Stock LED headlights don't produce enough lumens

Why do stock LED lights of luxury car dont produce enough lumens? These lights look attractive but they aren't brighter than HID.

sito said:

Why do stock LED lights of luxury car dont produce enough lumens?

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You're mistaken. For the most part, stock LED headlamps on luxury cars put more light flux (lumens) in the beam, on the road, than the best HID headlamps were able to achieve.

I doubt that's mostly true comparing only High beam HID and High beam LED.
I am sure it can be true for low beam.
I am prepared to "stand corrected".

sito said:

Why do stock LED lights of luxury car dont produce enough lumens?

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They do.

These lights... aren't brighter than HID.

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They are.

That being said, there are examples of factory LED headlamps whose objective performance isn't as good as it should be (such as late-model Ford F-150s), but that demonstrates that there are good and bad lamps of any technology. However, most factory LED headlamps put out more light, and in the right places, than the best HID headlamps.

XeRay said:

I doubt that's mostly true comparing only High beam HID and High beam LED.
I am sure it can be true for low beam.
I am prepared to "stand corrected".

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It's not clear: just what do you doubt?

Alaric Darconville said:

most factory LED headlamps put out more light, and in the right places, than the best HID headlamps.

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Whoah, pard! Hold yer horses before you gallop right off that cliff you just galloped off of!

It's definitely not the case that most LED headlamps outperform the best HID headlamps. Some of them do, and some of them very definitely don't. The current VW Jetta has LED headlamps that give performance just about exactly equal (whether measured by lumens in the beam or peak intensity or whatever other metric) to medium-good halogen headlamps. The '14 Corolla had terrific LED low beams, and many other Toyota-Lexus LED headlamps are also outstanding. A lot of the Fords with mini rectangular LEDs perform poorly. The Audi-BMW-Mercedes LED headlamps left HIDs in the dust some years ago.

It's all over the map, really.

What about the Honda and Acura jewel eyes?

-Virgil- said:

It's not clear: just what do you doubt?

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I am somewhat sure that most HID high beam setting (only with Bixenon) outperform most if not all LED high beam headlights.
LED is in most cases are superior for low beam if well designed.

XeRay said:

I am somewhat sure that most HID high beam setting (only with Bixenon) outperform most if not all LED high beam headlights.

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LED high beam performance benchmarks exceeded BiXenon high beams several years ago, and high-beam-only Xenons shortly after that.

XeRay said:

I am somewhat sure that most HID high beam setting (only with Bixenon) outperform most if not all LED high beam headlights.
LED is in most cases are superior for low beam if well designed.

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do yourself a favor, take a caddy escalade with led headlight for a drive, at night.

Questions like this aren't really answered by taking a car (of whatever model) out for a drive at night. All that'll do is get you a subjective impression.

My complaint with modern headlights and "daytime driving lights" (which are often brighter than low beams on many modern cars) seem to put more light in the eyes of the oncoming drivers than on the road for the driver of the vehicle.

I believe that the headlamp optics are more of the problem than the light source, itself.

Well, the whole point of DRLs (daytime running lights) is to direct light towards other drivers to make the vehicle more conspicuous. Yes, DRLs are permitted to direct higher intensity than low beams toward other drivers...but the asterisk there is that the relatively low limit on glare light from low beams assumes the low beams are aimed correctly and the car is level.

LightObsession said:

My complaint with modern headlights and "daytime driving lights" (which are often brighter than low beams on many modern cars) seem to put more light in the eyes of the oncoming drivers than on the road for the driver of the vehicle.

I believe that the headlamp optics are more of the problem than the light source, itself.

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yes, but it does not blind, unlike misaligned low beam or hid\led kits. neither from behind, nor oncoming traffic, i see some people drive with led drl\parking lights only in nyc, not sure if they do it on purpose, or do not turn knob all the way accidentally.

if it was not against my works policy to put dashcam videos online i'd post video from nyc highways, pepole drive with high beams on, no low beam\drl only, hid\led kits that blind you from few hundred feet behind.. some as special a$$holes, they aim driver side light up, so it blinds you, some have damaged front ends so it understandable, but some have no damage at all, but light is shooting right into eyes of a guy in front, one guy told me they do it to annoy cars in front so they move away, it's amazing what people do here.

NY used to be one of the states that had meaningful vehicle inspections including lights. Now it's like pretty much all the rest of the states.

I've never seen poor performing brake lights until I was in NY for a few months...saw way too many examples of people appearing to have dropped "off-road only" LEDs from AutoZone into their taillamps. Even at 2am in the morning, I found the brake lights on several vehicles to be completely lacking in intensity. And meeting the 5:1 on-axis intensity ratio? Forget it. I could barely tell when they were braking either because the lights would change from extremely dim to very dim.

Ls400 said:

I've never seen poor performing brake lights until I was in NY for a few months...saw way too many examples of people appearing to have dropped "off-road only" LEDs from AutoZone into their taillamps.

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Or sprayed them with black paint of some kind or another.

Even at 2am in the morning, I found the brake lights on several vehicles to be completely lacking

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Check again at 2am in the afternoon. ;-)

alpg88 said:

yes, but it does not blind, unlike misaligned low beam or hid\led kits. neither from behind, nor oncoming traffic, i see some people drive with led drl\parking lights only in nyc, not sure if they do it on purpose, or do not turn knob all the way accidentally.

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I find some of the DRL to be more blinding than the car headlights. Even some semi tractors are sporting these, now.

My impression is that there is no enforcement of vehicle headlight/DRL laws, except when a headlight is out.

I really believe that the Federal Government regulations for vehicle headlights are too loose and need to be addressed by people who actually drive on the various types of roadways, rather than people who have someone else drive them to work.

People tend to forget turn on headlights at nights. Cops haven't enforced any laws

even the best regulations are useless if not followed and enforced. not everyone sees lights as safety equipment, some see it as accessory, just today saw a wrangler follow me with RED "angel eyes".