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June 5, 2021 – The New York Times publishes an article about dazzling headlights. LED chips have an inherent “float” when photons leave the chip, meaning there is inherent instability in the flow of photons. In addition, the pilot`s electronics can use pulse width modulation to change the brightness, which means that the current is quickly turned on and off. Supposedly, this “flicker” is on a subsensory level, meaning that people cannot detect flicker. However, many people report feeling or seeing fibrillation, including those with epilepsy and other neurological conditions. “Blinking frequency” occurs when the LED is intentionally turned off to flash the light on the oncoming person to indicate a warning. FMVSS-108 does not regulate any of these time parameters. Therefore, LED headlights are illegal in terms of temporal properties, as FMVSS-108 involves a stable, non-flickering photon stream. LED headlights are also illegal because flickering is dangerous.

When a product is listed as “SAE certified”, it means that it has been sent to SAE for testing and certification and the stamp essentially means “This is a very high quality product!” This is NOT the same as DOT compliance. This is for product quality, not legality. Blue light with wavelengths of 450 nanometers is known to be dangerous to the eye. The blue wavelength also controls the circadian rhythm and also causes glare. The blue wavelength obviously needs to be regulated, and yet NHTSA has no regulations to protect our eyes. FMVSS-108 does not contain any requirements for power spectral distribution. Therefore, LED headlights are illegal in terms of spectral distribution, as FMVSS-108 implies a weak blue spectral distribution. In addition, LED headlights are illegal because they are dangerous and violate the Motor Vehicle Safety Act.

November 23, 2021 – Motortrend.com confirms that LED headlights are illegal. Despite a 60% reduction in road traffic, more than 40% of all fatal car accidents occur at night. In addition, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, nighttime crash rates per mile for vehicles with headlights that score well in the institute`s headlight evaluation program are nearly 20 percent lower than those for vehicles with poorly rated headlights. Headlight regulations: The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration`s FMVSS-108 applies only to point sources, not surface sources. Because LED headlights are surface sources, LED headlights do not comply with FMVSS-108 and are not legal. Essentially, it is up to projector manufacturers to determine whether they meet the requirements. If you are looking for something to fall asleep, you can read these requirements here. In short, there are specifications for every possible application, vehicle and installation position. In order to measure the distribution of photons with real accuracy, we need to select a very high resolution detection system at the picometer or femtometer scale. In practice, this also means that we use a precision measuring instrument in the laboratory and only have to measure under near-field conditions at a distance of about 1 micron from the surface of the chip. Once the detector has a high enough resolution and the detector is close enough to the source chip, the detector shows the distribution of photons and how most photons are clustered in a very small space.

The mistake of engineers certifying LED headlights is the use of software that is accurate only at the micron scale and uses far-field data collected at a distance of 100 feet from the source. Figure 10 shows precision measurements at the femtometer scale under near-field conditions. The best way to keep your car legal on the road is to stick to the headlights that come with your vehicle. The headlights supplied with a vehicle delivered directly by the manufacturer are all legal. Even bright and specific LED bulbs have been federally tested and approved for sale. Reading the owner`s manual and easy maintenance of the bulbs provided will ensure that your car can still drive legally on the road. The only way to accidentally make your car`s headlights illegal is to replace them yourself with spare parts. 27. January 2022 – The U.S. DOT releases the National Highway Strategy without mentioning LED headlights. If you`re new to the illegality of LED headlights, you`re not alone.

This is because the regulations for LED headlights are federal. Some states have specific rules for LED headlights that vary from state to state and are often related to brightness. It is best to check if LED headlights are legal in your respective state. The federal government will not lure you in because of LED headlights. In fact, many states don`t have regulations for installing LED headlights, which means local police departments don`t even have the authority to enforce these rules. Because the regulations for the use of LED headlights come from the federal level. If you`re reading this and attaching LED headlights to your vehicle, don`t panic. While it is true that most LED headlights are illegal due to current federal rules and regulations, enforcement of these rules is not heavily enforced. The illegality of LED headlights often comes from the manufacture and installation of luminaires.

Many aftermarket lights don`t comply with local brightness laws, and in some states, playing with a car`s headlights is also against the rules. However, it is unlikely that they will be stopped because of the LED headlights. However, there is one downside to technology: it is expensive. So much so that adaptive headlights will probably only be present in the top offer for the foreseeable future – regardless of the relaxation of legislation. Time averages relative to time. FMVSS-108 assumed that the light source of the headlights emits light in the form of a constant stream of photons, so there is no discussion of flicker in FMVSS-108.