LED Headlights Making Their Way Into The Audi R8
It was only a matter of time that LEDs make their way to the headlights of a car since they have been used as break or marker lights for a while but I do have a few questions after reading this article:
I wonder what the energy consumption of the active “electric ventilators” (i.e. fans) is? Is their consumption factored into the “50 watts” for the dipped beam headlights? On individual LED failure, does the entire headlight “module” have to be replaced? Lets face it, anyone in the industry knows that LEDs are more costly than lamps so I can only assume that the cost for one of these Audi LED headlights is gargantuan. I do agree with the lower voltage requirements statement and the LEDs are more efficient than the halogens or xenon lamps. I am not sure what is meant by “non-wearing design”? Does that mean these things don’t fail? Because that just isn’t true. High-power LEDs (1/2 watt and up) typically have a life-cycle of 10,000 hours down to 2,000 and perhaps even less for the super high-power LEDs (5 watts). Perhaps they mean that LEDs are less prone to failure due to the stresses from driving? That would be a fairly accurate statement although I hope they chose some fairly sturdy, brushless, ball-bearing fans that are dust sealed as I know these things are prone to failure due to vibration and shock.
It will be neat to see where and how the LED headlights show up and how they have progressed from here and where they go after their introduction. Of course, I’ll have to wait until they make their way into econo-cars before I can try them out unless Audi would be so kind as to ship my a test R8?…..Didn’t think so. 
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