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Ask HN: Are headlights getting brighter or am I getting old?

• nokya 4y ago
  Both. You are getting older (and it takes your eyes more time to adjust), and headlights are brighter (because, well, why wouldn't my drive be less comfortable when I'm legally allowed to blind you?).
• ProllyInfamous 4y ago
  The HIDs on Jeeps have gotten absolutely offensive.
  • doctaj 4y ago
    Jeeps are one of the worst for sure. They seem to not have any cutoff, super glare-y, and they’re relatively high. Horrible.
• illiac786 4y ago
  Higher, brighter and LED are more uncomfortable at same brightness I feel. And bicycles are also very bad, mostly for pedestrians, because they point their super bright LED straight up instead of downward.
• greedylizard 4y ago
  I had the same observation. I just chalked it up to more cars having LED headlights and sitting higher on the road, therefore shining their light right into me eyes or my rear view mirror.
  • runnerup 4y ago
    Weird that (actually enormous) semi-trucks / lorries seem to have managed not to do this, either now or for the past 20 years. It's only the (fake-enormous) light pickup trucks following this trend.
    • theGnuMe 4y ago
      Ford had a recall to adjust their lights I believe.. too bright!
    • midoridensha 4y ago
      You can thank government regulation for that. The semi-trucks and other commercial vehicles, because they're so large and tall, have sensible regulation designed to prevent blinding other drivers in smaller vehicles. Pickups and SUVs don't have this, for reasons... I guess the regulators don't want to piss off the large majority of the voting public, who feel entitled to blind other drivers?
      • qbrass 4y ago
        The laws already exist for passenger vehicles, they're just selectively enforced.
        • midoridensha 4y ago
          The laws allow pickups and SUVs to have extremely high-mounted lights. There's no law against it, otherwise manufacturers wouldn't build them that way. Selective enforcement has nothing to do with it.
      • antisthenes 4y ago
        I get regularly blinded by transit buses and other tall vehicles, so I'm not sure what the 'government regulation' actually says about headlights. Freight trucks are hit and miss, but generally not as bad as the suburban dad trucks, yes.
• Jimmc414 4y ago
  Might not hurt to visit an ophthalmologist or optometrist(?) and rule out cataracts. Lights might be getting brighter though.
• factsarelolz 4y ago
  They are so much brighter. Fucks with my astigmatisms.
• BXLE_1-1-BitIs1 4y ago
  Pickup trucks and large SUVs have their headlights mounted higher up and dazzle drivers in normally sized cars. It's another example of regulatory capture where owners of pickups and large SUVs have free rein to dazzle lower folk. Interestingly lights on heavy trucks are regulated in height and aim so that they don't dazzle other drivers.
  • akerl_ 4y ago
    How is this regulatory capture?
    • antisthenes 4y ago
      It's not. Poorly educated 'libertarians' like to call everything the fault of regulation or government whether applicable or not. It's just asshole or clueless drivers with no regard for others on the road.
      • akerl_ 4y ago
        I guess I’m just especially confused because “regulatory capture” suggests there are regulations, but as the commenter above points out, there are relatively few. That’s why cars and trucks can have brighter headlights that aren’t well aligned: nothing stops them.
• abakker 4y ago
  it can also be the angle. subtle change in your car height relative to taller cars and it gets a lot worse. my lifted tundra is much nicer at night relative to my nissan leaf.
  • ls15 4y ago
    > my lifted tundra is much nicer at night relative to my nissan leaf. Nicer for you, but maybe not for the oncoming traffic
    • abakker 4y ago
      my headlights aim down, and I've taken pains to ensure that they don't aim higher than they were supposed to stock. I recognize that others do not do this.
• elecush 4y ago
  I wear my sunglasses at night.
  • waste_monk 4y ago
    Don't be afraid of the guy in shades, oh no
  • sshine 4y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2LTL8KgKv8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2LTL8KgKv8 Corey Hart - Sunglasses At Night (Official Music Video)
• sirstan 4y ago
  There are a few cross-over SUV's with LED headlights that seem exceedingly annoying. The newer Honda Pilots and Subaru Ascent always seem like they have sun-like headlights. When one of these vehicles is traveling up a hill, the basically blind anyone coming down the hill. I own a Pilot, and get high beam flashed constantly. I had Honda check the alignment and they say its 100% where it should be. I can't ever make out the grill after being blinded, but it seems like GM trucks (perhaps the 2500 series?) also have exceedingly bright lights. Other vehicles seem to have "are those low or high beams" bright headlights, but not enough to "old man yells at clouds" about them.
