Technology Connections
4 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2022–2023
25:21 · 2.5M views · Oct 16, 2022
Technology Connections explains why American cars all had the same standardized sealed-beam headlights until 1957. It covers the regulations behind the design and the effect on night visibility.
Recommended as a clear explanation of why old headlights looked as they did, and as a case study in mandating requirements versus solutions.
6 comments from Hacker News
Tech Connections has, as so often the case, a great video about why old car headlights were the shapes they were - and why in later models they often changed: this video
There is a YouTube channel called Technology Connections which has a video about American car headlights: this video which I think illustrated a good example of the difference between mandating a solution, and mandating requirements. Considering car headlights. Obviously there are some requirements we should make - they need to be bright enough to safely light-up the road. They should not blind oncoming drivers. They need to be reasonably safe in the event of a collision. Between the sixties and 1984, the government of the USA mandated a solution. Basically one model of headlights was permitted (with a few minor variations introduced over time). If you look at all car models from this time they have a similar appearance, and the same headlights are still in use in some commercial vehicles today. In most European nations (and other parts of the world) instead a requirement, or series of requirements were made. If you met these standards for lighting level, glare, etc. your headlight was permitted. This led to European and Japanese cars have very varied headlight models, while most American cars were forced to stick to the same old style. This meant that American drivers missed out on innovations in this space. Mandates can very easily become out-dates. Whereas well written requirements are much more timeless.
There's two major safety issues: You can't see around cars to be able to pass. Okay, so you often don't pass. But much more importantly, car headlights aren't symmetrical. The one pointing towards the oncoming lane has a "cut" beam to avoid blinding other drivers while the other has a taller beam to improve visibility of anything entering the road. When you drive LHD in a RHD country, or vice versa, you are blinding other drivers while having low visibility of pedestrians and animals. Technology Connections did a great video about this. His solution was to stop driving his RHD car in low light. this video
Also interesting piece about why US was stuck in decades of same light design because of more stupid regulations this video
Right but in this case the actions taken were wrong, were not fixed, and still are not fixed. Like the fact only in near future it will be legal for US cars to have adaptive lights. Or how for years [1] near every car light was same ineffective design. Over-regulation is as dangerous as under-regulation. If car manufacturers have to squeeze fleet averages (which is on its own retarded idea, just tax every model separately ffs) for normal cars. Or how apparently 20MPG sportscar is "gas guzzler" but 15MPG SUV is not * [1] this video