Autos.ca: 2016 Prius LED Headlight Review

Interesting, the low beam didn't seem to change when high beam was switched on, like it added to it, whereas in the past, they'd be different filaments or different bulbs.

 

It's been like that for over 20 years over here in the UK, even with separate filaments, dipped beam staying on when high beam is selected. I first noticed it on my 1995 Ford Mondeo.

 

It is only one light source for both, I believe.

 

Yes, I think it's shuttered. For comparison, the Gen2 HID bulbs physically moved out/in to expose more or less of the arc to the reflector.

 

I actually got to use my Auto high beams last night coming back from dinner with the family on some back roads for the first time and for the most part they worked pretty good...

For some reason I did get a random oncoming suv to start flashing me and I checked and the high beams were off. So not sure if maybe it was an incline and the LED's along with the whole car were angled up or what...

It's a pretty cool feature.

 

I agree with the reviewers comment about peripheral lighting lacking somewhat. While people typically don't think of Chicago as being a place where you have to worry about hitting deer, I live at the edge of the city near a number of forest preserves and they are a real hazard. Better lighting would be most welcome. Hoping someone comes up with a fog light solution where I could angle them out a hair for side lighting.

 

In most bi-xenon or bi-LED setups, the bulb does not move. A motorized shutter provides the cutoff, and is folded down (remember, the beam is flipped when it passes through the lens) to expose light above the cutoff when the high beams are engaged.



In a single HID or LED projector, there is just as much light output as in a bi-xenon or bi-LED projector with the cutoff shield engaged, running the same bulb or chip, and all OEM HID bulbs and LED chips run at lower wattage than incandescent headlight bulbs.

 

Thanks for the video!

The LED headlights in Gen4 are like day and night compared to Gen3. I was going wow when I first turned them on. Nice, bright, pleasant to the eye, they are not blue, they are not yellow - they are a pleasant white with just a tiny tinge of blue.

The design is a single light source that gets directed straight ahead or down whether high beams are active or not - a mirror moves (you can even hear it if there is silence) when selecting one or the other.

In EU the headlights have auto-levelling (required by law). So whatever level they are set up normally right now, I cannot change it Nobody flashed me ever to say "hey, they are high", so I guess they are really set up properly.

In the EU they also sell it with Auto-Headlight as standard - the feature is really pretty cool. Essentially it turns on and off the high beams, depending on the traffic, speed and light situation. If you are on a dark road, it will turn them on, as long as you are not following a car, or another one is coming in your direction. The system, at least testing it in no rain, works extremely well. I don't know how it will work in the rain. If you enter a city, or a section of road better illuminated, the high beams turn off. The system is tuned to be conservative, not aggressive, which is really fine.

BTW: the lighting system has to be really good for the camera to work properly for the auto head lights and possibly even pedestrian recognition (which cannot really rely on the radar, more sensitive to metal than flesh/clothing). This is why they are so amazingly good. I must say, working in the industry, the design with a single source like on the Gen4 is really elegant and very good.

 

Great video, thanks for taking the time to do it.

 

Third gen LED's, or the regular lights?

 

Everytime I drive at night I get flashed by oncoming drivers.

 

I seem to recall seeing a thread saying there are two adjustment screws... and both need to be adjusted in a similar fashion.

 

On my Gen3 I had halogen lights.

Do check if you have high beams turned on instead of regulars. I never got flashed once.
Lights are typically set up at final stages of construction directly at the fab in Japan, not later at the dealer. So, unless something changed between that and the delivery (why?), you might inadvertently be using high beams.

 

There's a blue high beam symbol showing on the dash when high beams are on:

 

Remember North American models do not have Auto Leveling like Euro models do, it makes a significant difference in oncoming traffic.

I would love to find a way to install auto leveling on my NA model.

 

A couple of items have been dropped with LED headlights, from 3rd to 4th gen:

1. Auto levelling
2. Headlight washers

The latter were supposedly due to the LED's not heating up enough to warm snow/ice? But that's no longer a factor??