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Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

• Taek 1y ago
  I feel the same way in America, I think there should be stricter regulations on how bright a car's headlights are allowed to be for it to be street legal. Wouldn't mind having a cap on blue-light levels in addition.
  • jghn 1y ago
    There are regulations. The problem is they're easy to game. [1][2] [1] https://www.theringer.com/2024/12/03/tech/headlight-brightness-cars-accidents https://www.theringer.com/2024/12/03/tech/headlight-brightne... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42443406 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42443406
  • nikanj 1y ago
    Usually in USA regulations apply to cars, but everyone drives a light truck that's exempt from regulations ranging from emission to pedestrian safety
    • rootusrootus 1y ago
      This is false. Light trucks are definitely regulated. Emissions regs do soften a bit for 3/4 ton and up trucks (think F250 and up), but the ubiquitous F150 as well as other half-tons, as well as mid-size trucks, are all very much regulated.
  • jonasdegendt 1y ago
    It's much worse in America, in my experience. Much more deviation in cars/sedans/trucks on the road, with different road heights each, and MUCH more custom stuff on top. I'm in Belgium and headlights don't generally bother me too much, but a month in California recently had me going "no wonder everyone has tints here."
    • englishrookie 1y ago
      I'm in the Netherlands and I DO find it bad. Probably also has to do with my age (early fifties) - your eyes adjust with more difficulty the older you get, it seems.
      • johnwalkr 1y ago
        I live close to you and I agree it's bad. But trust me, it's way worse in North America (where I also drive annually or so).
    • phito 1y ago
      I do find it bad in Belgium, mostly on big cars like SUVs. Another reason for me to dislike them. Unfortunately they are getting more and more common.
  • JonKF 1y ago
    In the UK it's exacerbated by our narrow roads, constant drizzle, disrepair of our streets and highways and by the fact that it gets dark by 4PM.
  • Lalabadie 1y ago
    The rising height of headlights in North America is compounding the issue as well. At this point a good proportion of vehicles have headlights even or higher than the roof on a sedan.
    • JohnFen 1y ago
      At least in my state, there is a law that restricts the location of headlights to between 22 and 54 inches from the ground. 54 inches is quite tall, though, I think that a lot of cars have roofs that are shorter than 4.5 feet. I'd love to see a much lower upper limit. I don't think there's a limit to how bright they can be. The law limits the lights to "70 watts", which I believe is intended to limit brightness but misses the mark. I bet the law was passed back when headlights were incandescent.
      • hnuser123456 1y ago
        LEDs are around 10x more efficient than incandescent bulbs. A 100W incandescent equivalent LED bulb typically consumes 10-12W. A 70W LED would put out as much light as 700W of incandescent.
        • kayodelycaon 1y ago
          Given idea just how much more light this is: The designed lighting for a room in my house is 2 x 60-watt incandescent bulbs. The equivalent wattage in 3 x 40-watt led bulbs is equal to 2 or 3 fluorescent light fixtures in an office building.
          • kevin_thibedeau 1y ago
            Traditional automotive headlamps are halogens and much more efficient than conventional incandescents. It was only in the last decade that LEDs beat halogens on lumens per watt.
    • kubanczyk 1y ago
      I'd go as far as to say that the height is the issue, and it's becoming global (although, yes, US is the leader). It's ridiculous that an average SUV has headlights higher than an average semi (my own experience) given the latter's breaking distance is much greater.
  • alistairSH 1y ago
    There are a two things contributing to "headlights too bright" in the US... First, SUVs are really tall... If you're in a sedan (or worse, a Miata) and get close enough to an oncoming SUV, even well-aimed, legal lights are going to feel bright because they're pointed down at you. Second, there's a decent sized market for cheap, unapproved HID/LED kits for older cars. They're often not aimed correctly.
    • toast0 1y ago
      I've seen lifted Miatas...
    • pyr0hu 1y ago
      > Second, there's a decent sized market for cheap, unapproved HID/LED kits for older cars. They're often not aimed correctly. This, so much this. I'm having no issue with new cars and their LEDs. The aftermarket kits that are installed on 1994 Swifts and Passat B5s are not at all configured properly. They just throw it on the car and "yay i can see more" and sometimes I even think that they are using their high beams. But no, it's just their incorrectly set up lights.
      • MSFT_Edging 1y ago
        > I'm having no issue with new cars and their LEDs funny, its the opposite for me. brand new SUVs are by far the worst offenders,
    • knome 1y ago
      It would be fantastic if it were possible to dictate a headlight height for standard lights. just because your SUV is twelve feet off the ground doesn't mean the lights need to be positioned there.
    • fusslo 1y ago
      My 2024 outback has no 'high beams'. My low beams are the same brightness as high beams. The only difference is the field of view. I switch on the high beams on and height of the beam increases, but intensity stays the same. I feel awful about essentially high-beaming everyone unless the road is flat.
  • bayindirh 1y ago
    The maximum brightness is already regulated in US and Europe. US allows a lower brightness level. Some car manufacturer (Ford?) recalled their cars to fix their cars' headlight settings to match US regulations in the last 6-8 months IIRC. Also, light temperature has limits. I believe >4000K lights are already road illegal in UK and EU. They are also recently outlawed in my country, but there are many cars with after market 5000K+ bulbs installed. They also don't conform to the geometry of the bulbs these headlights designed to accommodate. They are painful to look at. What needs to be done is a) Stricter regulation in retrofitting older headlights with newer bulbs b) Regulating the amount of light hitting the oncoming driver somehow. c) Stricter CRI and light temperature regulations for the LED headlights. I don't want to be blinded from light coming from behind and front constantly at night, too.
