IIHS Study Reveals Most Car Headlights Need Improvement

Most motor vehicle accidents are attributed to human error and almost half of these occur in conditions when light is poor or at night. A study conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in the United States which evaluated the headlights of midsized cars in March and small SUVs in July revealed that many models have headlights that are not adequate to ensure sufficient safety for motorists.

IIHS conducted the studies in the runup to put in place a new vehicle assessment system by 2019. By 2017, a vehicle will need to receive a rating of Acceptable in order to become eligible for the IIHS Top Safety Pick award. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is also considering the addition of lighting as one of the criteria for its five-star safety ratings.

According to David Zuby, executive vice president and chief researcher at IIHS, government regulations with respect to headlights have not changed from the 1960s and do not take into account how light is projected down the road when a vehicle is being driven.

IIHS tests use many approaches to evaluate how far the light from the headlights carry in real-world scenarios. A set of sensors assess the light at a distance of 10 inches off the ground, while another set measures them 3 feet 7 inches off the ground. The impact of both the high beams and the low beams are measured while the oncoming glare created by the low beams is also taken into account.

Ideally, headlights should be five lux. On a clear night, a full moon illuminates roads to about one lux. IIHS conducts five tests comprising a straightaway, two graduals curves, and two sharp curves. Straightaways are assessed at 65 mph and curves at 40 mph. The curves are assessed in both left and right directions.

Midsize Cars

31 models were evaluated when it came to midsize cars. The Toyota Prius was the only model to get a “good” rating, and that too only when it was driven with the advanced technology package that is available as part of the top trim. From 82 total headlight combinations, 44 received Poor ratings.

Recently, there have been many advances in lighting technology including LED lamps, high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps, and curve-adaptive headlights. Of these innovations, the only one that proved to be useful during the IIHS tests is high beam assist, which switches from low beams to high beams when other nearby vehicles are not present. This increases the visibility and minimizes the use of high beams when it is not safe to use them. The Honda accord sedan was another model that performed well in this category.

Small SUVs

Small SUVs performed even worse than midsize cars in the IIHS tests. Not a single model earned a good rating from the 21 models and 47 headlight combinations tested. According to the IIHS, the Mazda CX-3 had the best headlights, but this CX-3 headlight which got the good rating was available only in the top Grand Touring trim, which comes with optional LED lights that are curve-adaptive and offer high beam assist.

Three other vehicles which performed to acceptable levels were the Hyundai Tucson, the Honda CR-V and the Ford Escape and none of these three models have curve-adaptive technology and only the Escape has high beam assist. In most SUVs, the main issue was glare.

IIHS Senior Research Engineer Matthew Brumbelow explained, “Glare issues are usually a result of poorly aimed headlights. SUV headlights are mounted higher than car headlights, so they generally should be aimed lower. Instead, many of them are aimed higher than the car headlights we’ve tested so far.”

Many motorists give a lot of weightage to performance and price when buying a car and fail to consider the headlights when buying a car. Eventually, it is hoped that acceptable and good headlight combinations will become available even in base models. Brumbelow said, “We’re optimistic that improvements will come quickly now that we’ve given automakers something to strive