No ambient lights

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I think that there are 3 factors at play here.


- Driving - yes, I agree, no light whatsoever in the cabin is best. That said, we're not really fighter pilots engaged in a nighttime dogfight with an invading Chengdu J-20.

- Passenger convenience and aesthetics - since we're not Hamilton in a single-seater Mercedes-AMG F1 W11 EQ either, we do need to consider our passengers and their well-being.

- Driver distractions - not a great idea, obviously, but it's part and parcel of modern motoring. In the past this was limited to the AM radio tuning button, but now we're using a lot of electronic gear in the cabin while driving. It's just how it is.


Ultimately... the modern car cabin is a compromise between these three.
 
I find ANY lighting inside the car to be a distraction from outside and , as an advanced driver , I am not looking just within the range of the headlamps , I want to see that cow or sheep in the road before my headlamps illuminate it . I hate cars with excessive interior illumination.

Also , I have both driven and sat in plenty of newer cars and I don’t think the lighting any better than H7 or H4 lighting in earlier cars ; in some ways it is worse because the brighter illumination of the foreground throws more distant objects into comparative darkness , and the more abrupt beam cutoff isn’t helpful either . Indeed , going even further back , to pre halogen days , the tungsten lights in Pontons , Fintails and Pagodas were incredible considering what they were . It isn’t all about pouring more lumens out .

Quality of light is more important than quantity .

I'm struggling to understand why you find the interior light a distraction? It is not going to affect your nightvision, your headlights wipe out your nightvision )(otherwise you would not need instrument lights).

Not sure how you would see a cow or sheep before your headlights do, your nightvision in darker areas, beyond your headlights. would be useless anyway.

If you have been in a car with modern LEDs I'm surprised you think that H7's are as good as the modern cars. My wife's car has H7 Osram Night Breakers (always recommended by readers) fitted on her B class and there is no comparison to what my car has.
 
If you have been in a car with modern LEDs I'm surprised you think that H7's are as good as the modern cars. My wife's car has H7 Osram Night Breakers (always recommended by readers) fitted on her B class and there is no comparison to what my car has.

My W204 has H7 Osram NightBreakers, my other car is a Suzuki with LED headlamps.

The LED are far better on dark B-Roads, and somewhat better on the unlit stretches of the M1, but any difference is unnoticeable when driving in well lit city areas (most of greater London really).

My previous car had traditional HID Xenon which were as good the LED out of town.

That said, none of the cars had 'intelligent' headlights, i.e. the main beam needs to be switched on and off manually.
 
Have you experienced Adaptive Headlights? Where individual LED 'cells' switch on and off to frame on-coming cars, or cars ahead, without dazzling them? Basically one has full beam on constantly, just areas go dark to not dazzle. Very effective.
 
Have you experienced Adaptive Headlights? Where individual LED 'cells' switch on and off to frame on-coming cars, or cars ahead, without dazzling them? Basically one has full beam on constantly, just areas go dark to not dazlee. Very effective.
@markjay

SL has adaptive lights and it is interesting to see a black box around the car ahead and how they keep changing to suit the road conditions and traffic.

It would be difficult to judge low beam effectiveness in built-up areas with a lot of ambient lighting. However, I use both types regularly and can tell you that the adaptive lights are distinctly better. They light up roundabouts (beams swing outwards), intersections and the sides of the road a lot better in built up areas. The adaptive lights on mine are linked to the satnav.
 
The other issue I have with HID/LED technology without the intelligent/adaptive system, is that the auto-levelling mechanism just isn't good enough.

On a B-road, approaching a hump bridge at night, the car on the other side is waiting for me to pass. If it is stopped on the upward incline, the headlamps are just too bright and dazzling and it can be difficult to see the sides of the hump bridge ahead for me to make a safe passage.

This is because the mechanical auto-levelling system simply points the headlamps down towards the ground, but in this case it is pointing the bright HID lights straight into my windscreen.
 
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The other issue I have with HID/LED technology without the intelligent/adaptive system, is that the auto-levelling mechanism just isn't good enough.

On a B-road, approaching a hump bridge at night, the car on the other side is waiting for me to pass. If it is stopped on the upward incline, the headlamps are just too bright and dazzling and it can be difficult to see the sides of the hump bridge ahead for me to make a safe passage.

This is because the mechanical auto-levelling system simply points the headlamps down towards the ground, but in this case it is pointing the bright HID lights straight into my windscreen.

Is that a function the lights or the design of the levelling system?
 
I'm struggling to understand why you find the interior light a distraction? It is not going to affect your nightvision, your headlights wipe out your nightvision )(otherwise you would not need instrument lights).

Not sure how you would see a cow or sheep before your headlights do, your nightvision in darker areas, beyond your headlights. would be useless anyway.

If you have been in a car with modern LEDs I'm surprised you think that H7's are as good as the modern cars. My wife's car has H7 Osram Night Breakers (always recommended by readers) fitted on her B class and there is no comparison to what my car has.
I think more light can be too much , excessively bright headlamps WILL obscure things in the darkness beyond the pool of light , but normal headlamps , I just buy standard Bosch H4 or H7 etc lamps , provide enough illumination , but I can still see well beyond them .

Suffice it to say that with my job I routinely drive all over Scotland, often in remote areas and at all hours of the day or night , and it has happened that I’ve seen cows , sheep , deer , and drunken pedestrians on the roads before my lights picked them out , giving me extra time to slow and avoid them .

I may choose to run cars that I pick up for next to nothing and run them on a shoestring, but I still get to drive lots of new vehicles between fleet cars and trucks , hire cars and cars belonging to friends.... and generally there is a sigh of relief when I get back to the comfort and familiarity of my own cars .
 
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The leveling system of old is based on the suspension height, but it does not take into account the incline of the car at the time (this is how it was on my own car anyway).
As it has been on all of my cars ; in such a situation as you describe ( hump back bridge ) I would switch to sidelights as a courtesy to the other driver , and indeed will do this even with my halogen lights .
 
Candles offer fantastic lighting, very gentle n the eyes..

Must admit to finding it slightly disturbing that you, as an advanced driver, is so easily distracted..
I'm an advanced driver and I'm having my interior upgraded. Hmmm purple or blue 💜💙
 
Suffice it to say that with my job I routinely drive all over Scotland, often in remote areas and at all hours of the day or night , and it has happened that I’ve seen cows , sheep , deer , and drunken pedestrians on the roads before my lights picked them out , giving me extra time to slow and avoid them .

If you had proper headlights ................
 

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