Full Matrix Headlights

[Greezy56]

What do you guys think of the matrix lights on the VRS . I set mine to auto full beam. In lit up areas no probs , on dark non lit roads i could see the beam changing but still a few drivers flashed me. Are the lights not supposed to dim to stop blinding oncoming drivers. As i said the beam changed loads of times , like when it seen road signs and i seen it do full beam to the left behind a car but not on the car in front.

[mr44]

3 hours ago, Greezy56 said:

What do you guys think of the matrix lights on the VRS . I set mine to auto full beam. In lit up areas no probs , on dark non lit roads i could see the beam changing but still a few drivers flashed me. Are the lights not supposed to dim to stop blinding oncoming drivers. As i said the beam changed loads of times , like when it seen road signs and i seen it do full beam to the left behind a car but not on the car in front.

In straight, longer roads I experienced the same.

 

Car won’t recognise them, since their headlight is far away. After they flashed, it turns itself off automaticly, but full beam untill then.

[fox2319]

I’ve got them as an option on the SE L and I don’t think they work. I’ll get flashed by oncoming cars even when they’re not too far away and I noticed the blanking is offset when I’m following cars. I’ve attached a photo which shows the latter and have some video of being flashed. 
 

for bonus points, they don’t always seem to step down when I pull the lever towards me. 

[Dr_Pepper]

Its really dangerous and you see it more and more eith night driving. Personally I think this is one supposedly safety feature that should be outlawed as its having the opposite effect. I had to switch it off in my Seat. It usually dipped them at the right time but thats not good enough, more times than had it been being done manually it didn't do it in time, and that one time could cause a crash.

[Jmagee]

The issue with automatic dipping is a person dips when they see the light from the other car. The car dips when it sees the other car. A good couple of seconds longer in some cases. 

[fox2319]

Just had a chance to test the lights on a short (essential) journey which was around 5 miles on dual carriage way and 5 miles on a B road. At first, I thought they'd finally fixed the lights. It seemed to have a decent blanking arc on cars that I was following and I didn't get flashed. Granted, the lights seemed to have a fairly aggressive blanking which covered all of the other side of the road, regardless of traffic, but I could work with that. 

 

However, on the way back, I took a B road and noticed that the lights on full beam didn't seem to show as far ahead as previously. Worse than that though, of the 2 cars I met on the road, I noticed that the blanking arc was off to the side of at least one of them which led to them flashing me. I've attached a still from the dashcam.

 

Overall, I'm not that impressed.

[Mharp80]

How do you turn on the automatic full beam on the Vrs please

[TheUltraRunner]

9 hours ago, Mharp80 said:

How do you turn on the automatic full beam on the Vrs please

 

[Soko1982]

rewoking the thread... after ca. 15.000 km i finally had a chance to test the matrix lights on a longer journey in ideal environment full dark, empty regional roads and empty highway. 

 

What i find rather interesting is (i'm not sure if that is a fault or not) when driving on a highway, which was almost totaly empty of any traffic i tested using AUTO mode, so the matrix light were "working" i found it strange that only right headlight had its matrix funcition working, while the left light was not engaded. After switching the "auto" function off, leaving on only the long beam, it is rather obvious that the left light lit up the left part of the driving path. So conclusion was that long beam was much brighter than when matrix function is on. 

 

After noticing that i tought that there is a malfunction with the lights, but on the way back i had a 50km drive on a regional road in total dark, with minimum traffic arround and matrix worked perfectly, working with both left and right headlights, lighting up both sides of the road perfectly. 

 

So my question is, is this normal? I haven't found any information on that. Is it possible that with higher speeds on highways only right matrix works and on lower speeds also the other light comes to life? 

 

My location is Slovenia, so i have a left hand drive vehicle (driving on the right side of road) 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcUAT5y5Zaw

[fox2319]

I noticed similar behaviour on mine and it turned out the headlights were not working correctly (and I eventually rejected the car).

 

The clip below shows a bit of a smaller country road when the dealer took it out for a night time drive.

 

 

Since rejecting the car, I bought a VW Tiguan which also has matrix LEDs. The VW ones are far better

Since rejec

[Jack_Dangerous]

I've used mine quite a few times now and they work perfectly fine, i heard there was an update that fixed an issue with them, maybe my car already came with the fix i dunno.

[sdolenec]

2 hours ago, Soko1982 said:

rewoking the thread... after ca. 15.000 km i finally had a chance to test the matrix lights on a longer journey in ideal environment full dark, empty regional roads and empty highway. 

 

What i find rather interesting is (i'm not sure if that is a fault or not) when driving on a highway, which was almost totaly empty of any traffic i tested using AUTO mode, so the matrix light were "working" i found it strange that only right headlight had its matrix funcition working, while the left light was not engaded. After switching the "auto" function off, leaving on only the long beam, it is rather obvious that the left light lit up the left part of the driving path. So conclusion was that long beam was much brighter than when matrix function is on. 

