Evaluation of the SAE J1735 Draft Proposal for a Harmonized Low-Beam Headlighting Pattern

This study evaluated the SAE J1735 Draft Proposal for a low-beam headlighting pattern in relation to the current standards in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. The approach consisted of the following steps: (1) identifying a set of 15 important visual performance functions (including seeing and glare) for low-beam headlamps; (2) defining the relevant geometry relative to the visual performance functions; (3) setting criterion values of illumination for each of the visual performance functions based on the available empirical data; and (4) evaluating the standards relative to the criterion values by using the worst-allowed-case approach (evaluating the minima specified by the standards for seeing functions, and the maxima for glare functions).

The results indicate that the SAE J1735 Draft Proposal tended to require better performance than the current U.S., European, and Japanese standards.