In 2013, in response to Toyota’s petition, NHTSA announced that it would begin the rulemaking process. It took another five years before a rule was published for review; Meanwhile, NHTSA considered adopting the EU rules before ruling that if a car equipped with adaptive lights “does not have a long view of another vehicle, such as in an intersection scenario or when two vehicles are coming from the opposite direction on a curved road, the ADB does not have sufficient time to react to adapt its beam.”
A key difference is how vehicles are regulated. In Europe, cars are approved for type approval; Manufacturers submit examples to authorities for testing to ensure they comply with the rules, and then authorities approve the car for sale. In the United States, manufacturers report to the NHTSA that their cars comply with the FMVSS, under penalty of penalties if this later turns out to be false. At the time, NHTSA felt that European glare tests were too subjective for a self-certification regime and decided to write their own.
In 2022, this final rule was ready. Since then, cars equipped with active beam array LED headlights have gone on sale in the United States; Audi’s new large SUVs are a good example, although their functionality is limited compared to the same technology fitted to European-spec cars.
Among NHTSA’s goals for an updated FMVSS 108 are harmonizing U.S. standards with global counterparts, updating rules for technologies such as LEDs, ambient light sensors, automatic high beams and replaceable light sources, improving testing procedures for lenses and optics, understanding how to better aim headlights and ensuring that none of this blinds other people on the road by glare.
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