[TaytoX7]

I still don't understand how the law has anything to do with it. The cornering light is installed on the laser lights but not the LED lights in the US. Surely if it was illegal it would not feature on any light assembly.

[iconoclast]

Originally Posted by mitch57

Yes. And NO they don't act as cornering lights.

how did you check?

[huskerdoc2020]

Originally Posted by thenew3

Unless the US DOT laws related to headlights changes, it's unlikely that laser lights will be available for the 40i. Hard for them to justify the cost when they have to dumb it down for the US so you don't get the benefits of the laser lights.

Write to the powers that be, and urge them to get the decades old DOT laws for headlights updated.

Shouldn't be a problem to at least put them on a 40i when they already do on a M50i.

[jmciver]

Originally Posted by TaytoX7

I still don't understand how the law has anything to do with it. The cornering light is installed on the laser lights but not the LED lights in the US. Surely if it was illegal it would not feature on any light assembly.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) regulates all safety requirements for motor vehicles operated on US roads. Regarding the regulations for headlights, they are there to both protect the driver (so you can see effectively while driving), be seen by other drivers, and not blind oncoming drivers where there is two-way traffic flow. The DOT tests and certifies headlight assemblies to verify they meet DOT regulations.

A lot of manufacturers, including BMW, are developing lighting technology that can and do make cars safer, both for the driver inside the car, and other drivers. Unfortunately, the DOT certification process is woefully slow (compared to Europe where it seems their safety certification process is much faster) which is why manufacturers, like BMW, must "turn off" these new advanced features in order to make their cars street legal in the US. The good news is that in most cases, this new tech can be turned back on via coding as long as the hardware is installed in your car (which most of the time it is from the factory).

[TaytoX7]

Yes, but we are talking about cornering lights. They are already available in the US on the laser lights, but not on the led lights. on the LED lights assembly they are plugged out as paultattoo photo shows. Yet in the UK they are available on both lights. If they are already available in the US I presume they have already been approved by the DOT. So there must be some other reasons at play as to why BMW decided not to include the cornering lights with the LED assembly. Maybe it is to make the 50i and the laserlights more exclusive, especially as they have to limit the performance of the laser lights in the US to 300m.

[jmciver]

Originally Posted by TaytoX7

Yes, but we are talking about cornering lights. They are already available in the US on the laser lights, but not on the led lights. on the LED lights assembly they are plugged out as paultattoo photo shows. Yet in the UK they are available on both lights. If they are already available in the US I presume they have already been approved by the DOT. So there must be some other reasons at play as to why BMW decided not to include the cornering lights with the LED assembly. Maybe it is to make the 50i and the laserlights more exclusive, especially as they have to limit the performance of the laser lights in the US to 300m.

What you are not understanding is that BMW builds the advanced technology into various components, in this case the lighting systems on the car, but then retains the ability to "turn off" or dumb down the tech in order to be compliant with the safety regulations of countries that have not caught up with the tech (like the DOT in the US for a lot of new car tech that is currently available). In some cases, the new tech is built into a sigle piece of hardware (like headlight assemblies), and is merely turned off by coding. In other cases, the new tech requires multiple pieces of hardware to work, as is the case apparently with the cornering/fog lights. So just because the hardware is installed in a US spec vehicle, it does not automatically mean the hardware is using its full functionality (due to local country regulation restrictions).

So in this example, BMW will not install the extra hardware for US spec cars for this cornering light feature since the feature is not DOT legal in the US. But what this also means, is that a potential end-user retrofit is possible as long as you can get the additional hardware (including any necessary wiring if the car is not pre-wired) and then some coding to turn on the new hardware. Also keep in mind that while similar, the Laser lights and LED lights are two different assemblies that would require two different DOT certification processes. So it is also possible (but I personally doubt it) that the DOT has certified the Laser lights for this purpose, but not the LED lights.

Edit: Now, the other reason this feature is not available on the 40i with LED lights in the US (assuming the feature is DOT legal) is that BMW purposely removed the feature to have "exclusivity" separation between different models. In other words, BMW wants the higher end, more expensive model M50i to have more "exclusive" features over its less expensive sibling, the 40i. It is not uncommon for different features to be available in different markets for this reason.

