6 ms·

Record the license plate and report them to the authorities. There are std for luminosity for headlights.

by newprint 7y ago

Sharlin 7y ago
That's rather difficult if you're blinded by the headlights.
lostlogin 7y ago
That abbreviation caused me to pause.
whatevah5982 7y ago
I'm not sure that's enough. Newer SUV cars have headlights which are stronger and bluer already coming out of the assembly line. When I have a SUV behind my regular utilitarian, I'm fully blinded. The higher headlights reflect directly both into the rear and side mirrors. The strength is also overshadowing my own headlights (I see the shadow of my car in front of me). When a new car is going in the opposite direction, I'm never fully sure if the driver just forgot the high-headlights or not.
- jbay808 7y ago
  As a civic driver I notice this a lot. One tip which you probably know already but not everyone does: you can darken your rear view mirror by flipping the tab on the bottom. Unfortunately no equivalent for your side mirrors.
  - whatevah5982 7y ago
    The darkening is sufficient for regular cars, but it's almost useless when the headlight of the SUV behind you is at the driver's level :( I bought my car used a while ago, and it's now ~10 years old. I find the stock headlights to be perfectly adequate to drive in rural areas (and I live/drive regularly rural streets without street lights). The difference with newer cars though is _staggering_. It's not only SUVs.
  - davidgay 7y ago
    Auto-dimming side-view mirrors now exist (as a package with an auto-dimming main mirror for Subaru at least).
    - brewdad 7y ago
      I have these on my Volvo. They are great for avoiding bright headlights from behind but they make it virtually impossible to see a bike that may be approaching in the bike lane. Anything with headlights that aren't super bright becomes dim or virtually invisible.
- frosted-flakes 7y ago
  If you have an interior rear-view mirror, your side mirrors should be pointed at the lanes next to you, not behind you. Not only does this reduce blindspots, but also overly bright headlights reflecting. When a car passes you from behind, you should see it move from the rear to the side mirrors without moving your head. Of course, if you drive a truck or are towing a trailer, that's a different story.
  - falcolas 7y ago
    > your side mirrors should be pointed at the lanes next to you Ironically, this gets harder and harder in some newer cars. My driver's side mirror reaches its limit precisely as my car (a 2018 Outback) side disappears from the view. It's unfortunate how much flexibility we've lost with these mirrors.
dsfyu404ed 7y ago
No thank you. Any society that has automated systems putting people's names on the cops "find and bother" this over petty civil infractions is not a society I want to live in. Bright headlights are a problem that's so far below all sorts of misdemeanors with victims that routinely go un-investigated that I don't understand how someone can suggest with a straight face that they deserve that level of law enforcement resources. If you don't want to see a particular product exist then go after the sources. Edit: I guess you probably meant "manually report" rather than "build a system that automatically reports" which is far more reasonable. For anyone who thinks we should be automating this sort of thing the above response stands though.
- lotsofpulp 7y ago
  Blinding other drivers creating a hazardous situation is petty?
  - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
    It's a lot pettier than the rampant petty theft that gets ignored in many major urban areas.
    - lotsofpulp 7y ago
      That’s irrelevant to this discussion.
      - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
        Data points illustrating how society handles actual criminal infractions with victims are very much relevant in the context of a suggestion that we pull out all the stops to prosecute any particular civil infraction that has no immediate victims.
        tom_ 7y ago
        The suggestion is that you report it, as a safety issue, not that you then go on to demand justice for this not-exactly-heinous non-crime. The police are not going to send in the SWAT team and divert their best men to the case - they're going to note it down in a file somewhere. Come on. ("Oh god. This guy sounds just like... oh. It is dsfyu404ed." - me, often enough to have noticed this is a thing, reading the comments here on articles about cars.)
kube-system 7y ago
Maybe if you're in Germany. But in the US, you'd be wasting your time, if not making a joke out of yourself.
derekrosemean 7y ago
Luminosity has dethroned "xenon" as the most abused word in automotive lighting parlance. Luminosity is a term best left for astronomers and not people who deal with automotive lighting. Luminosity has units of Joules/second and is the measure of all the electromagnetic radiation emitted by something. This is obviously more relevant to something like, the Sun, which emits significant amounts of not only IR radiation but also visible light and UV radiation. Luminosity has 0 relevance to automotive lighting because last time I checked, the human eye is unable to perceive IR radiation. We don't drive at night with the aid of IR radiation. Unfortunately, this simple fact has been lost on the people who attempt to sound smart when pushing their latest and greatest illegal HIDs/LEDs and projector retrofit kits.

