Re: WC 150K Post Challenge - You Ready?!
With HID lights(we usually call the xenon lights) visibility is apparently much better (didn't have a car with them yet) than with normal Halogen lights.
But considering LED vs Xenon the difference in visibility isn't that big. I remember Autobild.de doing a comparison couple years ago between LED, Xenon and Halogen on same car. The difference between LED and Xenon was minimal.
Why are LED more popular now? First you can do different designs with them. So this is one thing. Also, there is no changing light bulbs when you have LED.
But the most important difference are Matrix headlights. Basically you are driving all the time with long beam but when your can notices someone is approaching you from the other way it will turn off parts of the lights not to blind the driver of the other car. This is the thing Audi's had for some years(not all) but now you can get it in new Opel Astra.
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I'll add some more information in here just to flesh out things a bit.
Let's start with Xenon lights. They're not actually xenon but HID with a xenon gas for instant light. Reason for this is that HID lights are not quick to turn on so the xenon gas helps to have a light while the HID warms up.
HID lights are in the yellow spectrum of light so they are not exactly the best for viewing items in the dark and they don't have a very long life, about 2000 hours.
LEDs are a different light altogether.
First, they're semiconductors which means they don't act like a normal light. The light is instant. They have a good temperature range and good life span but don't like high levels of heat so need to be insulated from the high levels of heat from the engine. They don't put out a lot of heat either (except from the driver circuit) which means that heaters are required for headlights in areas where they get to below zero temperatures.
LEDs emit a white light in the blue spectrum of light which makes them appear brighter than they actually are. They are significantly better for night viewing in that sense as objects appear more 'true' to us and less fuzzy. Issues with LEDs is that they're a very direct light and they can appear very blinding. So design considerations need to be taken into account for these factors.
As LED technology continues to grow, we're already in 3rd generation LEDs, we'll see improvements in the amount of light the LEDs can produce. But my guess is that they're here to stay, though I've see information on laser lights becoming available for BMWs for high beams. Interesting times.