Are LEDs a Bright Idea for Detroit?

I wonder how the incandescent automotive lamp manufacturers play into this. Will they resist the change in the same manner as we've seen with hybrids, hydrogen, and electric cars. The fossil fuel folks don't like change and I doubt the light bulb guys will either.

I wonder how the incandescent automotive lamp manufacturers play into this. Will they resist the change in the same manner as we've seen with hybrids, hydrogen, and electric cars. The fossil fuel folks don't like change and I doubt the light bulb guys will either.

RGDRNR is so right. This is the number one reason for slow change overs from one technology to another. Imagine what would happen to the steel industry if auto makers switched to aluminum. Unless incandescent lamp makers gear up to LED production, it will be a long time before they take the place of incandescent lamps in autos.

I believe LEDs are ripe for automotive use.

The newer high output LEDs require less current/copper to operate and last many times longer than do incandescent bulbs.

Reliability wins, fuel economy wins, the environment wins and as volumes go up, price wins.

They also provide the styling boys and girls with new opportunities.

The concerns I have are two fold.

1) If the wiring harness connectors are not of high quality, the failures may be frequent and hard to locate.

2) The LED produces very little heat and as such in cold climates, obstruction by snow may become an issue.

So the light bulb guys will be unhappy. So what?

As the automobile craze caught on, the buggy whip guys lost a lot of business. And I will tell you my 8-track tape player repair business is in the tank.

Consumer demand drives products. I just hope the US gov't doesn't step in and make LED (in lieu of incandescent) mandatory... the kiss of death.

Before the demand, you have to convince the consumer that the new technology is better than the old before they will switch.

Well ronseto, the consuming public is fickle.

When the cassette tape came onto the market, I was holding my own with the 8-track player repair business. Then those little silver records came out... new, unproven technology without much of a future and POW! there was a stampede of customers wanting to remove 8-track players from their cars and install players for those little silver records. Just a fad, I cannot figure it out. It has been about 30 years, and the consumers still have not seen the incandescent light of truth.

Go figure.

Maybe I should see the LED? Does the old eventually give way to better ways of doing things? <sigh> Does anyone need some 8-track tape player repair equipment and spare parts for companies that went out of business 20 years ago?

I still have two cassette decks and a reel-to-reel recorder, all good quality and in good condition. My problem is getting tapes for them. When I bought a new computer, I transfered the 3-1/2" floppy drive because new computers have eliminated that drive. Floppys and tapes work for me. Why should I abandon them for the "latest and greatest"? BTW, the recording industry still uses tapes for their masters. You can't edit a CD.

I am for LEDs, I know all their advantages but....

I have 150,000 miles on my truck and I haven't replaced any light bulbs. I have seen (on different cars) one or two or three LED's from brake lights not lit (it is obvious when the others are lit, ha, ha). I doubt that is a mechanical failure, I bought 100 white LED's and more than 50 failed (made in China but so many others, in electronics, are).

So, if the price to replace a whole lamp because a single defective LED is much higher that replacing a bulb, I think that the market will give the answer.