  • perilunar 4y ago
    > I own a Pilot, and get high beam flashed constantly Well that's part of the answer. If enough of us flash the cars with annoying lights then maybe manufacturers will get the message.
    • antisthenes 4y ago
      In my experience, most people are completely oblivious to being flashed by high beams, party because they are just oblivious and partly because the lights are already so bright, that flashing beams barely makes a difference.
• BoorishBears 4y ago
  For a definitive yes or no answer: Yes, they are getting brighter. The Corolla is the litmus test of if a given technology has hit the mainstream in cars. Once upon a time LED headlights were too expensive to ever be standard on a car that basic, so halogens, which tend to be dimmer and at a less glare-prone temperature were standard. Now they've gotten cheap enough that one of the most simplified cars on the market features them, so it's a given that you are seeing many more of them than you used to. Bonus: HID lamps, which were the popular "blindingly bright" option back in the day were legally required to be self-leveling in some markets. In my 4 series for example, the HID lights are on something like a gimbal and can aim down if the car is pointed up, and side to side depending on which way the steering wheel is pointed. LEDs don't have that restriction, and these self-leveling assemblies aren't exactly cheap to design and manufacture, so naturally higher volume cars are skipping out on them. So now the most common cars are most likely to blind you. (there's also manual leveling switches in some cars, but most people barely know what their temp gauge means, so the odds someone both knows what it's for, and knows when to adjust it, are incredibly low)
• kylehotchkiss 4y ago
  This seems like more of a tweet than a hacker news themed conversation. I miss old twitter too :(
  • Yizahi 4y ago
    Well, the comments here are not butchered into short pieces, there are no garbage tags littered in the text body, there are no nagging popups requesting to register or turn on notifications, no avatars or embedded images, there is a sensible tree style formatting of replies, and due to the sane layout you can see much more content on the same screen. And there is a great moderation, both by community and dang. I definitely don't miss Twitter :)
• RP_Joe 4y ago
  I have found rose color goggles REALLY help. They change the color of the light. Even people with their bright lights on do not blind me. Just annoying. The goggle is popular with snow skiers. They look goofy on me driving at night, but I can see better. Amazon has many "rose colored clip on sunglasses".
  • theodpHN 4y ago
    I'm doing alright, getting good grades / headlights are so bright, I gotta wear shades https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qrriKcwvlY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qrriKcwvlY
    • gonzo 4y ago
      $50,000/year will no longer buy a lot of beer
  • waste_monk 4y ago
    Yep... the colour temperature and placement of headlights were much better in the old days.
• gnutrino 4y ago
  They are definitely brighter. I had a 2009 Ford Fusion and could barely see the road. Now I have a Mazda and I legit feel bad at how bright they are for other drivers. A lot of cars also now have auto brights, which of course never turn off quite fast enough. I always turn my auto brights off, but my wife doesn’t and it drives me nuts.
  • mkhpalm 4y ago
    I had a bone stock 2007 Acura TSX that basically forced me to run the high beams so oncoming traffic could see the difference. If I didn't every vehicle I passed would be flashing their brights at me. If I did then they'd see it gets worse, so much worse... these ARE the low beams. I legit felt bad about it too...
• Stevvo 4y ago
  Color temperature may make a difference. A 6000K LED headlamp will appear brighter than a 3000K incandescent bulb of the same brightness.
• prng2021 4y ago
  Lol I live in a big city with a lot of terrible/rude drivers and literally until I read the comments here, I thought there were just a ton of super annoying people driving with their high beams on at night. I still drive a sedan while it seems like 99% of the world has moved on to driving monster trucks and mini school bus sized SUVs. I hadn't considered the impact of the height difference.
