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--- transportation:autos [2025/12/29 03:41] – [Dashcam] timb
+++ transportation:autos [2026/01/14 23:33] (current) – [Dashboard / Buttons] timb
@@ Line 803: / Line 803: @@
 https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/03/05/0146205/carmakers-must-bring-back-physical-buttons-says-europe
+== Is 2026 the year buttons come back to cars? Crash testers say yes. ==
+The requirements won’t go far enough for many, but it’s a start.
+Jonathan M. Gitlin – Jan 14, 2026 5:31 AM
+Like any industry led by designers, the automotive world is subject to trends and fashions. Often, these are things the rest of us complain about. Wheels that used to be 16 inches are now 20s, because the extra size makes the vehicle they’re fitted to look smaller, particularly if it’s an SUV with a slab of electric vehicle battery to conceal. Front seat passengers now find themselves with their own infotainment screen, often with some kind of active filter tech to prevent the driver from being distracted by whatever it is they’re doing. And of course le buzz du jour, AI, is being crammed in here, there, and everywhere.
+But the thing about fashion and trends is that they don’t remain in style forever. For a few years, it was hard to drive a new car that didn’t use piano black trim all over the interior. The shiny black plastic surfaces hide infotainment screens well when the display is not turned on, but they scratch and show every speck of dust and lint and every smudge and fingerprint. And that’s true for the cheap econobox to the plush luxobarge. The industry finally cottoned on to this, and “black gloss has had its time—we can do without it,” Kia designer Jochen Paesen told me a few years ago.
+Many of those design trends may have been annoying, but the switch away from buttons isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s affecting safety. And increasingly, safety regulators are pushing back. A couple of years ago, we learned that the Euro New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) organization, which crash tests cars for European consumers, decided that from 2026, it would start deducting points for basic controls that weren’t separate, physical controls that the driver can easily operate without taking their eyes off the road. And now ANCAP, which provides similar crash testing for Australia and New Zealand, has done the same.
+https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01/buttons-in-cars-australian-crash-testers-are-latest-to-require-them/
@@ Line 1426: / Line 1442: @@
 https://josh.works/bollards
+==== Headlight ====
+== How Bright Headlights Escaped Regulation — and Blinded Us All ==
+Modern LED technology promised safer roads. Instead, it’s creating a blinding menace that regulators refuse to address.
+Jan 7, 2026 11:45 AM EST - Simran Rastogi, News Editor, Autoblog
+Key Points
+ *   Headlight brightness has doubled in a decade, with widespread driver complaints and frustration.
+ *   Regulatory loopholes allow manufacturers to increase brightness because of outdated federal standards.
+ *   Regulations capping maximum brightness for LED headlights have still not been formulated.
+The Bright Headlights Crisis Is Far From Over
+If you find yourself squinting while driving at night, you’re not alone. The IIHS reports that average headlight brightness has roughly doubled in the last decade. The NHTSA receives growing consumer complaints regarding headlight brightness. There’s a real, widespread anger out there; there’s even a subreddit with over 44,000 members complaining about this growing and very real crisis.
+The numbers support the public’s frustration. Older halogen bulbs produced approximately 1,000 lumens. Newer factory-fitted LEDs produce up to 4,000 lumens or more. Some aftermarket LEDs have been found to produce 10,000 lumens or more. But the problem is that the federal brightness standards for automotive headlights have not changed for decades.
+https://www.autoblog.com/news/how-bright-headlights-escaped-regulation-and-blinded-us-all
+== How Bright Headlights Escaped Regulation ==
+Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday January 07, 2026 11:00PM
+Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Autoblog:
+<blockquote>
+... the problem is that the federal brightness standards for automotive headlights have not changed for decades. The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108 hasn't had significant updates since 1986, with an addition allowing Adaptive Driving Beam (ADB) headlights coming only in 2022. The NHTSA last investigated (PDF) the issue of headlamp glare in 2003. The current standards include huge loopholes for auto manufacturers to emit as much light as desired, as long as the manufacturer meets the requirements of the other parts of the regulation.
+LEDs can be made to focus light using lasers, and auto manufacturers use this ability to their advantage. The regulatory standard prohibits excessive light in certain areas by referencing old technologies, but manufacturers design the areas in question to be shaded so that the total light output can still be increased greatly overall. Manufacturers want as much light as possible in order to get a high score for the IIHS headlight safety ratings. [...] Although the U.S. finally approved the ADB technology in 2022, manufacturers are wary of implementing it because of conflicting regulations, with a few exceptions, such as Rivian.
+</blockquote>
+https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/01/07/2339221/how-bright-headlights-escaped-regulation
 ===== Security =====
@@ Line 2161: / Line 2217: @@
 https://electrek.co/2021/01/30/awesomely-weird-alibaba-electric-vehicle-1500-electric-jeep/
+====== Hybrid ======
+== Are Hybrid Cars Helping America Transition to Electric Vehicles? ==
+Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday January 04, 2026 03:49PM
+America's electric car subsidies expired at the end of September, notes Bloomberg. Yet in those last three months, "while fully electric cars and trucks made up 10% of all auto sales in the US... another 15% of transactions were for hybrid vehicles."
+<blockquote>
+The EV market is slowing in the U.S., but analysts expect hybrid sales to continue accelerating. CarGurus Inc., a digital listings platform that covers most of the US auto market, predicts nearly one in six new cars next year will be a hybrid, as automakers green-light more and better machines with the technology. And though these cars and trucks will still burn gas, they will quietly move the needle on both transportation emissions and the transition to fully electric cars and trucks... CarGurus calls hybrids the success story of 2025. Indeed, the fastest-selling car in the country this year has been the Hyundai Palisade Hybrid; it sat on lots for fewer than 14 days on average...
+While carmakers have struggled to turn a profit on fully electric vehicles, analysts say their investments in batteries and electric motors are helping them sell more and better hybrid machines. It's also increasingly difficult to discern a hybrid from a solely gas-powered model, said Scott Hardman, assistant director of the Electric Vehicle Research Center at the University of California at Davis. Carmakers today often don't even label a hybrid as such. Consider Toyota's RAV4, one of the best-selling vehicles in America. The 2026 version of the SUV comes in six different variants, all of which include an electric motor and a gas tank. "A hybrid is just a regular car now," Hardman said. "You can buy one by accident...."
+</blockquote>
+https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/01/04/2346256/are-hybrid-cars-helping-america-transition-to-electric-vehicles