Matrix LED

[Iain]

At the risk of sounding stupid (something I find very easy to do)......if the matrix LEDs are clever enough, not to dazzle drivers when high beam is on, why is there a high beam option with high beam assist? If I put high beam on, it looks like flood lights at Wembley - guessing not a good idea to drive with them on?? or am I missing something glaringly obvious?

[MikeFish]

You probably don't want to drive around like a mobile floodlight all the time, waking everyone up as you drive passed their bed rooms. Plus you have an option to over ride the high beam assist and just have high beams on regardless as 8m sure some people will find useful for lighting things up when parked but other lights such as torches might be messing with whatever it is you are trying to light up (or there is a fault with the camera / processor).

[Markp]

I actually use normal high beam quite a lot as I find the smart one is a little slow to react on some tighter corners, so I manually dip rather than blind others just as they are clipping the apex heading towards me.

[wildbore]

I have been flashed only once in 23,000 miles (obviously only a proportion of that was driven in the dark!) so I would say the Auto function on Matrix is pretty much spot on. This is in contrast to a friend's BMW with conventional lights; I travelled 10 miles with him one evening as a passenger and he was flashed about four times by oncoming drivers who felt his lights hadn't dipped quickly enough.

[MikeFish]

I've not been flashed at all when using the high beam. Found it to work very well but I've not used it on roads with very tight bends.

[Andy_W]

It seems to work very well on mine as well and like Mike said the BMW system dips about 3 seconds too late!

[Nigelo2]

There are actually 3 settings on the MMI for headlight activation time - early medium and late. Not sure how this affects matrix auto dimming as mine has been on Medium from delivery but I have been flashed on a couple of occasions in 4,500 miles

[Iain]

Cheers guys for the responses - I am being really really stupid now - when we say normal high beam - do we mean the blue light on the dash with the stalk pushed forwards?

I'll get my coat....................

[wildbore]

Normal high beam: stalk pushed away from you, blue light on dash, no other symbol shown, lights remain on full in all circumstances.
Auto high beam: stalk pushed away from you, blue light on dash shown only when high beam is fully or partially illuminated, white headlamp symbol with "A" character within also shown on dash in centre of lower display are.

[Iain]

Fab - thanks for the clarification - Mines on auto with the A character - a ball ache having to push stalk forwards when starting the car each time. Cheers

[MikeFish]

Fab - thanks for the clarification - Mines on auto with the A character - a ball ache having to push stalk forwards when starting the car each time. Cheers

I find the lights so good I don't need to turn it on all the time; the equivalent of dipped beams is very good.

[MikeFish]

There are actually 3 settings on the MMI for headlight activation time - early medium and late. Not sure how this affects matrix auto dimming as mine has been on Medium from delivery but I have been flashed on a couple of occasions in 4,500 miles

I though this setting was just to do with how quickly the lights turn on when you drive into a tunnel or it gets dark etc.

[wildbore]

There are actually 3 settings on the MMI for headlight activation time - early medium and late. Not sure how this affects matrix auto dimming as mine has been on Medium from delivery but I have been flashed on a couple of occasions in 4,500 miles

I though this setting was just to do with how quickly the lights turn on when you drive into a tunnel or it gets dark etc.

That's my understanding, too.