How useful are the adaptive headlights?

[scottdk]

I have had my 2012 premium/tech since June, and honestly cannot tell any difference. I placed an observer at a tight turn to watch the headlights, and they could not tell if they turned or were straight ahead (nor could I, driving). I am trying to figure out if they are working as advertised or not. Does anyone know a way to check them? I am sure they are computer controlled, so maybe the speed being slow in a tight turn kept them from moving. (??)

Drive about 10 mph and turn the wheel hard left and right and if you can't see it you have defective lights (ensure the button is not disabled) or you're blind Pretty darn noticable.

 

[mikec]

The AFLS goes through a test cycle when the vehicle is started, this is mostly visible as an up/down motion of the lights. To test/verify if your side to side motion is working, do the test scottdk describes; I've posted a similar test somewhere too. To help make it more visible, what I did on my 2009 V8/Tech was:
1: on a fairly dark and empty/roomy road, drive slowly - 10 to 20 mph.

2: oscillate the steering wheel back and forth so you make a wavy path in the road... not so wavy as if you were a Road & Track test driver weaving through cones, just weaving a bit to avoid potholes for example. Watch the light pattern. My light pattern "jumps" sideways a little bit just as the steering wheel moves in that direction - it's not a huge change.

3: repeat step 2, this time with the AFLS button pressed to turn the system OFF. You'll see a big difference now if the AFLS was indeed steering your headlamps in step 2.

mike c.

 

[dg_moore]

The AFLS goes through a test cycle when the vehicle is started, this is mostly visible as an up/down motion of the lights. To test/verify if your side to side motion is working, do the test scottdk describes; I've posted a similar test somewhere too. To help make it more visible, what I did on my 2009 V8/Tech was:
1: on a fairly dark and empty/roomy road, drive slowly - 10 to 20 mph.

2: oscillate the steering wheel back and forth so you make a wavy path in the road... not so wavy as if you were a Road & Track test driver weaving through cones, just weaving a bit to avoid potholes for example. Watch the light pattern. My light pattern "jumps" sideways a little bit just as the steering wheel moves in that direction - it's not a huge change.

3: repeat step 2, this time with the AFLS button pressed to turn the system OFF. You'll see a big difference now if the AFLS was indeed steering your headlamps in step 2.

mike c.

From these descriptions it sounds like adaptive headlights fall in the same category as dealer paint protection - you can't see it and you can't tell whether it has actually been applied, but you *do* pay extra for it

 

[maxpowers]

Sounds like it isn't as useful as I thought it would be.
The reason I was wanting to know was because I was driving at night once, and it was pitch black, and I go to turn left and a median appeared out of nowhere and I almost went on the wrong side of the median/ hit the median because I didn't know it was there till my car was facing it. But sounds like it wouldn't even help in that situation to highlight the median.

 

[mikec]

When I bought my 2009 V8, I looked at the non-Tech version (you could get the V8 without Tech back in 2009) since I didn't think I wanted all of the electronic stuff - historically that tends to be less reliable in cars. I drove the car I thought I wanted and was surprised at how poor I thought the headlights were... so the sales guy had me drive a V6 with the Tech to see the AFLS and upgraded headlights. BIG DIFFERENCE. Both the upgraded lighting technology and the AFLS. So I had the dealer locate a V8/Tech combo in my colors and bring it over. That's what I'm driving now.

The AFLS aims the headlights as you turn the steering wheel... it can't "anticipate" your maneuvers (and no, it doesn't look at the turn signal lever as a hint) and swing the lights off to that side to show you the curb/ditch/median you might be thinking about turning into. Using the fog lamps helps illuminate the sides a bit; I've been doing that for years on my other cars too. What AFLS does is let you see further around a long bend in a road, especially on country roads or remote highways where overhead lighting might be non-existent, as you enter that bend. It's less useful in the city where everything is fairly sharp 90 degree bends; the AFLS doesn't have that much motion. Out on dark country 2-lanes though it'll give you a lot more chance to spot that deer.

maxpowers: whatever car you were driving that night sounds like it had the headlights aimed too high up. Or was there a lot of weight in the trunk that night? Around here, I'd guess about ten percent of cars have headlights needing aiming adjustments - quite a few are obviously too low (illuminating too short a range) or too high (not illuminating the ground) and most often not aimed at the proper left-right angles. Fog lamps (not driving lights) typically cast a wider but shorter beam so they give good lateral visibility. Driving lights are long-distance straight-ahead lights and are useless for lateral visibility. The other thing that I've seen (infrequently) is an improperly installed replacement light bulb - if the filament isn't horizontal or vertical (whichever is correct for the car) the reflector behind the bulb doesn't work properly and the beam is totally distorted. Cheap aftermarket bulbs often have the "index key" removed so the bulb can fit a larger variety of cars... but without that key it's easy to install it at the wrong angle.

mike c.