5 ms·

The biggest issue I have is that the headlights of many of these cars, especially lifted trucks, are right at my eye level when I drive a sedan. So at night, I

by sylens 5y ago

The biggest issue I have is that the headlights of many of these cars, especially lifted trucks, are right at my eye level when I drive a sedan. So at night, I am constantly being blinded by headlights of trucks and SUVs going in the opposite direction. The solution seems to be to buy an SUV myself, but that just feels like I'm contributing to the arms race.

otachack 5y ago
Can't you flip up your rearview mirror, instead? And get behind the trucks?
- otagekki 5y ago
  Flipping rearview mirrors don't do anything against blinding headlights of oncoming vehicles, do they?
- Jtsummers 5y ago
  GP talks about heading towards the trucks and SUVs, they will, in that scenario, eventually be behind the trucks, so yes they can do that. But they (and the rest of us) still have to deal with vehicles with bright lights right at eye level for a typical sedan-sized vehicle heading towards us at night.
- blacksmith_tb 5y ago
  These are oncoming, so unless you drive with welder's goggles, all you can do is glance away from the road in pain. I know that some hi/lo-beams now use LCDs to shape the beam, what I want is a whole windshield covered with them to selectively blot out just the searing headlights.
robbedpeter 5y ago
I think really hard to remove, thick stickers are the solution to super bright and/or eye level lights like that. Or hammers. Seriously, wtf is wrong with manufacturers. We need safety regulations that rein in headlights, it's becoming ridiculous.
croutonwagon 5y ago
I drive a TRD Tacoma. Which is a bit lifted over a standard. I still get blinded by oncoming lights. Most often it’s those super white LEDs even on cars noticeably lower than mine (ie: SUVs. ). I put LED lamps in my truck because my headlights are missing a mount point (the bottom exterior bracket was shipped non functional) and the vibration had me going through a ton of head lamps as the filaments shook loose. I noticed the following 1. I immediately was constantly flashed by others as if my brights were on and the only difference was the bulb color temp. 2. I adjusted my headlamps down to basically the legal (and my comfort) limit as I do a fair amount of driving on back/country roads with deer crossings. This cut down those flashing me about 75% but I still get it here and there. I cannot find LED lamps in 5000 k color. They are all 6500 k. I’m are fairly sure moving back to a 5000k lamp color would fix the issue for most.
- antisthenes 5y ago
  > I cannot find LED lamps in 5000 k color. They are all 6500 k. I’m are fairly sure moving back to a 5000k lamp color would fix the issue for most. The temperature isn't the issue, it's the brightness and incorrect angle. When 99% of consumers simply shove a LED into where the Halogen bulb was, not only is it 3x brighter as a result of LEDs being more efficient, it is another 3x brighter, because the diffuser was never designed for a LED-like light source. I personally still drive with old halogen lights. Whenever a more recently manufactured vehicle comes up behind me, their lights usually completely flood the road, to the point that I'm not even sure I have my headlights on. They could be 50 feet behind me, and their lights are BRIGHTER than both of my lights. This is insane. I'm not sure why this isn't being legislated out of existence ASAP. I guess I'll have to start wearing sunglasses for nighttime driving.
  - croutonwagon 5y ago
    Mine stayed at the same angle (I checked it at install and even adjusted it based on oncoming driver feedback) I THINK I looked up the lumens of the lights I had previously used and bought the same/most similar I could find. It was definitely one of those things I spent at least some time researching. I actually returned the first set I ordered and got a different set. And I’m not one of those savages that runs my fog lamps 24/7 either. So that left me at the temp being the main difference maker as to why it was blowing people out. At least to my estimation. And like I said, I’ve seen new SUVs and even cars that blew me out and my truck does sit on the higher side I would estimate (it’s stock, but the suspension is designed with clearance for light off-road duty)
lostmsu 5y ago
What a coincidence. Just yesterday on a perfectly well lit road I was constantly blinded by headlights from a distant oncoming car. The headlights tuned down on approach, but long before that they were too bright. I wonder if they were set on "automatic", in which case the regulators must tune the requirements for that automatic behavior to make it less aggressive (car manufacturers have no incentive to do that on their own).

