Necessity to mandate Automatic Headlamp Levelling

Driver perception and behaviour towardsmanual headlamp leveling in India

M.Siva

Safetyand Homologation Laboratory

AutomotiveResearch Association of India

Pune,India

siva.shl@araiindia.com

VishakhaBhagat

Safetyand Homologation Laboratory

AutomotiveResearch Association of India

Pune,India

bhagat.shl@araiindia.com

B.V.Shamsundara

Safetyand Homologation Laboratory

AutomotiveResearch Association of India

Pune,India

shamsundara.shl@araiindia.com

A.V.Mannikar

Safetyand Homologation Laboratory

AutomotiveResearch Association of India

Pune,India

siva.shl@araiindia.com

Abstract - Manual Headlamp leveling in automobile is a mandatory system inIndia for a light source having an objective luminous flux which is less than2,000 lumens. The purpose of this standard is to avoid glaring of oncomingtraffic and to ensure an optimum range of illumination. Although manualheadlamp leveling solution can serve the purpose effectively, it is unable tomeet the ultimate solution of avoiding glare to opposite vehicles with respectto vehicle load. Drivers are unaware of the function of manual headlampleveling or they use the same for a different purpose. The Automotive ResearchAssociation of India carried out an extensive study across major trafficlocations in the country regarding the perception of drivers and theirawareness of the functions of manual headlamp leveling system. The study hasconsidered different vehicle categories, roads, age of drivers which occupies aunique role on the system implementation level. This paper discusses about theresult of the study conducted and suggests implementation of Automatic headlampleveling as a mandatory system for all M and N category of vehicles. It alsotalks about the different technologies which exist for automatic leveling andproposes a feasible system considering the cost for implementation.

Keywords-manual,head lamp, leveling, India, Driver, perception, behavior, automatic head lamp,leveling