Laser Headlights: How They Work & Their Disadvantages Explained

The laser headlight is a bright new technology which is being adopted by numerous automakers, such as Audi and BMW, who are looking to get a step ahead of the game when it comes to illuminating the road ahead. While there are frustrations and disadvantages to the tech, laser headlights do serve to benefit motorists in numerous ways. The obvious upside is that they're incredibly bright and can shine up to six times further than typical LED low beams. In today's age of 1,000-horsepower cars and heavily congested roads, improving the average driver's vision sounds like a huge overall plus.

The way they work is fairly simple. Three small blue lasers are directed at a series of mirrors within the headlight itself, and these mirrors direct that beam into a yellow phosphorus-filled lens. This then causes a bright white light, which itself bounces off of an internal reflector, projecting that laser forward onto the road ahead. Essentially, it's a tiny house of mirrors within your headlight, which is remarkably effective.

Laser headlights aren't without their imperfections. The main issues surrounding laser headlight used to be that they weren't even legal for production vehicles in the US. Happily, though, the NHSTA ruled in 2022 that adaptive driving beam headlights would be allowed on new vehicles, effectively permitting this technology to make its way into U.S. production cars.

A current major disadvantage, however, is that laser headlights can seriously hinder the visibility of other drivers. We've largely all been there before, when a vehicle with overly bright lights comes toward us in the night, with lights so powerful they effectively blind you. Many motorists are concerned that laser headlights will only amplify this problem, although it is possible to reduce the glare from passing headlights. Furthermore, laser headlights are expensive . When it comes to repairing and/or replacing the units down the line, is multiple thousands of dollars for a single headlight something most of us could stomach? There are certainly obstacles to overcome, and while automakers have been pushing the tech in recent years, some critics are already claiming this to be a passing fad, soon to be retired into the history books.