[TaytoX7]

But again in this instance the technology for the cornering light on the X7 is identical in both the LED and Laser light assembly. It has nothing to do with the fog lights but an additional light located in the headlight assembly beside the grill. I can only presume as it is sold in the US and already working, coded on, on the laser light assembly that it is approved. If they decided not to include it in the LED assembly to make the Laser light more exclusive, then why in the UK did they not also make this choice. I know we can only guess as to the reasoning, but it seems very unfair.

[Paultattoo]

Originally Posted by TaytoX7

But again in this instance the technology for the cornering light on the X7 is identical in both the LED and Laser light assembly. It has nothing to do with the fog lights but an additional light located in the headlight assembly beside the grill. I can only presume as it is sold in the US and already working, coded on, on the laser light assembly that it is approved. If they decided not to include it in the LED assembly to make the Laser light more exclusive, then why in the UK did they not also make this choice. I know we can only guess as to the reasoning, but it seems very unfair.

If they sell a hundred thousand 40i's they save the cost of two hundred thousand bulbs... it adds up.

[jmciver]

Originally Posted by TaytoX7

But again in this instance the technology for the cornering light on the X7 is identical in both the LED and Laser light assembly. It has nothing to do with the fog lights but an additional light located in the headlight assembly beside the grill. I can only presume as it is sold in the US and already working, coded on, on the laser light assembly that it is approved. If they decided not to include it in the LED assembly to make the Laser light more exclusive, then why in the UK did they not also make this choice. I know we can only guess as to the reasoning, but it seems very unfair.

Well, assuming all local rules/regulations are addressed, in so many words: To maximize their $$ profits. Auto manufacturers (and any global business for that matter) spend gobs of money on marketing research to help determine how to maximize their profits in different markets. But to the mere common folk like ourselves, their decisions for different options being available in different markets do not always seem to make sense.

An example in the US would be the availability of a full black wheel option for the M-Sport package equipped X7's. Black accents are traditionally seen as "sporty", hence the shadowline trim options that are only available with the M-Sport package. Yet the one all-black wheel option that is offered on the X7 is only available with the Luxury package (which has a lot of chrome accents). Doesn't make much sense to me from a practical standpoint, but somebody at BMW thinks differently so go figure....

[Paultattoo]

Originally Posted by jmciver

Well, assuming all local rules/regulations are addressed, in so many words: To maximize their $$ profits. Auto manufacturers (and any global business for that matter) spend gobs of money on marketing research to help determine how to maximize their profits in different markets. But to the mere common folk like ourselves, their decisions for different options being available in different markets do not always seem to make sense.

An example in the US would be the availability of a full black wheel option for the M-Sport package equipped X7's. Black accents are traditionally seen as "sporty", hence the shadowline trim options that are only available with the M-Sport package. Yet the one all-black wheel option that is offered on the X7 is only available with the Luxury package (which has a lot of chrome accents). Doesn't make much sense to me from a practical standpoint, but somebody at BMW thinks differently so go figure....

Oh the wheel option thing is a true dose of stupidity. Unless the bolt patterns are different (which I doubt) every wheel option shown should be available.

Reminds me of a Jeep I bought many years ago. If you wanted the navigation system you MUST order the moonroof. I laughed thinking that the nav system has to look out the roof to see the stars to get directions 😂

[TaytoX7]

Yeah the wheel option really annoyed me too. Unfortunately this is also the same in the UK. I can maybe take a little comfort that my 40i has cornering lights, but the all black wheels would have worked really well with the shadowline.

[iconoclast]

Wheel options are limited because it is part of the appearance which separates the trim/line. Most average folks do not recognize different exhaust tips or outlets, or a different bumper but they would recognize wheels.

Originally Posted by Paultattoo

Reminds me of a Jeep I bought many years ago. If you wanted the navigation system you MUST order the moonroof. I laughed thinking that the nav system has to look out the roof to see the stars to get directions ��

I am only speculating but it may have to do with the GPS hardware and wiring going to the roof. If they're going to run power to the roof cassette then they may only use one harness that will integrate the gps power, antenna etc.

[760Lifan]

Originally Posted by iconoclast

Wheel options are limited because it is part of the appearance which separates the trim/line. Most average folks do not recognize different exhaust tips or outlets, or a different bumper but they would recognize wheels.

I would get that if they would be very strict.

However, two of the three different wheel-options available on the M50i are also available on the 40i so there goes that theory...

[Paultattoo]

Originally Posted by 760Lifan

I would get that if they would be very strict.

However, two of the three different wheel-options available on the M50i are also available on the 40i so there goes that theory...

Yup. If I remember right there's a wheel that you can only get if you order the full leather interior. How does that make sense?

