Smart Light Assist: spooked by dual carriageways!

[dstev2000]

I've mentioned this in my 10k review but I'll ask the question here in case it gets missed: 

 

My SLA won't raise both main beams when driving along a dual carriageway. We are talking about 1am with no traffic on the road for miles. 

 

The SLA starts to raise both beams but then drops the offside beam back down again. Then you can see the system moving the offside beam around the white line that denotes the carriageway edge to the central reservation. 

 

The result is i'm left with an odd looking L shaped main beam pattern! switching to manual main beam cures the problem but it comes straight back if the auto mode is reselected. 

 

There isn't a problem with motorways or single carriageway roads. Speed and weather don't influence things either. The screen is also clean where the camera lives. There aren't any logged DTCs on the car either. 

 

Sometimes both beams raise up when there is a long curve in the road but generally, it really doesn't seem to like that white line on the offside of lane 2. 

 

It sounds like the software is misinterpreting the white line as something else. I hope there is a software fix on the way for this. Unless I'm the only one having this problem? 

 

Other than that, the system works really well with regard to 'seeing' other cars on the road. 

[bive]

Did my first night-time drive today with my 5 days old S3. Nights at this time of the year in Sweden is not very dark, so it may not be totally accurate regarding the function of SLA.

 

My first impressions are that the system is functioning quite well. It detect cars, mopeds, bicycles and motorcycles. It also detects lampposts, meaning that it will not engange the headlight at all, unless I switch to manual mode. Big road signs made of high-vis reflective material also triggers the system in the same way as cars, ie it blacks out the sign. Ususally very good, but can eventually be a bit annoying since you can't read the sign until you get really close to it.

 

If there where plenty of traffic signs scattered on both sides of the road within a shorter distance (two crossings, one smaller and one bigger, withing 100 meters), the system seem to be confused, resulting in fast moving black spots all over the road where the system probably identified the signs as on-coming cars.

 

I expect a few software updates to the system in the future since there are room for improvements, but it will probably take some time...

 

Over all a nice system, I will benefit from it in some situations and in others I will disable it and use manual mode.

[blahde2]

Just a thought, it could be the cats eyes confusing it together with the lamp posts and anything reflective on the roadside.

If it only struggles on dual carriageways then I think you've done well in respect of a very complex system. No doubt it's difficult for the camera (which doesn't see like us) to differentiate between street clutter and car headlights.

It can't react to so many targets (as it sees them) so bins it's programme and goes to default "I'll not blind anything" light the road immediately in front and to the side.

I wish you all the best with a software fix, but again reckon you have found the systems weak spot (limitation) in the same way auto wipers are great.... but then not so great at other times, leaving you blind when you really don't want to be!

[MidoStudio]

Did my first night-time drive today with my 5 days old S3. Nights at this time of the year in Sweden is not very dark, so it may not be totally accurate regarding the function of SLA.

 

My first impressions are that the system is functioning quite well. It detect cars, mopeds, bicycles and motorcycles. It also detects lampposts, meaning that it will not engange the headlight at all, unless I switch to manual mode. Big road signs made of high-vis reflective material also triggers the system in the same way as cars, ie it blacks out the sign. Ususally very good, but can eventually be a bit annoying since you can't read the sign until you get really close to it.

 

If there where plenty of traffic signs scattered on both sides of the road within a shorter distance (two crossings, one smaller and one bigger, withing 100 meters), the system seem to be confused, resulting in fast moving black spots all over the road where the system probably identified the signs as on-coming cars.

 

I expect a few software updates to the system in the future since there are room for improvements, but it will probably take some time...

 

Over all a nice system, I will benefit from it in some situations and in others I will disable it and use manual mode.

 

 

last 2 weeks I made 1500km Göteborg to Legoland, Legoland - Copenhagen - Göteborg "through Helsingborg" then Göteborg- Malmö and back mostly in my way back its night , the SLA made me crazy in the beginning, then i notice it improved a lot " maybe it learns or i got used to it" but anyway it did totally opposite what you said about the road signs it actually highlights all signs on the road and i mean really highlight in high extream beam.

 

then it keeps scanning the road for signs and traffic i see perfectly dark cone behind the cars in front and dark triangle shape toward the cars in the other lane and it moves really quickly from point to another to mask or to highlight pretty impressive , add to that the angle for steering and the road curve really responsive. 

it needs refining though sometimes it moves very fast for no reason no reflection or coming cars maybe updates will improve the system as you said!

just to add, i still didn't know until now why some cars were flashing to me from the other lane it's like 10m+ between the lanes and i guess my high beam was annoying to them while i see the area was masked maybe the angel were wrong or the road curve but this is usual with the system, i got the same effect from Ford or Volvo cars driving toward me so i guess the whole Bosch system needs some updates. 

