[borisivan]

Let's say I'm on a windy road late at night, no traffic.

If I'm approaching a curve, and another car is approaching the same curve (travelling in opposite direction) -- I can't see his car yet (trees, etc), but I can easily see his headlights starting to illuminate the curve, so I know he's coming.

If I have the 'auto highbeam' function active -- when do they disable? Do they disable at the time described above, before I see his car? Or will there be a period of time in which when his car is coming around the corner (probably not facing me head on yet, but at some sort of an angle -- picture a scenario where he has entered the curve before I have) -- where I am now hitting his car with the high beams for a small period of time... does this ever happen?

So sick of tired of the jackasses that dim their highbeams once they come around the corner (or over the hill, whatever) and see your car. Yes, you turned it off fairly shortly after blinding me, but instead of blinding me for 1 second and then turning it off, how about you turn it off BEFORE you enter the corner/hill? I saw you coming before I saw your car, I know damn well you saw the same. So... was wondering if the auto highbeams are good at avoiding that or if they fail in that scenario.

[Goody4]

It's a last-second trigger with the high beam assist, too, with tight curves or steep, sudden hills. Gradual hills and gently curved roads will produce a low beam trigger well before the oncoming car gets into range, though.

Also, it doesn't recognize cars coming from side streets, either, since only the side amber lights are showing on those cars.

[wrickem]

It took me a while to trust them, but now I do.

[borisivan]

Originally Posted by Goody4

It's a last-second trigger with the high beam assist, too, with tight curves or steep, sudden hills. Gradual hills and gently curved roads will produce a low beam trigger well before the oncoming car gets into range, though.

Also, it doesn't recognize cars coming from side streets, either, since only the side amber lights are showing on those cars.

Gotcha, thanks. That sucks that it will still nail people that approach in a curve/hill, (if sharp/steep enough).

Where I live, people think they're doing you a favor by turning off their high beams after blinding you for two seconds. You can even try to signal them as you both approach the same curve, by toggling the lights a few times, doesn't matter. When they come around the curve, they still nail you for two+ seconds, then turn off. A-holes.

[Blubaron79]

I had them on my 435, and they were not great in detecting the other vehicle. They would only turn off when the saw the oncoming car, (not the ambient light it gave off before approaching). I found myself turning them off on my own after I already blinded the other driver. When I ordered my newest BMW, I did not get the auto-high beams, as they did not work well enough for me the first time around.

[borisivan]

Originally Posted by Blubaron79

I had them on my 435, and they were not great in detecting the other vehicle. They would only turn off when the saw the oncoming car, (not the ambient light it gave off before approaching). I found myself turning them off on my own after I already blinded the other driver. When I ordered my newest BMW, I did not get the auto-high beams, as they did not work well enough for me the first time around.

Thx. While it wasn't the answer I was hoping for, it's exactly the info I was looking for.

Yeah, it seems like it would be ripe with problems -- what if someone is waiting at the end of their driveway to pull out into a road, but is patiently waiting for the traffic coming from left to right to pass... they're looking left at the incoming car waiting for it to pass.... as they get blinded because the auto high beams on that car doesn't register this scenario.

I suppose the bottom line is that there is no substitute for the driver being aware of the limitations, and needs to manually turn it off. But I'm sure that works out perfectly.

[oonowindoo]

They work.. but it is useless here in LA because unless you live in a very dark place with no incoming traffic, otherwise the Auto high beam rarely turns on due to street lights and incoming traffic.

I think i used it once when i was driving home from Vegas at 4am.... that was about it...

But it does work well (detecting incoming cars and etc...)

It is not something i would pay $ to get, but I wanted the LED headlight and it came with it.

[Blubaron79]

Originally Posted by borisivan

Thx. While it wasn't the answer I was hoping for, it's exactly the info I was looking for.

Yeah, it seems like it would be ripe with problems -- what if someone is waiting at the end of their driveway to pull out into a road, but is patiently waiting for the traffic coming from left to right to pass... they're looking left at the incoming car waiting for it to pass.... as they get blinded because the auto high beams on that car doesn't register this scenario.

I suppose the bottom line is that there is no substitute for the driver being aware of the limitations, and needs to manually turn it off. But I'm sure that works out perfectly.

I found it actually worked in cross traffic a little better than what I thought.

[wrickem]

Originally Posted by Blubaron79

I found it actually worked in cross traffic a little better than what I thought.

I find that too. But I am always on dark roads. They always pick up cars waiting to pull out of side roads lights. I also never get flashed by oncoming traffic like I thought I would so I guess they're going off in time to not blind people, I'm in New Jersey, they would definitely let me know if I was.

[Billfitz]

There is a threshold of the intensity of the light that the circuit detects in front of the car before it activates, otherwise it would react to any light source. You can tell what's in front of you that might justify dimming the lights even if it's not all that bright, it can't.

[DrifterX]

The high beam will get deactivated as soon as the headlights of the other vehicle are detected in the camera within the windshield. This includes headlights facing towards you or even going perpendicular to you (I've personally seen this work on my car). It actually works great when you're in a hilly area because the camera is located above the level of your eyes; it'll see it first before you even see a car coming a top a hill and a car comes from the opposite direction.

I actually think the high-beam activation is pretty conservative because it sometimes detects street lights in the distance as vehicles. Or if there is enough light illuminating the road, it won't enable the high beam. Same goes with your speed, if you're not going very fast then it won't engage sometimes because you technically don't need to view very far at slow speeds.

Although, all this wouldn't be a problem if they updated the damn laws so we could have the awesome no-dazzle high beams...