Aptera’s Headlight and Audio Specifications.

[MegaAutoBit]

These are the two items that still keep me up at night. About two years ago I performed a factory upgrade on my car to adapt it with HID Headlights. It was the best money I ever spent. However, I have become spoiled, and now find it difficult to drive any vehicle with Halogen lights. The difference is amazing. Due to Aptera’s emphases on safety, and the lower power consumption of HID lights after the initial warm up, I would think this would be the technology they would choose. Does anyone have any information regarding this area of the vehicle? In some of the photos, I have seen a blue hue around the lights which is typical for HID’s, and in others the lights appear to be Halogen.

I am also somewhat of an audio file, and love sound systems. I was wondering if anyone knows anything about the speaker system Aptera is planning on using.

[RoxChkPlusOny]

I assume that the current speaker system is nonexistent, and will later be upgraded to something defaulty (think factory preset)... As an audiophile myself, I would recommend poking around to see if you can custom it - the system can't be too proprietary, i'm sure. Lights, I don't know.

[Matthijs]

HID Headlights are becoming old technology quickly. They need high power starters and consume about 35watts of power. I read about LED lighting being used on the in- en exterior of the Aptera. I hope they will go for LED headlights as well.

http://www.gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2006/10/led_headlights.jpg

Soon every car will have LED headlights because they are cheap to make, last long, are stylish and green.

[MegaAutoBit]

Your right, LED lighting is the future of automotive lighting, but according to articles I have read over that past year LED’s are not ready for Headlight application just yet. Audi, and Hella have been working on this for years, but the issue seems to be with the narrow light pattern LED’s emit, making them perfect for awareness lights like turn signals and daytime running lights. Because the emitted light doesn’t diverge enough they need to install huge LED arrays just like the one’s seen in your picture above. Since Aptera has nothing that looks like this for there headlights, and due to the limited development resources I don’t think they will be using LED’s for there headlight technology. Which leads to either HID’s, or Halogens which I think can consume anywhere between 65-95 Watts for a headlight application. Making HID’s more efficient, and safer through their large output.

[MegaAutoBit]

Just for general information, incase someone had missed it; the entertainment system uses the StreetDeck software. You can find a link below.

http://www.streetdeck.com/

[RoxChkPlusOny]

Seems cool. I just hope that there will be, ahem, WINDOWS (not the software kind) around the final model. Did you see the picture on the StreetDeck site?

[MegaAutoBit]

Seems cool. I just hope that there will be, ahem, WINDOWS (not the software kind) around the final model. Did you see the picture on the StreetDeck site?

LOL. :D

I didn’t see the picture, I am assume your referring to the Aptera posting. I have known about this for some time, but what I didn’t know was S.I.T.C. system StreetDeck claims Aptera is using. Since when does the Aptera have automatically adjustable suspension, or am I reading this wrong?

[3-4-me]

LOL. :D

I didn’t see the picture, I am assume your referring to the Aptera posting. I have known about this for some time, but what I didn’t know was S.I.T.C. system StreetDeck claims Aptera is using. Since when does the Aptera have automatically adjustable suspension, or am I reading this wrong?

There was a small cad drawing of the original protype. The windows are alot smaller.

I caught that about the adjustible suspension also. I read it somewhere else too, could have been the StreetDeck website.
Could be a nice feature.

[MegaAutoBit]

I stand corrected; LED lighting technology has made it to the primary beam in headlight design. After reading a recent review, I discovered that the Lexus LS Hybrid is the first vehicle to use LED’s for headlights. However, I am unsure if the LED’s are being used for low, high or both beams.

[GCustom]

which review?

[garygid]

Google headlights or headlamps and wikipedia for a good
discussion of the various types of headlights and technologies.
There, they have a link to the Lexus LED Headlights:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexus_LS#LS_600h_.2F_LS_600h_L

It looks like special headlight assembly molds with groups of
molded lenses each backed by groups of high-intensity LEDs
would be needed. Most likely this is too much to expect in
the limited time before Aptera Production begins.

Also, it appears that special cooling of the LED substrates is needed.

Cheers, Gary

[in4mer]

I did a little research quite a while ago, and have come to a similar conclusion about LED. HID is an option, but at a high, high power consumption price.

my post in a previous thread (http://apteraforum.com/showpost.php?p=2296&postcount=11)

Unworthy self-link, I know, I know..

%ian