by "functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion)
Published 02/01/2017 at 11:32
by "functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion)
Published 02/01/2017 at 11:32
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This morning we got a nice little 1-2" of light, fluffy snow. I drove a short distance over a snowy back road and noticed what you often see on the back of a wagon/suv-shaped car while driving in the snow: the rear of the car was beginning to get caked in a fine layer of sticky snow, partly caused by the aerodynamics of the car, and partly, perhaps, snow mixing with warmer exhaust gases help the snow to stick to the car. The last part is speculation, but the effect is real:
As you can see in the above picture, the snow is melted around my taillights, because this is a 2001 car with incandescent bulbs and therefore, they are warm. The snow melted on the lenses since the lights were on. However, my third brake light is not only LED, but it’s only on when I’m actually braking so you can see it’s still snow-caked. So what about full LED taillights? They don’t produce as much heat, so will a car with LED taillights get completely coated in snow in this situation?
At night of course, you would see the headlights projecting in front of the car, but this strikes me as a problem - having no taillights at all. Is this a real problem in the world? Are we going to have to have heated taillights? Or heated headlights, for that matter? Or a resurgence of headlight wipers!?
Or maybe just, you know, clean off the back of your car occasionally.
"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
02/01/2017 at 11:37, STARS: 1
Meh, there will certainly be heated taillights in the future, if only to capitalize on the laziness of people to clean up their own car.
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
02/01/2017 at 11:37, STARS: 1
Hot take: Mercedes up through the W210 are the very best for this because they have rear glass heating, incandescent bulbs throughout, and have taillights designed with ridges to encourage dirt/snow/whatever to slump off.
"vicali" (vicali)
02/01/2017 at 11:44, STARS: 3
Not a big deal, LED traffic lights mean you won’t see the red light anyways;
"Otto-the-Croatian-'Whoops my Volvo is a sedan'" (otto-the-croatian)
02/01/2017 at 12:06, STARS: 0
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
"Otto-the-Croatian-'Whoops my Volvo is a sedan'" (otto-the-croatian)
02/01/2017 at 12:09, STARS: 0
No way, so that’s why the ridges are there?
Lurn somthin errday.
"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
02/01/2017 at 12:12, STARS: 0
Yep. Doesn’t always work, but that’s the idea.
"facw" (facw)
02/01/2017 at 12:13, STARS: 1
IIRC, the move away from halogen headlights is one reason why headlight wipers went away and were replaced by sprayers. The wipers just didn’t work effectively on lights that don’t get hot (and have more problems with getting frozen on).
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
02/01/2017 at 12:16, STARS: 1
Doubt it’ll happen.
My wife’s Subaru Impreza has EyeSight with the cameras and sensors and whatnot. There are a couple cameras in the windshield up by the rearview mirror, and some sensors in the lower grille.
The first time I drove the car in blowing snow, I kept getting WARNING: EyeSight inactive! VIEW OBSTRUCTED! error messages. At first I was wondering why the view when the cameras are on a part of the windshield swept by the wipers, but those sensors in the lower grille were probably the culprit.
This coming from Subaru, a company whose vehicles are supposed to be all about winter.