Gadgetory

well it's dusk evenings approaching you're about to out drive your headlights you're probably driving in the speed or what you can hit is out there beyond what you can see you can remedy it with better lights and more use of them a recent study by the Automobile Club of Southern California's Automotive Research Center says bottom-line better headlights should be standard on a luxury tech option they examine the real-world performance of three basic families of headlights first halogen headlights like what I've got here on the 88 Ford and what maybe 80% of cars on the road in the u.s. today have as well then high-intensity discharge headlights those are the ones give you that kind of whitish blue really intense beat and finally LED headlights which to be honest are still pretty exotic and rare they examine each kind of headlight technology for its reach that would be how well it can illuminate something non reflective like an animal or a typically dressed person on a road without overhead street lights which by the way to count for like forty percent of the miles we drive each year they say the results well first of all halogen just doesn't cut it you can overdrive them as low as 40 miles an hour high-intensity and LED low beams extend illumination by about 25% beyond halogen high intensity and LED high beams got out to nearly 500 feet and that covers you up to about 55 miles an hour and both those advanced types put out less light here in the US than the same ones on cars sold in Europe to regulatory things now the behavior piece is interesting they also found that most of us are kind of shy about using our high beams we're afraid to blind the guy in front of us that were too lazy to sit there and flick on flick off all the time so we overdrive our low beams typically but this is kind of a shame because your high beams can buy you 28% or so more reaction time that's really a big deal so three takeaways first use your high beams see if the next car you buy offers Auto high beams to do all the flicking for you second opt for high-intensity or LED headlights they really do make a difference in reach and third check your car for cloudy headlamp lenses they don't just reduce your range they also scatter more glare at the other guy it pays to double check if your car has the most modern lighting technology especially you're buying a new one so if you're using your high beams and not getting lazy and ignoring them and realize that no matter what mode you're in you're very likely out driving your lights more realities of modern driving revealed now at CNET on cars comm click on smarter driver