|
|
Post by c64 on Jul 28, 2013 10:57:03 GMT
By the way, the car is in fact EURO-2 compliant but when it was introduced on the market, the EURO rating didn't exist so the stinker tax is as high as on cars without a catalytic converter. In 1992, VW came up with an upgrade for the engine which is nothing but a different pipe for the crankcase vent to prevent that the car would occasionally puff out a blue cloud ruining the catalytic converter and oiling up the injectors. They defined it as an upgrade to enhance the emissions so the car is now EURO-1 rated if it has this pipe which is really a very good idea to conserve your peak power and MPG without maintenance.
|
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Jul 28, 2013 15:20:14 GMT
No wonder so many Europeans ride bicycles. or are they taxing emissions from your (censored) too?
|
|
|
|
Post by c64 on Jul 28, 2013 19:44:46 GMT
No wonder so many Europeans ride bicycles. or are they taxing emissions from your (censored) too? Correct. But there's also a lot of madness. By law, your bicycle has to have a dynamo and light bulbs of certain wattage. It's illegal to ride a bicycle without this stuff (even at noon) and battery powered LED head and tail lights are illegal. They are trying to change this law for many years now and the common practise is that the police tries hard to look somewhere else if you use decent lights on your bike. |
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Jul 29, 2013 2:32:54 GMT
Here, at least they are sensible enough to only say what results you must get from your visibility aids on your bicycle; and not go into particulars about how you are required to achieve it.
|
|
|
|
Post by GTCGreg on Jul 29, 2013 13:51:46 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Jul 29, 2013 15:25:39 GMT
that's an interpretation issue - the rule says they must be capable of switching modes - and it certainly seems to me they are capable of switching modes. just like the (standard) headlights on my truck are capable of switching on and off - they just do it without me micromanaging their operation. |
|
|
|
Post by c64 on Jul 29, 2013 19:27:39 GMT
Hey, I know the guy who had developed them. And he doesn't work for Audi, he works for an external car part supplier who equips many different motorcompanies with parts - including some US companies! They had to change the German laws as well since they demand a certain electric power consumption. A 55W LED headlight would be more like a deathray  Even the Xenon headlights need a certificate of exemption. It would be easy to be US compliant. Just add a switch like they do include for the ESP. The insurance companies try to refuse to pay for damage if you have switched your ESP off and had crashed. So they still have the switch which doesn't really switch off the ESP, it just changes its sensitivity settings. |
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Jul 29, 2013 20:11:53 GMT
Hey, I know the guy who had developed them. And he doesn't work for Audi, he works for an external car part supplier who equips many different motorcompanies with parts - including some US companies! They had to change the German laws as well since they demand a certain electric power consumption. A 55W LED headlight would be more like a deathray Even the Xenon headlights need a certificate of exemption. It would be easy to be US compliant. Just add a switch like they do include for the ESP. The insurance companies try to refuse to pay for damage if you have switched your ESP off and had crashed. So they still have the switch which doesn't really switch off the ESP, it just changes its sensitivity settings. perhaps the issue is that we have rules that require drivers to dim their high beams in traffic. (or the oldest rules still require them to dip their headlights - as old headlights had a linkage that actually rotated the light up for open roads and down when meeting traffic) |
|
|
|
Post by c64 on Jul 31, 2013 19:34:09 GMT
perhaps the issue is that we have rules that require drivers to dim their high beams in traffic. So all Audi and the rest need to do is to add a switch and throw in a few lines of software. I remember the first high/low beam automatic systems, you had to switch to high beams which are then switched back by the automatic system. If you switch to low beam, you have low beam only. Why not including such a switch, too. |
|
|
|
Post by GTCGreg on Aug 1, 2013 4:08:53 GMT
Cadillac introduced the first "electric eye" automatic headlight dimmer in the late 50's. They were the first U.S. automaker to offer such a system.
|
|
Even the Xenon headlights need a certificate of exemption.