DESIGN MIAMI 2011
TOKYO DESIGN WEEK 2011
DUTCH DESIGN WEEK 2011
VIENNA DESIGN WEEK 2011
If you think about it, headlights on cars are actually a ridiculous solution. I'm sure they seemed a wondrous idea in the 1920s, but back then so did drinking bathtub gin.
During my first week of living in Japan some years ago, a local friend was driving us around Tokyo. At each stoplight I noticed the cars behind us would turn their headlights off. I asked my friend why. He explained that there's no need to have the headlights on when you're at a stoplight, as all they do is dazzle other drivers (not to mention pedestrians). The drivers there turned their lights off as a courtesy to the driver in front of them, so they're not getting a mirrorful of brightness.
I returned to New York a year later, in the late '90s, when SUVs were becoming trendy. It seemed like every time I stopped at a light, an SUV would pull up behind me, high-mounted headlamps shining full-bore into my mirror. I could practically feel my retinas cooking.
Here's why I say headlights are a ridiculous solution: Imagine it applied to pedestrians. Imagine we never used ambient artificial lighting, so every time the sun went down, we all just put on miner's helmets with a bright-ass light on top and used those.
On sidewalks, in movie theaters, restaurants and offices we'd all be blinding each other all the time. If someone walking towards you didn't turn his high beams off you could play that little aggressive-aggressive game and turn yours on to blind him in return.
I don't know what the full solution is, but I think I've seen part of it. Scientist Franky So, a researcher at the University of Florida, has developed a paper-thin film based on OLEDs that can convert infrared light to visible light. What this means is that you could conceivably cover a windshield with this film and experience something like what you'd see through night-vision goggles. But unlike NVGs, So's technology uses hardly any electricity at all due to its technological makeup.
So's proof of concept is only about a centimeter square, but Discovery News reports that "It will take about 18 months to scale up the device for practical applications, such as car windshields, lightweight night vision eyeglasses and cell phone cameras."
If we did get rid of headlights, of course we'd still have the problem of alerting cyclists and pedestrians to oncoming traffic...although when you hear about people stepping into traffic in broad daylight because they're fiddling with their phones, you gotta wonder what you could do. Maybe approaching cars should automatically turn your Mobile Facebook off, that would probably get you to look up.
Comments
Nightvision is not magical. You'd still need IR head lights. This would work great when it's just you on the road, but as soon as everyone else has IR headlights you get the same exact problem as before. I also think it would be quite weird to have a static image on your windshield... it wouldn't even be 3D, it would just be a 2D, weirdly projected image of the light that's reaching the windshield. It probably wouldn't even make any sense to look at.
Also, can you imagine coming up to a semi blind intersection at night with cars that don't have headlights? You're just asking to be T-boned.
I'm still curious why suburban-use SUVs don't have underslung headlights. The thought pops into my head every time the truck or SUV behind me blinds me. Is there something about the higher cabin that requires higher-positioned headlights, or is it just an aesthetic thing?
The pedestrian miner hat comparison is not a good one. people aren't running around at 70+mph around the streets and don't need to see as far ahead. The pedestrian environment is much slower and safer; if two people run into each other they're not likely to cause injury or death.
A simple modification to existing technology could be programming lights to dim when traveling at very low speeds and to turn off when stopped.
A solution to this might be to make headlamp lenses and wind-shields cross-polarized. You'd still have all the benefit of seeing your way around those darkened bends from the back-scattered light from your own headlamps, but the direct dazzle of approaching cars would be neutralized.
And why not getting your arm out to show you want to turn !!
Headlights function is TO SEE AND TO BE SEEN !!
A taillight is to see and TO BE SEEN!!! why so much anger against car...
Like Bobcat said, the solution for decades now has been polarized wind-shields and headlamps.
You have a dim, "to be seen" sidelight that doesn't dazzle. This is not polarized and can easily be seen through any windscreen.
Then you have a second, very bright, driving light that is vertically polarised. As the wind-shield would be polarised horizontally, you would never see the brighter light from the oncoming vehicles.
As soon as the polarized light hits other objects, it loses its polarization and illuminates the object. The diffused non-polarised light can easily be seen through the wind-shields.
The only potential problem would be pedestrians who would be obliged to wear polarised eye glasses to avoid dazzling.
THIS WHOLE TOPIC IS AN EMBARRASSMENT
I don't suppose you've ever bothered to check what the little plastic tag at the bottom of the rear view mirror does?
Haha what a waste of an idea proposal - you offer a high-tech solution to something thats already been solved like 50 years ago.
Next time someone pulls up behind you with bright lights, flick the switch on the bottom of the mirror and you will see what happens!
Can't believe this shit isn't known in Japan, and that a whole etiquette of driving has grown out of people's ignorance or lack of education - so instead turn off the lights! HAHA imagine how many potential accidents are waiting when people forget to turn them back on!
This kind of shit just saddens me. What a waste of time and you people call yourself designers i really makes me worry about the future...
M.
There are a series of problems here! What happens during daytime? If the guy with a SUV is annoying that doesn't mean headlights are ridiculous!