High Beam Assist - Sensitivity

[orcades]

Hello All,

I've specced High Beam Assist - and whilst it works okay a lot of the time - it seems at times to be a bit slow at dipping the headlights. Is it possible to adjust some setting to make it dip the headlights a bit sooner.

It works okay - bit I'd prefer if it dipped the headlights a bit sooner.

Thanks

[mrluketee]

I thought it was just supposed to "assist" you if you forgot to dip main beam. But you should still be dipping them yourself as you are likely to see lights approaching from around corners. Then again I've never speeded it on a car so not actually sure how it works.

This could explain why a lot of people seem to be slow dipping their beams on the roads..

[jivemonkey]

Interesting angle, but I'm with the OP on this. The description on the VW website certainly suggests it is indeed a driver assistant, but more in respect of doing it for you and 'making it safer' by removing the requirement to keep 'constantly switching from high to dipped beam'.

http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/technology/comfort-and-convenience/high-beam-assist

If it was only intended to be a 'back up' system in case you forgot, then wouldn''t it always be enabled and only turn the main beam off, and not back on? Plus, I'm sure if you toggle the main beam a few times you actually disable the High Beam Assist entirely. Could be wrong there though.

Back to the OP, I also think it's a little slow, only a second or so, but could certainly be a little quicker. Don't use it much anyway as my route is well lit.

[karlak]

I have this on my current car (Mk3 Focus).  It came as part of a driver assist pack with other bits.

I have actually switch mine off now.  I found that depending on the road angle and sometimes from behind a vehicle the lights would not dim automatically, so giving the other driver Full Xenon beam.


But, the last time I used it and have since switched off, was when I had gave the full beam treatment to a Police traffic car.  He was heading towards me where we both going into a steep dip in the road - my car sensor didnt pick up his lights for some reason, so went full beam 

Another piece of great tech, which I don't think is perfect for all road conditions.  The Focus has three settings of sensitivity, but tbh they all seem pretty similar to me.  Also, found the lights would dip when sometimes heading towards road signs....

[Sootchucker]

Actually I think this works really well (at least on my GTD it does). Seems to go from dipped to high and back to dip very quickly as soon as headlights / tail lights or street lights are detected.

In the 4 months I've had the car, I can only recall one situation where it delayed dipping by a second or so for an oncoming car, but as I said most of the time, it's perfect and can switch faster than I can manually.

[jivemonkey]

Actually I think this works really well (at least on my GTD it does). Seems to go from dipped to high and back to dip very quickly as soon as headlights / tail lights or street lights are detected.

In the 4 months I've had the car, I can only recall one situation where it delayed dipping by a second or so for an oncoming car, but as I said most of the time, it's perfect and can switch faster than I can manually.

Hmm..interesting. I definitely can see oncoming traffic for a good second before the dipped beams come on. Might have to go for a nice long drive this evening just to make sure 

[orcades]

Thanks for the replies. When I added High Beam Assist to the spec, I was under the impression it would work 99.9% of the time and dip the lights. In practice it seems to work great for 90% of the time, it's just a second or two too slow at other times.

With High Beam Assist activated dipping the lights manually seems to take an extra movement of the column stalk. Doesn't sound much but it's a pain when you have to override High Beam Assist at the last minute to dip the headlights. Perhaps I'm expecting too much of the system.

Regards,

[itavaltalainen]

Works pretty reliable on my estate. Mind you that it also has cornering lights, so in a corner it tends to anyway point the lights just off the centre to the left anyway, so it would not blind oncoming drivers in turns that badly.

On straights it works 100%...

[jivemonkey]

Works pretty reliable on my estate. Mind you that it also has cornering lights, so in a corner it tends to anyway point the lights just off the centre to the left anyway, so it would not blind oncoming drivers in turns that badly.

On straights it works 100%...

I'm not sure you're referring to the same thing - high beam assist doesn't operate beneath 40 odd MPH and will only operate in complete darkness - any street lighting and it'll keep dipped beam.

[orcades]

Not sure about the speed High Beam Assist works at, however the post by itavaltalainen pretty much sums it up. Under ideal conditions it works perfectly, on twisty country roads with dips and hills it's not so good, but perhaps I'm expecting too much from the system.