "OFF".

What do I care if the guy in front of me is standing in them or not?? Unless you tailgate and/or are never paying attention to the road in front of you, why are they (pressure sensitive) needed?

WaltA · Jan 5, 2004

2005Eleanor said:
What about brake pressure sensitive taillights?...light up brighter, or more lights light up under hard braking.

Ideas, thoughts, leads anyone?

How would you tell if the brake lights were the brightness of minor braking from the brightness of hard braking? I mean, without seeing the actually change from one brightness level to another. For example, the car in front of you goes from no braking at all, to hard braking. How would you know that the level of brightness you are seeing meant "hard braking"???

You would almost need a couple of taillight always illuminated so that you could match or contrast them to the brightness level of the brake lights, or something.

Goat1981 · Jan 5, 2004

SnkBtn99 said:
All this talk about pressure sensitive brake lights .... The brakes are either "ON" or "OFF".

What do I care if the guy in front of me is standing in them or not?? Unless you tailgate and/or are never paying attention to the road in front of you, why are they (pressure sensitive) needed?

Because people DO tailgate and neglect to pay attention. Also, brakes are not just "ON" or "OFF." How do you figure that? If someone is slamming on their breaks, no matter how far away you were, you could react to that faster. I have had many instances when I was not tail gating; and brake lights came on in front of me and, thinking it was just normal braking, didn't slow down much when in reality they were stopping abruptly and I almost slammed into the back of them.

I don't think brighter with more pressure is a good idea. I think rapid flashing (effective with LED tail lights) with nearly maximal break pressure would be a good way to do it.

SVTdriver · Jan 5, 2004

Not that it couldn't be done. But there would have to be some kind of standards set. For that to work. Because no one is going to want to figure out what the car ahead of them is and then try to remember what it's taillights do for hard braking.

2005 Headlight and Taillight Technology

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