Record the license plate and report them to the authorities. There are std for luminosity for headlights.

Sharlin 7y ago

That's rather difficult if you're blinded by the headlights.

lostlogin 7y ago

That abbreviation caused me to pause.

whatevah5982 7y ago

I'm not sure that's enough. Newer SUV cars have headlights which are stronger and bluer already coming out of the assembly line. When I have a SUV behind my regular utilitarian, I'm fully blinded. The higher headlights reflect directly both into the rear and side mirrors. The strength is also overshadowing my own headlights (I see the shadow of my car in front of me). When a new car is going in the opposite direction, I'm never fully sure if the driver just forgot the high-headlights or not.

jbay808 7y ago
As a civic driver I notice this a lot. One tip which you probably know already but not everyone does: you can darken your rear view mirror by flipping the tab on the bottom. Unfortunately no equivalent for your side mirrors.
- whatevah5982 7y ago
  The darkening is sufficient for regular cars, but it's almost useless when the headlight of the SUV behind you is at the driver's level :( I bought my car used a while ago, and it's now ~10 years old. I find the stock headlights to be perfectly adequate to drive in rural areas (and I live/drive regularly rural streets without street lights). The difference with newer cars though is _staggering_. It's not only SUVs.
- davidgay 7y ago
  Auto-dimming side-view mirrors now exist (as a package with an auto-dimming main mirror for Subaru at least).
  - brewdad 7y ago
    I have these on my Volvo. They are great for avoiding bright headlights from behind but they make it virtually impossible to see a bike that may be approaching in the bike lane. Anything with headlights that aren't super bright becomes dim or virtually invisible.
frosted-flakes 7y ago
If you have an interior rear-view mirror, your side mirrors should be pointed at the lanes next to you, not behind you. Not only does this reduce blindspots, but also overly bright headlights reflecting. When a car passes you from behind, you should see it move from the rear to the side mirrors without moving your head. Of course, if you drive a truck or are towing a trailer, that's a different story.
- falcolas 7y ago
  > your side mirrors should be pointed at the lanes next to you Ironically, this gets harder and harder in some newer cars. My driver's side mirror reaches its limit precisely as my car (a 2018 Outback) side disappears from the view. It's unfortunate how much flexibility we've lost with these mirrors.

dsfyu404ed 7y ago

No thank you. Any society that has automated systems putting people's names on the cops "find and bother" this over petty civil infractions is not a society I want to live in. Bright headlights are a problem that's so far below all sorts of misdemeanors with victims that routinely go un-investigated that I don't understand how someone can suggest with a straight face that they deserve that level of law enforcement resources. If you don't want to see a particular product exist then go after the sources. Edit: I guess you probably meant "manually report" rather than "build a system that automatically reports" which is far more reasonable. For anyone who thinks we should be automating this sort of thing the above response stands though.

lotsofpulp 7y ago
Blinding other drivers creating a hazardous situation is petty?
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  It's a lot pettier than the rampant petty theft that gets ignored in many major urban areas.
  - lotsofpulp 7y ago
    That’s irrelevant to this discussion.
    - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
      Data points illustrating how society handles actual criminal infractions with victims are very much relevant in the context of a suggestion that we pull out all the stops to prosecute any particular civil infraction that has no immediate victims.
      - tom_ 7y ago
        The suggestion is that you report it, as a safety issue, not that you then go on to demand justice for this not-exactly-heinous non-crime. The police are not going to send in the SWAT team and divert their best men to the case - they're going to note it down in a file somewhere. Come on. ("Oh god. This guy sounds just like... oh. It is dsfyu404ed." - me, often enough to have noticed this is a thing, reading the comments here on articles about cars.)

kube-system 7y ago

Maybe if you're in Germany. But in the US, you'd be wasting your time, if not making a joke out of yourself.

derekrosemean 7y ago

Luminosity has dethroned "xenon" as the most abused word in automotive lighting parlance. Luminosity is a term best left for astronomers and not people who deal with automotive lighting. Luminosity has units of Joules/second and is the measure of all the electromagnetic radiation emitted by something. This is obviously more relevant to something like, the Sun, which emits significant amounts of not only IR radiation but also visible light and UV radiation. Luminosity has 0 relevance to automotive lighting because last time I checked, the human eye is unable to perceive IR radiation. We don't drive at night with the aid of IR radiation. Unfortunately, this simple fact has been lost on the people who attempt to sound smart when pushing their latest and greatest illegal HIDs/LEDs and projector retrofit kits.