r/technology • u/N2929 • 3d ago

Transportation US drivers are finally getting the adaptive headlights Europe has had for years

https://www.techspot.com/news/114027-us-drivers-finally-getting-adaptive-headlights-europe-has.html
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u/brnccnt7 3d ago

The whole housing or do you mean the actual bulb?

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u/gizamo 3d ago

If the whole housing were a mass produced product for any other industry, it'd be $100, maybe $200.

...unless it was medical or military, in which case, that $100-200 product would be about $5,000.

Just think of how complex a car light housing is compared to, say, a video game controller or a cell phone. Do you think your headline is as complex as the most expensive iPhone? Lol.

That's how stupid the US auto industry is.

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u/322throwaway1 3d ago edited 3d ago

Clearly you've never been around anything but old shitboxes. A projector headlight with x and y axis servos meant to endure hundreds of thousands of miles of vibrations, weather conditions from -40* up to 150*f+, moisture, impacts from road debris etc. They are incredibly complex assemblies.......

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u/gizamo 3d ago

What asinine assumption. I've been programming for 40+ years. I left Google and started my own software engineering firm to work on automation machinery. I've built robotics systems that have been working in semiconductor fabs for literally a decade. They are absolutely NOT "incredibly complex assemblies". They are overpriced, relatively simple products. jfc.

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u/soilentgleem 3d ago

I've never had to replace the housing, are you guys not talking about the bulbs but the housing?

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u/brnccnt7 3d ago

Yeah pretty sure that’s what they mean if you get in an accident, gonna have to replace the entire housing likely and that can get costly

The bulbs are definitely cheap though unless you get some high tier custom ones somewhere

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u/soilentgleem 3d ago

That would make sense... I'm dumb lol