Are high-tech LED headlights worth it?

Braden Cuss

You only have to take a drive at night in the city and beyond to see how vehicle lighting technology is fast changing our landscape, with LED lights now prevalent on modern cars and the beams dazzling with their effectiveness and design.

But how much difference do LEDs make compared to traditional halogen lights, and is it worth ticking the options box or stepping up to a higher-grade model to get even more advanced headlights such as Matrix LED or even lasers?

Let’s shine a light on the past, present and future to find out…

Halogen lamps have been the mainstay of automotive lighting for many decades, spreading throughout Europe and the US during the 1960s and ‘70s and remaining on many new vehicles today.

The technology has remained successful largely due to its cost efficiency and ease of service, allowing many owners to replace bulbs by themselves.

Fast forward to the mid-1990s and enter high-intensity discharge (HID) systems, also referred to as Xenon.

These provide a significant improvement in lighting performance and less energy consumption compared to a halogen unit.

However, HID is a relatively complex system, similar to a fluorescent light that requires a ballast to start and maintain the lamp.

LED stands for light emitting diode and has become the dominant technology around the house, in appliances (TV, mobile phones, etc) and in the automotive industry.

Both halogen and HID bulbs contain inert gases, whilst LEDs are a completely different solid state technology.

But what makes them so popular?

LED headlights enjoy a long list of benefits over halogen and HID technologies.

For starters, they have the longest life span, with modern ones exceeding 25,000 hours compared to 15,000 hours for HID and 2000 hours for halogen.

With typical usage at a couple of hours per day, LEDs could last for more than 20 years – longer than some cars may remain in service – with HIDs remaining in service for about 14 years and only around two years for halogen.

They’re also the most efficient, with other available technologies suffering from losses in the form of heat and infrared (that is, producing light that is not visible).

LEDs emit light directionally, and therefore require less components to reflect and redirect light.

They’re also the most compact, which can help with packaging, weight and allowing for sleeker styling.

By using less power, operating at cooler temperatures and being lightweight, LEDs contribute to lower fuel consumption.

But it’s not all bright lights and fun for LEDs. Diodes are made of semi-conductor materials and sophisticated manufacturing processes which leads to high costs and, in the current environment, could mean delays at the production line due to the global shortage of semi-conductors.

The 2007 Lexus LS 600h was one of the first mass-production cars to feature LED headlights, so they’ve been around for a while.

What came next?

The next evolution is known Matrix LED. Here an array of individual LED modules are used in varying numbers (10 to 80).

Using a forward-facing camera, the system can adjust the intensity of light according to the conditions.

This can be set up for a raft of applications, including auto levelling and speed-dependent intensity.

However, Matrix technology is especially useful if following a car or approaching oncoming traffic, as the system can completely deactivate a portion of the Matrix to avoid dazzling other motorists while still illuminating the rest of the light beam.

The latest technology usually launches on high-end luxury vehicles, so the fact that models like the just-launched new-generation 2022 Ford Ranger have Matrix LED lights available show its proliferation into the market.

Apart from being a hit to your wallet, like many other modern features it also suffers from the semi-conductor shortages, meaning that opting for Matrix LEDs may push out your new vehicle delivery time.

Since 2014, vehicles such as the Audi R8 have been experimenting with laser technology.

These highly complex systems use multiple lasers which are first combined into a single beam. In this form it would be highly harmful to the human eye and therefore goes through various processes to be converted to an output not too dissimilar to that of an LED.

The advantage is the range, with the ability to cast light 500 metres down the road and often doubling what LEDs can achieve.

As the light output is relatively narrow, and there’s a high cost involved with each laser diode, applications of laser are predominantly restricted to supplementing LED high beams.

The US-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found a disproportionate number of fatal car accidents occur at night, so headlight performance has formed part of the agency’s checks since 2016.

The ability to detect and monitor stray animals, pedestrians or poor road conditions such as a pothole before it’s upon you can be the difference between a hit or a miss.

It stands to reason that you can’t react to hazards you can’t see, and seems entirely reasonable to include headlights as part of a vehicle’s safety assessment.

As we progress further towards autonomous vehicles, we may see the amount of innovation for headlights decrease.

While cars will still require lighting systems to supplement their camera systems and for pedestrian safety, the increasing reliance on Lidar and radar systems which don’t require a visible light source will likely see resources spent elsewhere.

On today’s roads, however, paying extra to have LED headlights and, where available, advanced Matrix LEDs will be a worthwhile investment, particularly if you do plenty of night driving outside the city limits.

The pros and cons of advanced LED headlights:
• Light intensity is far superior to halogen, improving safety when driving at night
• Life span is much longer than halogen bulbs, possibly outlasting the rest of the car
• LEDs are lighter and consume less energy than halogen lights, helping fuel efficiency
• Matrix LEDs can provide very strong lighting coverage, even with surrounding traffic
• LEDs are more expensive and more difficult to replace than halogen lights
• Semi-conductors are used in LED light manufacture, so they could delay the car’s delivery time