How to get Police escort with your F15

[MrTookies]

Okay I have to admit it is a little random but thought I share this interesting story with you all .

dmnc02 and I have been working on the NHGB (Anti Dazzle headlight) coding for the vehicles with the newer ECU's (Production date post 06/15)

Yesterday night I was doing another couple hours of testing on one of the back-roads outside the city, obviously to be left alone in the dark . Well what do you do during a couple of hours of headlight testing - drive.
I got stopped by a cop after I had been up and down this one back street 100 times (figurative speaking). He asked me why I was driving up and down the road...
I told him that I was coding the headlights so they would automatically - not blind others when the high-beams are activated.
He told me that he would not believe what I was saying and that I should tell him the real reason ...
I told him that I want to prove him that I'm telling the truth, . He asked me how I am going to do that. Well I told him we could drive up the road and I follow him with my high-beams activated. He said that he is calling another patrol to follow me while I'm following him to see if the high beams are really on (probably to see if run to ).
When the sheriff finally arrived, he told me that this is my last chance to tell him what I'm really doing here and asked if I really want to stick to the headlight story.
He also said if he does not see any obvious proof I will go to jail ( I felt harassed really ).

Either way long story short it felt kind of weird getting escorted by 2 cops, they both where impressed about the headlight function 🙈 and wanted me to do it all again (it was already 1AM by that time and I really needed to go home). I told them the next time I come by there to test something I will show them (yeah right I won't go back there...I'm going to another road on the other side of town 🙈...

BTW I was glad that we are almost finished with the NHGB for the new version so I had something to show. You can stay updated in this thread:
http://f15.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...php?p=19145537

*Happy END*

[dmnc02]

I am glad you managed to impress them: it would have been embarrassing to explain to your wife why she had to bail you out of jail

[MrTookies]

Originally Posted by dmnc02

I am glad you managed to impress them: it would have been embarrassing to explain to your wife why she had to bail you out of jail

Yeah isn't that the truth... my "coding career" would be over as well, I think that would be a safe bet

[Doanster]

That's funny on one hand, but totally stupid on the LEOs' part by saying you'd truly be in trouble if the anti dazzle didn't work as advertised. Driving up and down a road a hundred times is illegal? What if you were practicing driving? Understand they're looking for probable cause, but c'mon, would a true perp come up with such a cool story as an excuse?

[1230vani]

Originally Posted by PlayTookies

Okay I have to admit it is a little random but thought I share this interesting story with you all .

dmnc02 and I have been working on the NHGB (Anti Dazzle headlight) coding for the vehicles with the newer ECU's (Production date post 06/15)

Yesterday night I was doing another couple hours of testing on one of the back-roads outside the city, obviously to be left alone in the dark . Well what do you do during a couple of hours of headlight testing - drive.
I got stopped by a cop after I had been up and down this one back street 100 times (figurative speaking). He asked me why I was driving up and down the road...
I told him that I was coding the headlights so they would automatically - not blind others when the high-beams are activated.
He told me that he would not believe what I was saying and that I should tell him the real reason ...
I told him that I want to prove him that I'm telling the truth, . He asked me how I am going to do that. Well I told him we could drive up the road and I follow him with my high-beams activated. He said that he is calling another patrol to follow me while I'm following him to see if the high beams are really on (probably to see if run to ).
When the sheriff finally arrived, he told me that this is my last chance to tell him what I'm really doing here and asked if I really want to stick to the headlight story.
He also said if he does not see any obvious proof I will go to jail ( I felt harassed really ).

Either way long story short it felt kind of weird getting escorted by 2 cops, they both where impressed about the headlight function 🙈 and wanted me to do it all again (it was already 1AM by that time and I really needed to go home). I told them the next time I come by there to test something I will show them (yeah right I won't go back there...I'm going to another road on the other side of town 🙈...

BTW I was glad that we are almost finished with the NHGB for the new version so I had something to show. You can stay updated in this thread:
http://f15.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...php?p=19145537

*Happy END*

This story really made me laugh! Thank you

[TonySCV]

The humorous part is that the cops loved the tech, because it is technically illegal. Just goes to show how outmoded that law is. No one that saw this tech in action would say it's a bad thing. BMW's implementation isn't the best (Audi's matrix LED headlights are far faster at adapting than BMW's slow motor-driven adaptation), but it's decent and certainly better than the standard low/high beam.

Some background: http://www.thecarconnection.com/news...verywhere-else

[crackerjack15]

I know how you feel. When I was younger and I to car stereos, I used to go to large parking lots in the middle of the night to tune and cops would stop to see what I was doing. Obviously I just cranked it and they understood. You can hear two 15" subs for along way away. I was testing sound waves and you light waves. Lol

[Staszek]

Interesting story, question, on what charge would they have arrested you on lol?

[MrTookies]

Originally Posted by Staszek

Interesting story, question, on what charge would they have arrested you on lol?

Really, I have no idea. They would have probably made something up.

[42pilot]

Originally Posted by PlayTookies

Really, I have no idea. They would have probably made something up.

I used to tune cars and only drove on the country roads around my house when not on a dyno. I never drove at night because I would get to fairly high speeds in a hurry, but during the day, the neighbors would get pissed and call the cops. One time I pulled into a church parking lot to make some changes on the laptop (engine ECU) and a sheriff pulled up and asked what I was doing. I explained and showed him the program I was working to give the car more low-end torque. He asked for my number and asked if he could call me for pointers on how to tune his project car. We're still friends.

As for the neighbors, they got used to it.