Musings from a quick road trip - VLD and HBA

[Doanster]

Went on a short evening road trip a few nights ago along rural stretches of highway. It was the first real opportunity to gauge VLD and HBA.

VLD - do it! Long-range beam adjustment was great and very noticeable; as I entered a new little town, it went back to short'n'wide; only "negative" is my usual whine about the overall makeup of the LED beam pattern; dark spots were more noticeable on wide open/dark highways; not a knock against VLD, though

HBA - in general, HBA works as advertised for the most part; i got flashed twice due to small dips/hills where the car didn't have time to react to oncoming traffic that was cresting the back side while I was on the downward slope of the front side; overall, I personally would probably just stick to manually using my high beams; not a big burden for me

Headlights in general - got flashed twice by drivers who ass-umed that because I had four headlights on that my high beams were activated despite the fact that they weren't being blinded; I'm sure this will continue until word gets out that new BMWs operate this way

[opasha]

That's also why I like VLD because it lowers the beams a bit so you get flashed less. The BMW LED and Bi-Xenons are very strong so people thing we always have high beams on when we don't. It's funny to see their reactions when you flash them back with your actual high beam, lol.

[lapa]

I just came home from 220km driving through the pitch black swedish countryside landscape. I have adaptive lights (HBA?) and I must say it is crazy good. The best part is when you have a car in front of you, the full high beam remains. It just "shadows" the car in front of you with a little "dark square". I have no idea how it works but it's on my top 5 list of things I like most with the car.

[opasha]

Originally Posted by lapa

I just came home from 220km driving through the pitch black swedish countryside landscape. I have adaptive lights (HBA?) and I must say it is crazy good. The best part is when you have a car in front of you, the full high beam remains. It just "shadows" the car in front of you with a little "dark square". I have no idea how it works but it's on my top 5 list of things I like most with the car.

Yep, you're very lucky. This is the Anti-Dazzle feature of automatic high beams only available in Euro countries. By default you also have VLD enabled. When you get the LED Lighting package you get all three features:

VLD is Variable Light Distribution - It only works on your low beams to move your headlights and position the beams on the road depending on steering angle and vehicle speed.

HBA is High Beam Assistant - USA spec high beams that turn off in the presence of headlights or taillights of other cars and automatically turns the high beams on if no other cars are present.

Anti Glare, Anti Dazzle - European spec high beams that enable your car to keep the high beams on without blinding other cars. Currently not able to be coded in the US.

*Variable Light Distribution has several different modes of operation (for Low Beam):

1 - City Light: Shallow and Very Wide Beam Pattern active from 0 - 50kph (30MPH) (Both Headlamps are Panned outwards 12 horizontal from center and 0.7 lowered vertically)

2 - Standard Light: Same Basic Beam Pattern as with 8S4 Enabled and Headlamp Switch Set to Auto. Active from 50 - 110kph (30MPH - 68MPH)

3 - Guiding Fog Light - Shallow and Wider Beam Pattern Enabled with the Front Fog Lamps On and Headlamp Switch in Auto and Speed 0 - 110kph (Both headlamps are panned outwards 8 horizontal from center and lowered 0.7 vertically)

4 - Highway Light - Long Throw Pattern illuminating approx. 25% further than Standard Light. Active from 110 to 250kph (68MPH- 155MHP). (Driver's Side Headlamp is panned 3.5 outwards Horizontal from center and lowered 0.25 vertically, while the passenger side headlamp is raised 0.2 vertical) (thank you @shawnsheridan)