Laser Headlight Audi

Audi R8 LMX | Uncrate

Read something here about the new BMW i8's having laser headlights- haven't heard much about that since.
Anyway, stumbled across this little gem. First laser headlights in production! :drool:

Looks squinty

Audi?s New R8 Supercar Has Frickin? Lasers for Headlights | Autopia | WIRED

Each module sports four laser diodes just 300 micrometers in diameter. They fire a blue laser beam with a wavelength of 450 nanometers into a phosphor converter, generating white light with a color temperature of 5,500 Kelvin–the perfect white light for nighttime illumination.

Click to expand...

So at the end of the day what you really have are fancy headlights that incorporate lasers to produce the light, as a component, but don't actually have laser headlights.

Unfortunately this is just a marketing ploy... worse yet, because of article titles like the above, people fall for it.

Well it depends on your definition of 'laser headlight'.
First off; I can't imagine a safe way to incorporate laser diodes into headlights without some sort of converter or comparable measure to diffuse the laser light. As you know well, firing a beam directly into someone's eyes is asking for trouble. Moreover, if said person is driving a car, weighing several thousand pounds and travelling at high speed in the opposite direction, well... you have an accident waiting to happen.

That 'marketing ploy' seems fairly straightforward- it clearly states the mechanism being used and why (Very white, white light). Unless you have a simpler and more efficient way (and lasers are more efficient than LED's at higher amperage) to create white light with lasers that DOESN'T blind oncoming drivers, I'd suggest you reconsider your sophistry.