The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is seeking public comments on a technical report that suggests new ways to regulate motor-vehicle lighting equipment. The report notes that the lighting standard—Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 108—was developed in 1968 and has been incrementally changed during a time when there have been dramatic changes in lighting technology. The report evaluates potential new ways to test to a performance-based standard for which the main goal is to reduce crashes and injuries by adequately increasing vehicle conspicuity and illuminating the roadway.
The report specifically considers approaches to include whole-vehicle testing for headlighting, asymmetrical headlighting, adaptive forward lighting, headlamp test voltage, sensitivity of headlamps to vertical aim, luminance of signaling and marking lamps, masking of front turn signals and reliability of photometric testing. Comments are due by September 10, 2012.
For more information or to receive a copy of the report, please contact Stuart Gosswein.