by sylens 5y ago

otachack 5y ago

Can't you flip up your rearview mirror, instead? And get behind the trucks?

otagekki 5y ago
Flipping rearview mirrors don't do anything against blinding headlights of oncoming vehicles, do they?
Jtsummers 5y ago
GP talks about heading towards the trucks and SUVs, they will, in that scenario, eventually be behind the trucks, so yes they can do that. But they (and the rest of us) still have to deal with vehicles with bright lights right at eye level for a typical sedan-sized vehicle heading towards us at night.
blacksmith_tb 5y ago
These are oncoming, so unless you drive with welder's goggles, all you can do is glance away from the road in pain. I know that some hi/lo-beams now use LCDs to shape the beam, what I want is a whole windshield covered with them to selectively blot out just the searing headlights.

robbedpeter 5y ago

I think really hard to remove, thick stickers are the solution to super bright and/or eye level lights like that. Or hammers. Seriously, wtf is wrong with manufacturers. We need safety regulations that rein in headlights, it's becoming ridiculous.

croutonwagon 5y ago

I drive a TRD Tacoma. Which is a bit lifted over a standard. I still get blinded by oncoming lights. Most often it’s those super white LEDs even on cars noticeably lower than mine (ie: SUVs. ). I put LED lamps in my truck because my headlights are missing a mount point (the bottom exterior bracket was shipped non functional) and the vibration had me going through a ton of head lamps as the filaments shook loose. I noticed the following 1. I immediately was constantly flashed by others as if my brights were on and the only difference was the bulb color temp. 2. I adjusted my headlamps down to basically the legal (and my comfort) limit as I do a fair amount of driving on back/country roads with deer crossings. This cut down those flashing me about 75% but I still get it here and there. I cannot find LED lamps in 5000 k color. They are all 6500 k. I’m are fairly sure moving back to a 5000k lamp color would fix the issue for most.

antisthenes 5y ago
> I cannot find LED lamps in 5000 k color. They are all 6500 k. I’m are fairly sure moving back to a 5000k lamp color would fix the issue for most. The temperature isn't the issue, it's the brightness and incorrect angle. When 99% of consumers simply shove a LED into where the Halogen bulb was, not only is it 3x brighter as a result of LEDs being more efficient, it is another 3x brighter, because the diffuser was never designed for a LED-like light source. I personally still drive with old halogen lights. Whenever a more recently manufactured vehicle comes up behind me, their lights usually completely flood the road, to the point that I'm not even sure I have my headlights on. They could be 50 feet behind me, and their lights are BRIGHTER than both of my lights. This is insane. I'm not sure why this isn't being legislated out of existence ASAP. I guess I'll have to start wearing sunglasses for nighttime driving.
- croutonwagon 5y ago
  Mine stayed at the same angle (I checked it at install and even adjusted it based on oncoming driver feedback) I THINK I looked up the lumens of the lights I had previously used and bought the same/most similar I could find. It was definitely one of those things I spent at least some time researching. I actually returned the first set I ordered and got a different set. And I’m not one of those savages that runs my fog lamps 24/7 either. So that left me at the temp being the main difference maker as to why it was blowing people out. At least to my estimation. And like I said, I’ve seen new SUVs and even cars that blew me out and my truck does sit on the higher side I would estimate (it’s stock, but the suspension is designed with clearance for light off-road duty)

lostmsu 5y ago

What a coincidence. Just yesterday on a perfectly well lit road I was constantly blinded by headlights from a distant oncoming car. The headlights tuned down on approach, but long before that they were too bright. I wonder if they were set on "automatic", in which case the regulators must tune the requirements for that automatic behavior to make it less aggressive (car manufacturers have no incentive to do that on their own).