[RainDog]

Greetings all,

I wonder if anyone has any practical advice about the high beam assist function. I understand the mechanics (have the light switch on "auto," turn on the high beams, and let it do its thing), but I'm a little dubious as to its efficacy and utility. Have you used this feature to good effect? Have you noticed any practical limitations?

thanks!

 

[GaryInMI]

I've been using this feature for the past year and don't see a compelling reason to not use it in my normal driving conditions which is mostly Urban streets and country roads.

I'd rate the performance as good but not great.

To me it errors on the conservative side and it's probably more careful turning on the high beams than I would be. It's possible to lower the sensitivity but that's only temporary and you have to go through some gyrations to accomplish it, so I use it as is, I guess out of laziness. How hard is it to do this manually?

Just another step on the road to machines thinking for us ?

 

[Jim_in_PA]

I've been using auto-high beams for over 8 years now...including now on my Ascent. I like the feature and use it pretty much 100% of the time.

 

[IndySubieFan]

I agree with GaryInMI that it works "good" but not "great". I use it and feel that it works very well when vehicles are only coming toward you and the high beam assist will dim and brighten as needed. If you are in a rural or semi-rural road with your brights on and approaching an intersection where another vehicle is waiting to make a turn onto the road where you are driving, the high beam assist sensors are not able to see the headlights of that vehicle and thus the high beam assist will continue to keep your lights in the "bright" setting. This can be blinding to the other vehicle as they are waiting to make their turn. In such a situation, I dim my "brights" manually by pulling the headlight switch back. Another situation where a safety assist is helpful, but not as good as a human who is focused on driving. Thus when using the high beam assist, please be considerate of the occasional times where it still might be blinding for other drivers.

 

[IndySubieFan]

Greetings all,

I wonder if anyone has any practical advice about the high beam assist function. I understand the mechanics (have the light switch on "auto," turn on the high beams, and let it do its thing), but I'm a little dubious as to its efficacy and utility. Have you used this feature to good effect? Have you noticed any practical limitations?

thanks!

One other limitation of the high beam assist function that I have encountered -- if a pedestrian or bicycle is coming toward you when your high beams are on, the high beam assist likely will not automatically dim, and the pedestrian or bicyclist will be blinded by your high beams unless you manually dim. (This is mentioned in the owners manual).