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US Military tests LED headlights in Alaska.
Interesting.
I guess it was inevitable that some makers would start testing LED headlights, as we have had "off the shelf" LEDs bright enough to make LED based headlight "bulbs" for a little while now. Granted, given todays tech (the LEDs of tomorrow might be a different matter), you have to use multiple LEDs to get a bright enough light (even if you choose some of the brightest LEDs on the market), but it should be realistically possible to put together a multi-LED module that replaces say an H4 headlight bulb (and is just as bright, if not brighter).
The big "gotcha" is cost. Given the cost of the newer/brighter LEDs on the market, and the number of LEDs you would currently need (per headlight) to make a bright enough "bulb", a pair of such "bulbs" could easily cost more than a HID conversion (while being closer to the light output of normal headlights).
But I suppose that would be why the military is likely to be the first customer of these "headlights" (since they tend to not think much of the cost). And such "headlights" would likely last longer than the life of most vehicles (i.e. If you don't abuse them, LEDs can often last years of 24/7 use, and most vehicles don't run 24/7). And LED headlights would likely use even less power than even HID headlights, much less the power requirements for halogen bulbs. So even if they cost a little up front, LED lights would likely last a very long time, be fairly "shock resistant", and relatively "low power". A win-win-win situation (in all places except initial cost). So I can see why the military would be interested.
OTOH LEDs are getting brighter, and coming down in price, all the time. So at some point in the future (probably at least a year from now, likely longer) LED headlights might start to become "cost effective" for us "normal folks"...
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Seems interesting and it looks like these could potentially replace HID as the best headlight technology.
Eventually yes. However, the costs of extra-bright "white" LEDs has to come down a fair amount and/or the brightness of the LEDs needs to go up a lot more (so that you need fewer extra-bright LEDs for a headlight) before that is likely to happen.
But I guess this "proof of concept" exercise (with the military) does go to show that companies are already thinking in these terms. So at this point, it is more a "matter of time" as to when this will happen (and when the prices will be reasonable), vs being a question as to if manufacturers will think to develop LED headlights...