[mitch57]

Originally Posted by iconoclast

how did you check?

I checked by having the car parked and running in the garage with the headlights on. Then I turned the steering wheel to see if the Fog Lights came on when I was turning the wheel. They didn't. Regardless how far the wheel was turned.

Additionally, if the fog lights were used for cornering lights how would they work when you turn on the fog lights which remain on until you either manually turn them off or shut the vehicle off.

Fog lights on the X7 can't be set to turn on automatically with the low beam lights like most other manufactures do. All my other cars that had fog lights could be configured to automatically turn on when the low beams are active. Not BMW though.

So, your point of the fog lights acting as cornering lights doesn't really make sense to me as fog lights aren't intended to light up the side of the roads but to help the forward visibility and cut through the fog in foggy conditions.

[iconoclast]

They are intended and designed to be both fog lights and cornering lights on certain models.
In the past the fog light was used as a cornering light going back to the E9X days most recently F15/F85.





Jump to 20 seconds:

[jmciver]

iconoclast , interesting feature - who knew. My M3, which does not have fog lights (they are not an option on the M3/M4), has a cornering lights feature that is all done by the LED headlights. If I turn the steering wheel, the LED headlights will steer the beam in the direction of the steering wheel. The X7's with LED headlights don't do this? I am a bit surprised actually....

[iconoclast]

The headlights are adaptive on the X7 just some are missing the additional cornering light which is integrated into the assembly. I was speculating that maybe they designed it to work in conjunction with the fog light for the NAR vehicles and the EU/ROW vehicles received the proper headlight since it was done like this in the past on BMW and Audi.



On some bmw the inner lamp worked as the cornering lamp:

[thenew3]

Originally Posted by mitch57

I checked by having the car parked and running in the garage with the headlights on. Then I turned the steering wheel to see if the Fog Lights came on when I was turning the wheel. They didn't. Regardless how far the wheel was turned.

Additionally, if the fog lights were used for cornering lights how would they work when you turn on the fog lights which remain on until you either manually turn them off or shut the vehicle off.

Fog lights on the X7 can't be set to turn on automatically with the low beam lights like most other manufactures do. All my other cars that had fog lights could be configured to automatically turn on when the low beams are active. Not BMW though.

So, your point of the fog lights acting as cornering lights doesn't really make sense to me as fog lights aren't intended to light up the side of the roads but to help the forward visibility and cut through the fog in foggy conditions.

Fog lights are supposed to shine low and wide beam pattern that only extends a short distance in front of the vehicle but wide to the side of the vehicle.
That basically is what cornering lights are supposed to do, shine to the side of the vehicle.
If you already have fog lights turned on, then you don't need cornering lights as the front sides/corners are already lit.

[mitch57]

Originally Posted by thenew3

Fog lights are supposed to shine low and wide beam pattern that only extends a short distance in front of the vehicle but wide to the side of the vehicle.
That basically is what cornering lights are supposed to do, shine to the side of the vehicle.
If you already have fog lights turned on, then you don't need cornering lights as the front sides/corners are already lit.

And if you don't have the fog lights turned on then you have no cornering lights. Obviously many are making big assumptions that because it was this way before that still is now.

I think we've confirmed that the standard LED Adaptive Headlights have NO cornering light capabilities. If you want cornering lights on an X7 in the US you have to buy an X7 50i with Laser Lights. Period!

There is currently no option/capability for cornering lights on any X7 40i in the US. We can beat this horse to death but the facts speak for themselves.

[thenew3]

Originally Posted by mitch57

And if you don't have the fog lights turned on then you have no cornering lights. Obviously many are making big assumptions that because it was this way before that still is now.

I think we've confirmed that the standard LED Adaptive Headlights have NO cornering light capabilities. If you want cornering lights on an X7 in the US you have to buy an X7 50i with Laser Lights. Period!

There is currently no option/capability for cornering lights on any X7 40i in the US. We can beat this horse to death but the facts speak for themselves.

It's likely codeable via bimmercode to enable fog lights as cornering lights if having cornering lights are so important to you.

[Paultattoo]

Originally Posted by thenew3

It's likely codeable via bimmercode to enable fog lights as cornering lights if having cornering lights are so important to you.

Fog lights are fog lights! Cornering lights are cornering lights! If you didn't get a 50 with laser lights you don't get cornering lights. THE BULBS ARE NOT EVEN IN THE HOUSING!