Headlights then and now
03/31/2021
In three years' time, it will be 50 years since the VW Golf blinked at us from its round eyes for the first time. A lot has happened in automotive engineering since then, and with the ID.3, the third major generation of Volkswagen is in the starting blocks, so to speak, after the Beetle and the Golf.
If you compare the first Golf and the modern ID.3, you will not only notice the completely different dimensions, but also the position and shape of the headlights. The technology behind the glass surfaces is also completely different. Whereas in 1974 a reflector and a light bulb were enough to more or less turn night into day, today a complex technology does its job in modern cars. LED lights are controlled by a computer whose computing power would probably have required a small data center the size of a living room in the days of the first Golf. Today, of course, all this takes up just a few square centimetres, but the electronic brain still controls how strong the light should be and where it should fall, depending on the surroundings, speed and driving situation. We hardly notice any of the complexity, at most we are pleased that we can see well even in the darkest night and that the lights dim automatically if a vehicle is approaching.
The first Golf still had a steering column combination lever that could be used to turn the lights on and off, while a simple toggle switch provided light or no light. To adjust the light level, you turned a screw on the headlight, when stationary of course and in front of the adjustment panel. You could still maintain and repair all this yourself, whereas today ...
