LED Headlights?

[rtj70]

I have no complaints of how bright these are on my car. I have Smart Light Assist too but on motorways and dual carriageways even with just main beam on I had plenty of illumination and could see a good distance. 

[SailorP]

Got agree about the S2 bi-xenons versus the S3 SLA set-up. The high beam on my S2 (2012 Elegance) was definitely brighter than the current S3 (2016 280 L&K) with SLA. And I reckon that I can operate the dip switch for oncoming traffic faster than the SLA does. That said, the automation of the high beam sector changes means one less thing to think about when you are driving, which has got to be good. Phil

[rtj70]

7 minutes ago, SailorP said:

And I reckon that I can operate the dip switch for oncoming traffic faster than the SLA does.

.. but SLA might not be dipping the light because it doesn't need to by masking part of the beam

[SailorP]

Sorry rtj70..I should have been clearer in my post...

I reckon I can operate the dip switch faster than the SLA system can detect an oncoming car and blank out the relevant sector of the high beam to avoid blinding the oncoming driver.

And thinking on it a little more...

I am definitely faster manually returning to high beam than the SLA, which seems to take several seconds to restore the blank sector after the oncoming car has passed.

I drive a couple of cars, two with conventional manual high beam/dip controls, and the S3 with the SLA, and I find the SLA delay irritating.

But it's not a huge issue, and any automation in a car which reduces driver thinking load improves safety.  

The less you have to do in the "cockpit", the more you can concentrate on controlling the car and anticipating/planning the immediate future.

[Danny 57]

The only car I have had auto head lights was a Vauxhall Insignia (7 years ago). Did not at first know why it did dipped but is was very early and back straight after, very impressed with it.

[Bud]

7 hours ago, SailorP said:

Sorry rtj70..I should have been clearer in my post...

I reckon I can operate the dip switch faster than the SLA system can detect an oncoming car and blank out the relevant sector of the high beam to avoid blinding the oncoming driver.

And thinking on it a little more...

I am definitely faster manually returning to high beam than the SLA, which seems to take several seconds to restore the blank sector after the oncoming car has passed.

I drive a couple of cars, two with conventional manual high beam/dip controls, and the S3 with the SLA, and I find the SLA delay irritating.

But it's not a huge issue, and any automation in a car which reduces driver thinking load improves safety.  

The less you have to do in the "cockpit", the more you can concentrate on controlling the car and anticipating/planning the immediate future.

I get what you are saying about dipping headlights as with a good scan rather than a fixed field of regard you can anticipate where vehicles are and how/when they will present.  The system sees a pop-up target and must then respond.  Similarly you can also see when the conflicting traffic is passing so you can also decide when to illuminate full beam, albeit there is probably a delay in the system as it must ensure there are not vehicles following the first target before it illuminates.

[rtj70]

The reasons I went for SLA this time are:

1. I wanted blind spot monitoring/rear alert and lane assist (curious about it and actually use it - not sure I would have).
2. On previous cars I probably didn't use high beam as much as I could on roads because of not wanting to dazzle anyone. On empty roads I'd of course use it but sometimes it would be okay to use it and I probably didn't.

And SLA was only £100 more on top of the blind spot/lane assist option. 

 

On the last drive at night (mostly motorways and dual carriageway) SLA was working but to be honest the main beam was excellent anyway. I passed some cars where you could see the small patch of road illuminated by their lights and wondered how they could be doing their speed - they could see nothing much ahead of their car!

[deepshegde]

Anyone upgraded skoda superb mk3 bixenon headlight assemblies to full matrix LED which comes in new models? Would it fit direct or I would need to change body components such as bumper etc 

[ApertureS]

5 hours ago, deepshegde said:

Anyone upgraded skoda superb mk3 bixenon headlight assemblies to full matrix LED which comes in new models? Would it fit direct or I would need to change body components such as bumper etc 

Would need a lot changed, headlights, bumper, possibly bonnet and wings? Wiring is different, coding is very different and it also requires a A5 front camera and correct BCM and 4B module