The United States leads the world in many areas. However, when it comes to vehicle safety technology, it's lagging far behind countries from Europe, as well as Japan, China and South Korea. Vehicles destined for those markets, along with Canada and Australia, are offered with advanced lighting technologies while America is still driving in the preverbal dark.
United States regulations allow less light to be emitted from a car's high and low beam headlights than what is available. In the country, nighttime car crashes continue to be three times deadlier than daytime crashes.
Audi, Toyota and others including the American Automobile Association (AAA), have been pushing American regulators to certify the types of original equipment manufacturer adaptive front lighting systems (AFS) that have been in operation for more than a decade across the world.
Adaptive lights are made up of LEDs, drivers, sensors and CPUs. and more. The lights reorient themselves to dim a specific portion shining at a pedestrian, oncoming traffic, or even the rearview mirror of the car in front. Audi's version is called Digital Matrix LEDs, Mazda just calls their setup Adaptive Front Lighting and Mercedes' version is named Multibeam.
The governing body for a technology like this is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), an agency of the U.S. federal government, part of the Department of Transportation. The organization is charged with examining everything safety related that goes on a vehicle including seatbelts, airbags, lighting and more. But, the agency doesn't technically approve new technologies.
"NHTSA establishes performance requirements in Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) and manufacturers [self] certify compliance with FMVSS requirements. Before the 2022 update, NHTSA's safety standard for lighting did not accommodate AFS dynamic beam pattern combining both lower and upper beam characteristics based on changing roadway environments," a NHTSA spokesperson told Newsweek.
Last year, NHTSA created a certification process for these new lights, but the test varies from those around the world, meaning anything that was designed for that global standard won't comply with U.S rules. The current standard from the Society of Automotive Engineers (J3069) is used in all the countries named above.
NHTSA's requirements go beyond, with some automakers saying it doesn't make sense considering these adaptive front lights are safely in use in much of the world today.
"We introduced matrix lighting in Europe in 2012. Thereafter, that system was continuously developed with the Society of Automotive Engineers. And NHTSA was also briefed, they were given demos, they were shown it, they discussed the engineering of it," Mark Dahncke, communications director of Audi told Newsweek.
"And they also discussed the testing of it, was my understanding. The system was, in essence, codeveloped with SAE with other manufacturers," he said.
Audi brought its adaptive lights to the United States in 2014, installing them on the more expensive versions of its sedans and SUVs, with the hope of one day turning them on with a few software updates. Instead, it's going to take a whole new development cycle.
"You may not even be able to use the same technologies," said Dahncke.
Some of the differences in testing between J3069 and the final rule adopted by NHTSA include applying the glare limits at all ranges as opposed to at specific points (30 meters, 60 meters, etc.) in the SAE test. The final rule also specifies actual curves of various sizes as opposed to using simulated curves as well as using actual vehicles instead of assemblies intended to simulate vehicle lamps. NHTSA defended its choice noting that many of the tests are the same.
"The final rule follows SAE J3069 in many significant respects but is different in some areas due to safety considerations. For example, the SAE standard permits up to 25% increase in glare compared to current limits and would allow systems that do not provide benefits beyond standard lower beams to be marketed to consumers as AFS," said a NHTSA spokesperson.
The organization also said that it conducted research in the early 2000s into glare, and one of the solutions it came up with was self-dimming adaptive front lighting.
Toyota was one of the original petitioners for the change and said it appreciates the update, but like Audi, is asking for the regulations to follow the global standard.
"Upon review of the final rule, Toyota and others in the industry filed subsequent petitions to the agency. In its petition, Toyota recommended certain testing changes and we are waiting to hear back from the agency for any potential updates to the rule," a Toyota spokesperson told Newsweek.
AAA has been looking at the U.S.'s lighting regulations for years and says that at about 40 miles per hour (mph), with today's technology, people can "outdrive" their lights. That means obstacles won't appear in the light stream until That reduces reaction time and can lead to an accident.
NHTSA is trying to balance better visibility with glare prevention, both of which are mentioned several times in the 327-page final ruling.
"The reason the glare seems worse is that eyes were more comfortable with warmer looking lights, not the blue/whites that we have now," Greg Brannon, director of automotive engineering and industry relations for AAA told Newsweek. "If you are blinded by glare, we tell drivers to focus on the stripe on the right side of the road."
"The standard was really inadequate, considering the increased incidences of pedestrian crashes at night. But groups are vocal about the glare and NHTSA doesn't want a letter writing campaign. It is a step in the right direction," said Brannon.
