# Audi LED heaslights



## madecov (Feb 15, 2012)

Audi had a neat Supeebowl commeecial touting a new LED headlight. Does anyone know what emitter it might be and what the ouput could be?

Any guess as to who will go LED next?


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## TEEJ (Feb 15, 2012)

Apparently its bad for vampires, and they don't know it, even buying an Audi with them.

If I remember the commercial correctly, I think that they didn't use the car headlights to light up the undead, as the lighting appeared to be more flood like, with no beam cut off. I would expect the car's headlight pattern to have a nice sharp cut off, but even at close range, their faces, while standing, where lit up brightly, they had to shield their eyes from the glare, etc.

So, I'm thinking that either the Audi headlights will NOT kill vampires, and they had to use perhaps a foursevens stopsign light or some other similar source...or, that they were in fact not really vampires.


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## AnAppleSnail (Feb 15, 2012)

madecov said:


> Audi had a neat Supeebowl commeecial touting a new LED headlight. Does anyone know what emitter it might be and what the ouput could be?
> 
> Any guess as to who will go LED next?


The emitter is a blue laser (like on a blu-RAY player) and a remote phosphor. The output is probably 1000 lumens per lamp ballpark, and there aren't too many advantages yet.


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## AnAppleSnail (Feb 15, 2012)

TEEJ said:


> ...They had to use perhaps a foursevens stopsign light or some other similar source...


I've done a bit of work with video. On a set, especially to capture motion, you want bright lights. Rock shows use short-arc lamps of incredible brightness (several at a time) to do video of the guy on stage. I suspect that watching the video set in person, the Audi headlights were not that impressive compared to the light output of the lighting for camera work. Bring a 12V battery and a stock car headlight into an office-level brightness (300 lux) and fire it up - it won't look so impressive.


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## TEEJ (Feb 15, 2012)

LOL - I was being facetious


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## blasterman (Feb 15, 2012)

Don't know who makes the Audi headlamps LEDs, and in a respect the design clearly promotes a 'hey, look at me, I'm compensating' attitude rather than practical engineering. No offense to Audi owners, but it sure looks that way.

As for your second question, I believe the Prius uses LED head lamps.

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...66527-halogen-vs-led-headlights-pictures.html

The lack of LED headlamps in the automotive world has more to do with the lack of progressive engineering attitude than technical capability. There's simply no incentive for car makers to produce practical, high tech illumination when the current plastic halogen reflector housings are dirt cheap to make and there's a secondary market for replacement halogen bulbs at 1000% mark-ups.


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## blasterman (Feb 15, 2012)

> The output is probably 1000 lumens per lamp ballpark, and there aren't too many advantages yet.



With the Audi lamps, or properly designed LED headlamps? I'll take 750lumens of 5000k Cree for driving over a stupid halogen bulb anyday. Sick of changing bulbs in my car given it's usually a cop that tells me they are burnt out anyways.


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## madecov (Feb 15, 2012)

It was a great commercial. I would imagine eventually vehicles will use LED headlamps


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## AnAppleSnail (Feb 15, 2012)

blasterman said:


> With the Audi lamps, or properly designed LED headlamps? I'll take 750lumens of 5000k Cree for driving over a stupid halogen bulb anyday. Sick of changing bulbs in my car given it's usually a cop that tells me they are burnt out anyways.


Turns out headlamps are 750 lumens apiece, when wired properly. I think that you ought to check your headlamps for proper function. Reflectors and covers are the biggest culprit, but if your car eats headlamps then you might be rattling them to death.

Current LEDs are barely adequate to produce safe driving beams - and few manufacturers consider it worth the trouble.


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## TEEJ (Feb 15, 2012)

So who's de-domming their Audi first?

:nana:


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## AnAppleSnail (Feb 15, 2012)

TEEJ said:


> So who's de-domming their Audi first?
> 
> :nana:








Ouch, man. Ouch.


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## FRITZHID (Feb 15, 2012)

AnAppleSnail said:


> Ouch, man. Ouch.



Oh i LOVE that one Apple!!!


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## bshanahan14rulz (Feb 15, 2012)

So, Audi copying BMW now, with the laser headlight gimmick, and trying to one-up them with laser tail lights too. Still a concept car, according to article I found.

As far as I know, only the Prius, R8, and escalade are the only current cars with LED lowbeams.


http://inhabitat.com/dont-make-eye-...pack-laser-tail-lights/rsz-audi-a2-concept-4/


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