 

After noticing that i tought that there is a malfunction with the lights, but on the way back i had a 50km drive on a regional road in total dark, with minimum traffic arround and matrix worked perfectly, working with both left and right headlights, lighting up both sides of the road perfectly. 

 

So my question is, is this normal? I haven't found any information on that. Is it possible that with higher speeds on highways only right matrix works and on lower speeds also the other light comes to life? 

 

My location is Slovenia, so i have a left hand drive vehicle (driving on the right side of road) 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcUAT5y5Zaw

What is your production Month? I am also from Slovenia and did not test Matrix lights (only once on local road for short time).

In Saturday I will be on night drive - then we can compare it - having driving camera and we can compare video..

[Soko1982]

Ordered it July2020 and got it end of August 2020, so either july or august it is. HW ending with C and SW 1668, which i doubt it has got anything to do with it. 

 

Will give it a ride again this week also recording it with my dashcam before storming at the Skoda dealer

[sdolenec]

Ok.. My car is production month May 2021.. will make video and we will see.. HW is E and FW is 1803.. newer know what this FW is..

[TheUltraRunner]

4 minutes ago, sdolenec said:

Ok.. My car is production month May 2021.. will make video and we will see.. HW is E and FW is 1803.. newer know what this FW is..

1803 is software version.

[sdolenec]

Agree, but how and where (if its even possible) to determine SW version of Matrix LED? Probably all modules should be visible in inf. system as everything is connected and can be controlled via inf. system and of course OBD ..

 

Maybe (probably is) some secret service menu, or this can be visible only via OBD?

 

Also, if he got 1688 SW of inf. system, it is probably logical that if they repair something on Matrix SW that if you got let's say 1788 or 1803 on new car that it should have newer Matrix SW version on production/fabric level..

Edited 7 June, 2021 by sdolenec

[TheUltraRunner]

Who knows how these updates really work together.

 

My assumption is that they work like on regular computers having different operating system versions with different drivers for each HW component. And with each OS version (in our case it's car's SW version) you also get new updated drivers for each HW (in our case it's car's modules).  So as you said, if you get an SW update from 1788 to 1803, you should (probably) also get updated SW for car's modules. The question is, if car has one of the earlier HWs with the 1668 SW, can it still get the newest update for the Matrix lights (for example) module as the car with 1803 SW.

[SteveTheElder]

Alternatively, the components could work on a service based architecture - and provided the interface calls from one to another remain consistent, it won’t matter which version each is running. An old central unit, for example, could tell a newer lights unit to use Auto dip mode. A fix to the lights unit may be applied so that the Matrix Lights work properly whilst the central unit remains on the old version.

I think that makes sense, its getting late…

 

[bmat]

I am noticing the similar behavior of the matrix LEDs - there is reduced power to the left when driving on (Slovenian) highway

 

Have assumed this is normal and intended since it is hard for the camera to (reliably) pick up the cars on the other side of the road division.

[Soko1982]

On 14/06/2021 at 12:44, bmat said:

I am noticing the similar behavior of the matrix LEDs - there is reduced power to the left when driving on (Slovenian) highway

 

Have assumed this is normal and intended since it is hard for the camera to (reliably) pick up the cars on the other side of the road division.

 

yes. i gave a visit to the garage and i was confirmed that this is the case for matrix lights while driving on higher speeds on highways. I guess it is connected to GPS data, when you enter a highway that matrix adjust itself to it. 

 

Anyway i will have a reconfiguration of the lights on my next visit. 

[sdolenec]

So to be clarified.. is normal that matrix light left line is lower beam (auto mode vs. manual mode) or not? 

 

For me auto mode left beam is clearly shorter as manual mode..

[bmat]

I would say that this is indeed intentional and therefore normal.

 

One more thing I noticed - it's quite weird that normal low beam is higher/longer than auto low beam (noticeable if you activate auto while driving behind someone).

 

The matrix lights in auto high beam mode are quite fascinating for me. The other day my wife was driving our Octavia home and I was driving in front with our second car. Although it seems that the auto high beam is distracting other drivers by dimming the sectors frequently, it's really interesting to watch from aspect of the car in front - you can't see anything that would indicate that the car behind is driving with high beam. Moreover, the matrix lights appears to be dimmer than the ones of the other cars.

[AnBear]

Having used the matrix lights first time last night I am really having trouble understanding if the lights have dipped. My issue is that there is no visual indication on the dash other than the blue light  A (auto) symbol which doesn’t change colour so I don’t what mode they are in i.e dipped or heads. The only time blue A symbol changes to white is street lighting or under 30km. Am I missing something got flashed a few times in auto mode.

[Soko1982]

your thinking is correct. Blue icon means they are "operating", but should dip on to incoming traffic or if there is a vehicle infront. 

[AnBear]

1 hour ago, Soko1982 said:

your thinking is correct. Blue icon means they are "operating", but should dip on to incoming traffic or if there is a vehicle infront. 

Agree reading the forum about issues with lhd and rhd not sure and I have only driven at night once. Lights very impressive but there should be some indication between dipped and full even though they are automatic