Smirnoff67

Can someone please explain what the European matrix headlights do that they can't do in the United States? I have them on my Panamera Turbo S and the headlights are fantastic, so I added them to my 911 Carrera 4 GTS build for the extra $2K or whatever it is. But if they aren't any different than the standard 911 headlights I'm thinking why spend the money on the matrix upgrade. Please help and thank you!

CodyBigdog

As it was explained to me, from a Canadian that had the active matrix on his 992…the matrix headlights have something like 81 individual LED’s than can each be moved independently from other LED’s…allowing the light to be split and focused where it needs to be (based on road and traffic conditions). I’ve seen videos of this movement, and have to say, it’s well worth the extra money….but unfortunately, we in the US have the matrix part of the headlights, just not the “active” part.

With just tjhe matrix portion, the lights are still pretty good, and do have movement while Corning. Just not as good as it could be if fully active

jtsrenn

They're a kind of more granular auto high beam - when the standard auto high beam see oncoming headlights or taillights ahead they switch to full low beam, then back to full high when the coast is clear - the matrix headlight will disable the section of high beams that are aimed directly at oncoming / receding cars while keeping the high beams on for the rest of the landscape - it's pretty cool. The legislation to make them legal in the states passed a week after my car locked - but anticipating this was going to happen I contacted my dealer and PCNA to see if they were going to retro-enable them on cars once it was fully legal here but the dealer couldn't get a straight answer from PCNA and PCNA told me to contact my dealer - so I just went with the standard LEDs. They ARE way better than the bi-xenons on my 991.2 GTS and the auto high beam function works great so I'm not really feeling any regrets, especially since there was no guarantee that spending the extra ~2K was going to lead to the full functionality.

kaylie

Also when turning on they do do this horizontal movement. Pretty cool pulling in the garage at night. I got it merely for the aesthetic of having the latest and greatest.

detansinn

The non-matrix PDLS headlights pivot as well, moving left/right to help in turns and up/down to help you see further down the road at speed.

Dudewithout992

VW will proceed very cautiously with any potential legal topics in the US. They're still paying out the ying yang from the emissions scandal.

Smirnoff67

Thank you all for explaining. Very much appreciated!

aggie57

Mercedes are the same. Their US spec matrix headlights are physically different to non-US ones, they have blanks in places where non-US cars have cornering lights. You can get the US ones activated easily enough but they are less functional than the others.

For VW, Audi’s, and other VW group cars you use VCDS from Ross-Tech, I used it to add a reversing camera to our ‘14 Beetle. Easy to do, well proven. Seems that this restrictive approach to allowing coding changes is very much a Porsche thing, not VW.

CodyBigdog

The BMW active headlight equivalent in the 2016 M4 that I have, that was NOT active on the US models imported into the US at that time…but later, through 3rd party software mods, could be activated and does the following, which I find most useful. There are quite a few YouTube videos showing how it works:

One of the main benefits of the BMW system is that when coming up behind another car, once the system senses there is a car in front of you, it will split the beam so as not to blind the car in front of you, and your high beams can stay on….and will illuminate (more) the areas on the shoulder, and into the other lane. If it senses someone coming in the opposing.other lane, it decreases (does not elliminate it) the illumination in that lane until the oncoming car gets within a certain distance from your car, at which point, all light into that lane is turned off, and then back on again as soon as the car passes. So, while the system does not have the 81 independent LEDS allegedly on the Porsche matrix system, the BMW system does have the ability to not only move the light, but can effectively shape the beam. It’s a very cool safety feature for those that drive on dark roads at night. It really is a total shame that Porsche owners don’t have something similar in the US?

When I drive at night on local country roads, I take my BMW for this reason. The lighting is set to automatic, and starts out in high beam, and adjusts the lighting location, beam shape and intensity, automatically for me, as driving conditions change. I give it a big thumbs up! 👍

I would expect the Porsche active matrix system to be every bit as advanced as the BMW system from 2016,,,when, or if ever activated? If, in fact, as some have suggested, Porsche eliminated some of the hardware on US cars, then quite frankly, that’s totally deceptive advertising. If the required hardware was omitted at the factory, it’s very clear to this consumer that Porsche NEVER intended to have their active matrix in their US cars. If that is the case (which I don’t believe), then they should NOT have asked a $2k+ premium for a system that didn’t exist. If that were true, US buyers never had the active matrix, and never would (Porsche is NOT going to retrofit a bunch of hardware - get real) . My believe that Porsche’s solution, as with BMW, Audi, Mercedes, etc, was to use software to disable or activate on different markets, and the hardware already exists on US cars for those of us that paid for the active matrix. I have to believe, I want to believe that changes in US Federal regulations were already being considered, years ago, and that Porsche marketed their US cars with the possibility (but no guarantees) the system might one day be activated.

But I’m not holding my breath when it comes to what Porsche will, or won’t do to placate customers. So far, I have been unimpressed regarding how Porsche has handled a host of known complaints on other issues with it;s cars (eg. From saggy seat bottoms, to batteries prematurely failing). . Maybe it’s not Porsche’s fault, and they are at the mercy of their slave master, VW?

turbonator

Ever since VW got caught in Dieselgate and had to pay a huge fine, the bean counters completely run the show.

CanAutM3

On some BMW, the hardware in indeed different between US and EU/ROW cars. For instance, it has been confirmed that 2018+ US market BMW F8X series M3/M4 with the icon LED adaptive headlights have different hardware (missing circuitry and LED arrays and differently shaped reflector lenses), so it is not possible to activate the high beam shaping features via coding on these cars to function properly.

CodyBigdog

No idea what BMW did on 2018 cars, and not getting into the endless comparisons, about what models, what cars in what years had, or didn’t have. But beam shaping, hardware and all, was most definitely on my 2016 US M4. Just not activated. But that was easily fixed for few hundred $$.

mystermykee

How about we all pool money together, and sponsor a tech from the EU market to come with his handy dandy laptop and do a tour here in the states to enable full matrix for us?

Zetta

This week I made pictures to compare the design on a GTS.