  • UncleEntity 4y ago
    > I thought there were just a ton of super annoying people driving with their high beams on at night. There are a ton of super annoying people driving with their high beams on at night. One of my many pet peeves actually… It does amuse me to no end to light people up going around curves, keeps me awake on the long nighttime drives. On the pickup trucks/SUVs my theory is people change the ride height but never get around to adjusting the headlights so they aim too high and blind people. Plus towing and/or loading down the truck bed raises them so same effect.
    • spigottoday 4y ago
      There are laws prohibiting the use of high beams when there are other motorist on the road where I live but they are not enforced. If you will be ticked for lack of seatbelts you should be ticked for improper high beam use as well, especially as it affects other motorists.
• metadat 4y ago
  You can tell if it's highbeams by looking for four distinct points of light. Some headlights are always bright, moreso than 10-20 years ago. Probably due to the recent surge in prevalence of LED assemblies. It also does seem like the quantity of clueless people driving with the highbeams on 24/7 is on the rise. Do people not know how to operate their vehicles? There is no good excuse for the highbeams to be on in excesse. As a pedestrian, Teslas really suck with their auto-highbeam tech. It's friggin' blinding. Every. Single. Time.
  • qwerpy 4y ago
    As a Tesla driver, I'm sorry and I don't like it either. I turn it off for normal driving but when using autopilot, it force enables the auto high beams. Arguably I shouldn't be using autopilot at night but ironically I was doing it so I could briefly shield my eyes when I get blinded by cars going the other direction.
    • sshine 4y ago
      As a Tesla driver, I'm equally sorry. The auto high beams also turn on every time you stop and start the car. The first thing I do when I start the car at night is disable them. The auto high beam does sometimes turn off when the car detects oncoming traffic. If it's any consolation, when autopilot is enabled, it also force enables auto windscreen wipers, so it will wipe my dry windscreen with a low frequency and a screetchy sound as it ruins the eye sight of oncoming traffic.
      • klyrs 4y ago
        > If it's any consolation, when autopilot is enabled, it also force enables auto windscreen wipers, so it will wipe my dry windscreen with a low frequency and a screetchy sound as it ruins the eye sight of oncoming traffic. Eh, not quite even... would you do us all a solid and toss a few thumbtacks into your seat?
        • bradknowles 4y ago
• pcblues 4y ago
  Have you noticed that looking at a monitor is harder to do with a bright background, such as a window with a sunny day outside hurts more than it used to? I do, and I concluded it was increased sensitivity (in a bad way) to contrasting light levels in the one viewing field. I raised it with an optometrist and they didn't think it was a problem. It is for me, though and also affects my ability to drive past cars with headlights on :) Not saying the other comments are untrue, just adding my own experience :)
  • Yizahi 4y ago
    I'm not sure about your condition, but in my case it is astigmatism which probably increased with age (I have myopia since early school). This means that when it is dark, then eye is dilated more but astigmatism causes it to lose focus more that usual. So black text on white background during the day is focused (corrected with glasses) but white text on dark background during the night is unfocused and I strain to read it and eyes hurt a little, same on the road.
• shuri 4y ago
  My current totally unconfirmed theories: people pay extra for shaded windows, then they need brighter headlights, and finally the new headlights are less directional. Again, just theories.
• teslabox 4y ago
  Lighting regulations haven't kept up with changes in the technology used to produce electric light. Most LED headlights are much bluer than the halogen bulbs the automotive companies started using in the 1960's. I think we're all casualties of a sort of trench warfare. Luxury brands started putting High-intensity discharge (HID) lamps in their high-end cars in the 1990's. HID lights put out more blue than halogen light bulbs. This led to the association of blue-white headlights with expensive cars. I suspect the marketing departments of the automotive companies told their engineers to use blue-white LEDs when these first became available. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_discharge_lamp#Applications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_discharge_lamp#... No one had the answer to my AskHN: What prevents the automotive industry from using safe LEDs? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27334405 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27334405 Another problem is people retrofitting LED bulbs into housings that were designed for halogen bulbs. The fine print on these bulbs usually say "for off road use only". The LED bulbs have a totally different light output than the halogens. The housing for the halogen bulbs are designed with the assumption that there will be a filament at a precise location. LEDs retrofit into a housing designed for a filament usually just blind everyone on the road. I've also seen people driving around with LED light bars turned on. I don't think it's legal to add supplemental light to a vehicle. I have a few self-defense strategies to protect my eyesight. Mainly this is wearing yellow glasses whenever I'm likely to be exposed to blue-white LEDs. (minor edits)
• diebeforei485 4y ago
  Yes it is definitely more annoying. I find myself flipping the rearview mirror so some of their light shines back at them.