Edited 31 July, 2016 by MidoStudio

[bive]

last 2 weeks I made 1500km Göteborg to Legoland, Legoland - Copenhagen - Göteborg "through Helsingborg" then Göteborg- Malmö and back mostly in my way back its night , the SLA made me crazy in the beginning, then i notice it improved a lot " maybe it learns or i got used to it" but anyway it did totally opposite what you said about the road signs it actually highlights all signs on the road and i mean really highlight in high extream beam.

 

then it keeps scanning the road for signs and traffic i see perfectly dark cone behind the cars in front and dark triangle shape toward the cars in the other lane and it moves really quickly from point to another to mask or to highlight pretty impressive , add to that the angle for steering and the road curve really responsive. 

it needs refining though sometimes it moves very fast for no reason no reflection or coming cars maybe updates will improve the system as you said!

just to add, i still didn't know until now why some cars were flashing to me from the other lane it's like 10m+ between the lanes and i guess my high beam was annoying to them while i see the area was masked maybe the angel were wrong or the road curve but this is usual with the system, i got the same effect from Ford or Volvo cars driving toward me so i guess the whole Bosch system needs some updates. 

 

Just tried it once this far. The nights here up north are still not very dark or very long

Considering the complexity of the system it's a very good piece of technology that works quite well. Let's hope for some updates in a not so distant future.

 

I will look into adding a LED light bar, the roads I drive are often empty and wild animals are quite common and the current lights are not the best in these situations. On my S2 I had 3 NBB 225:s with 75W xenon bulbs, they made driving in the dark very comfortable

[CTRob]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I didn't see the point in starting a new one! So I tried SLA last night coming home from visiting family. I enabled Dynamic Light Assist in the head unit options. It was dark (about 9pm) so I made sure my lights were set to "Auto" and I activated SLA by pushing the stalk away from me once. The white full beam symbol with an "A" shows up on the dash which I believe indicates SLA is active however not once on the hour long drive home which is a mix of rural and motorway driving did I see my full beam come on nor did I see the blue full beam icon light up which I believe is supposed to happen as SLA activates. See 35, 40 and 54 seconds of this video to see what I mean:

 

 

I was definitely driving faster than 60km/hr but like I said I could not visually see any difference with the headlights or the full beam icon light up on the dash at any stage of the journey. Has anyone else experienced something similar with SLA or am I just missing something?

[Jaytip]

2 hours ago, CTRob said:

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I didn't see the point in starting a new one! So I tried SLA last night coming home from visiting family. I enabled Dynamic Light Assist in the head unit options. It was dark (about 9pm) so I made sure my lights were set to "Auto" and I activated SLA by pushing the stalk away from me once. The white full beam symbol with an "A" shows up on the dash which I believe indicates SLA is active however not once on the hour long drive home which is a mix of rural and motorway driving did I see my full beam come on nor did I see the blue full beam icon light up which I believe is supposed to happen as SLA activates. See 35, 40 and 54 seconds of this video to see what I mean:

 

 

I was definitely driving faster than 60km/hr but like I said I could not visually see any difference with the headlights or the full beam icon light up on the dash at any stage of the journey. Has anyone else experienced something similar with SLA or am I just missing something?

Were you in an area with street lighting? I don't know how it works on the Superb because I don't have it but on my Merc, the high beam won't activate in an area with street lighting.

[ionelmc]

Nothing really special about dual carriageways, SLA is just really bad and frankly dangerous - for example it will unpredictably lower your main beam at high speed. Just stupid tech so carmakers can take more of your money.

[CTRob]

7 hours ago, ionelmc said:

Nothing really special about dual carriageways, SLA is just really bad and frankly dangerous - for example it will unpredictably lower your main beam at high speed. Just stupid tech so carmakers can take more of your money.

 

I take your point but I guess what I am trying to say is that regardless of where I drive at night if SLA is switched on and the other conditions are met (lights on auto, driving over 60km/hr) I have yet to see it ever activate so I am trying to ascertain if the functionality of SLA is not working correctly on my car.

[penguin17]

10 minutes ago, CTRob said:

 

I take your point but I guess what I am trying to say is that regardless of where I drive at night if SLA is switched on and the other conditions are met (lights on auto, driving over 60km/hr) I have yet to see it ever activate so I am trying to ascertain if the functionality of SLA is not working correctly on my car.

Have you physically activated it with the light stalk?  Lights in Auto position and flick the light stalk forward, you should then see the dipped beam signal with an 'A' on your display, this shows that it's activated. 

 

EDIT: Apologies CTRob - I failed to read a few posts up where you stated this had been done

Edited 29 March, 2017 by penguin17
Being a muppet

[Auswede]

I think mine is having a problem with oncoming traffic as a few people have flashed me.

Also when they are just about to pass I can see the light drop but it seems to be a bit slow as it is on their roof rather than below their windscreen so they are probably getting blinded.

Works well for following traffic though, light is consistently just below their tail lights.

[Baverhanne]

I believe that there's three different levels for the SLA? 

Have tried mine for a total of maybe one hour and I think it works very well! Don't like the fact that it doesn't use high beam when there is streetlights. It might be just me but I think it's easier to spot animals with high beam on.