The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has been arping to car manufacturers a improve the headlights for years. Even AAA he is fed up with the slow progress of the lighthouses. But this year IIHS has found a way to get more car manufacturers to fix their bad headlights, and it actually works.
How the IIHS did it was simple: the insurer-funded group demanded that the headlight ratings be acceptable or good so that a brand’s vehicle could qualify for the Top Safety Pick + award in 2020 (there are also two lower grades, marginal and poor). The Top Safety Pick + rating is given to vehicles that not only pass the group’s six solvency tests, but also meet additional criteria, including headlight performance. It is a goal pursued by car manufacturers. These requirements are the last phase of the safety group in improving the headlights since they started testing them five years ago.
Many 2020 models did not get the Top Safety Pick + due to the change, which caused some manufacturers to simply abandon the misclassified headlights.
IIHS determines the good performance of a headlight based on the distance between the low beams and the beams of a vehicle that illuminate straight and curved roads. On a straight road, a low beam classified as good will throw light at least 325 feet of road. Meanwhile, a low-intensity Poor beam could illuminate only 220 feet or less. In addition, points are deducted for lights that blind approaching drivers and points are awarded for functions that automatically switch between low beams and high beams.
For the 2020 model, 85 of the 185 models tested by the IIHS could be purchased with headlights classified as Bonds. But only eight of these models had Good headlights as standard equipment.
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The 2021 model year looks even better, as 10 vehicles have earned the Top Safety Pick + simply because they don’t offer lights classified as Marginal or Poor. These vehicles include the Audi A7, Honda Accord, Hyundai Palisade, Mazda CX-30, Nissan Altima, Subaru Ascent, Toyota Highlander, Volvo S60, Volvo XC40 and Volvo XC60. The Honda Odyssey also earned a Top Safety Pick + after removing two headlight options and testing its pedestrian crash prevention system.
Seconds IIHS, about half of all fatal crashes in the United States occur in the dark, and more than a quarter on unlit roads.
Good headlights can save lives. It’s amazing that you can still buy new cars in America with headlights that do little more than meet federal minimum requirements, so it makes me happy that carmakers seem committed to better, safer lighting technology. If your car came with shitty headlights and you want to improve them, be sure to set them up this will not blind everyone.