• csomar 4y ago
  First moving to a cooler light (white/blue) and second Xenon lights are now a trend. These tend to be strong and also you should do multiple of them so you look cool. Yeah, car manufacturers are prefering look to safety now.
• mcint 4y ago
  Makes me want to make a little sensor stand, with cameras at eye level for 1. low convertible drivers 2. standard sedan drivers 3. pedestrian, and 4. SUV drivers At least top and bottom of the range, preferably at least one in the middle. Something to stick on a street corner. Would want to anonymize data: license plates and faces. And want to share designs so others can do the same. I'm not sure there's much of a business in this, but a hacker and passion community possibly. I've seen noise pollution sensors made by passionate folks, sharing plans online. The technical architecture of the company (to self-sustain in monitoring or addressing this) would have the same shape as PurpleAir.
  • Fatnino 4y ago
    I'd go one step further. Mount these on police cars. Too bright? You get a fix it ticket. Mount some on your own car. Other car too bright? Mirror deploys to return same light to sender.
• 28304283409234 4y ago
  My last car (before I gave up on cars and sold it) was a Honda from 2016. It no longer allowed me to adjust the lights. All my previous cars allowed me to lower the beam. Change the angle. This feature was removed. Furthermore, the rearview mirror had a new feature to automatically "dim brightness from cars behind me". Which confirmed for me the problem of bright lights in general. And finally, and most annoyingly: the Honda would automatically turn on the brights if it was night and it thought there was no car coming towards me. This feature was so buggy I had to switch to manual lights like 1992. Writing this I am so happy I gave up cars.
  • 28304283409234 4y ago
    At one point I even considered taping over the lights with seethrough yellow ducttape. Just to dim them.
• readonthegoapp 4y ago
  both
• snowpid 4y ago
  Where do you live?
• rkagerer 4y ago
  Everything is getting brighter. Headlights are brighter and aimed higher. Paint and signs are getting more reflective. And there are more of them. In my opinion all this extra blinding light has been making it progressively more dangerous to drive at night. (Then there's the occasional cars with weird LEDs that rapidly flicker like looking at a screen with the wrong refresh rate. Not sure what that's all about.) Makes me wish I could buy some nighttime sunglasses.
• Yizahi 4y ago
  And tail lights too. Some brands have very bright led stop signals, and you often see them from up close.
  • poly_morphis 4y ago
    Some tail lights now blink when the brakes are applied. Kind of jarring whenever I see it, but maybe that's the point.
• Am4TIfIsER0ppos 4y ago
  Yes plus they are sharper and bluer.
• oliwarner 4y ago
  Yes. You are getting older, and your ability to adjust to changes in light gets much much worse in your 40s onwards, but modern LEDs are also brighter, colder, and there are also a lot of poorly regulated after-market halogen→LED conversion kits doing the same to older cars. Yellowed glasses are a thing. I've used them for shooting in winter but people swear by them for night driving. It's obviously important not to dim your vision too much though.
  • sloaken 4y ago
    I will need to try those yellowed glasses (as clip on of course). Wonder if this is why several countries in Europe have yellow head lights on their cars.
    • GoToRO 4y ago
      Those are fog lights. Yellow light can penetrate better in fog. I never had them so I can not say how good they work.
      • oliwarner 4y ago
        Until 1993, French headlights had to be "selective yellow" (practically orange). They're still around. Very jarring to see in person. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_yellow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_yellow
• ideamotor 4y ago
  It’s not that they are brighter; they are far more streakier. I can easily tell which lights are LEDs. It’s much harder to see at night and it’s not just getting older.
• antisthenes 4y ago
  They are improperly installed LEDs. And also yes, they are about 2-3x brighter than halogen bulbs. You can easily check yourself by comparing lumen values on the car accessory websites.