    • mapt 1y ago
      Do we enforce it? At all? It isn't just retrofits that are a problem, it's brand new cars. It's not just about not wanting to be uncomfortably blinded by lasers shooting into your eyes at night. (Lasers well under 3000 lumens!). It's that this kills people. Frequently. It's a form of assault with hundreds of dead victims and thousands of injured victims a year.
      • bayindirh 1y ago
        I believe so, but I need more evidence in either direction to give it a definitive answer, but why companies recall cars to fix their brightness levels if they are not enforced? > It's not just about not wanting to be uncomfortably blinded by lasers shooting into your eyes at night. I mean, being uncomfortably blinded creates the risk of being dead already. I believe I made it clear that it's dangerous.
        • mapt 1y ago
          Looking further - From a previous post on the subject https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42449068 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42449068 > They measure at a certain point. Jason Cammisa points it out pretty clearly in an episode of Carmudgeon, with the money quote either here[0] or in the link direct to YouTube here[1]: > On a recent episode of the Carmudgeon Show podcast, auto journalist Jason Cammisa described a phenomenon occurring with some LED headlights in which there are observable minor spots of dimness among an otherwise bright field of light. “With complex arrays of LEDs and of optics,” he said, “car companies realized they can engineer in a dark spot where it’s being measured, but the rest of the field is vastly over-illuminated. And I’ve had now two car companies’ engineers, when I played stupid and said, ‘What’s the dark spot?’ … And the lighting engineers are all fucking proud of themselves: ‘That’s where they measure the fucking thing!’ And I’m like, ‘You assholes, you’re the reason that every fucking new car is blinding the shit out of everyone.’”
  • OGWhales 1y ago
    We also need to be far more strict about enforcing properly alignment, so many are pointed too high especially on larger vehicles and pretty much always on anything that's been lifted
  • chrisBob 1y ago
    The US has clear regulations on headlights that limit the number of Watts. That worked when everyone had halogen bulbs, but doesn't fit with LEDs.
• tonyedgecombe 1y ago
  Some people don't seem to know that you can adjust your headlights from inside the car.
• touristtam 1y ago
  Ooooh so I am not the only one to swear at those blinding headlights? Interestingly (or not), I think there should be a regulated height for the headlights all private cars; I drive a B-segment type of car, and I find all those European SUVs have their headlights right at my shoulder level meaning I will always be subject to be blinded by this type of vehicle vs a similar lower car. That goes for the vans as well.
• nanna 1y ago
  Same for bicycle lights too, and street lights.
  • 4ndrewl 1y ago
    Nearly all UK drivers say bike lights are too bright? Do you have a citation or was that an edgy culture war comment?
    • jabbywocker 1y ago
      I think it’s his personal opinion, so no need to provide a citation. But don’t let that stop you from starting your diatribe
    • egormakarov 1y ago
      I have a problem with many fellow cyclists here in Germany, because they seem to use something that shouldn't be street-legal as bicycle lighs (very annoying in the night on unlit road) Not sure what UK drivers would say about that, though
  • barbazoo 1y ago
    The sun as well, too bright.
    • skirmish 11mo ago
      The whole big blue room outside is much too bright, we need strict regulation so that nerds are finally comfortable leaving their caves.
  • jeffwass 1y ago
    I don’t understand the seeming lack of regulation for flashing bike lights. I don’t mean a simple “normal” flashing light, but the super bright ones that are like a camera flash strobe going off 2-3x per second which hurts your eyes and kills your night vision, making it hard to see anything including the actual cyclist.
• macintux 1y ago
  Meanwhile, brake lights and running lights are frequently too dim because of an aesthetic obsession with "blacking out" tail lights.
  • kaelwd 1y ago
    Luckily that's illegal in my country, instead we have the opposite problem where new cars have LED taillights that are just as blindingly bright as their headlights.
  • sanex 1y ago
    Honestly I'm seeing the opposite. Some new cars, I THINK Camry's, have taillights so bright it's blinding to wait behind one at a stoplight. They don't need to shine just glow so you can see them.
    • mnw21cam 1y ago
      I have never understood why everyone seems to immediately forget everything in their driving lessons as soon as they pass their test. When you're waiting at a red light, you're meant to have the hand brake on (which does not illuminate the brake lights), not your foot on the brake, unless you know that the light is going to turn green very soon, or you're trying to catch the attention of someone coming up behind who looks like they haven't seen that you have stopped.
      • delichon 1y ago
        > When you're waiting at a red light, you're meant to have the hand brake on (which does not illuminate the brake lights), not your foot on the brake, unless you know that the light is going to turn green very soon I was definitely not taught this as a US driving student. Is this a UK thing?
        • mnw21cam 1y ago
          I can't see how it would be country-specific. How else would you have any control of the forward motion of the vehicle otherwise, especially when starting on an uphill slope? You're meant to raise the clutch to the biting point and apply some accelerator and release the handbrake when you are confident that the engine will prevent the car from moving backwards. Taking the foot off the brake and hoping you can move it over to the accelerator quickly enough doesn't give you that control. Drifting backwards into the car behind you when setting off is rather an embarrassing thing to do.
• attila-lendvai 1y ago
  actually, this is on my list of signs that our civilization is fscked...
  • Aachen 1y ago
    fsck report: some bad sectors are worse than others
  • alt227 11mo ago
    It certainly is a sign that people are note very considerate of others.
    • attila-lendvai 11mo ago
      i think it's much worse than that: first, most drivers are probably not aware of the problem at all (i mean that their (often brand new) car is part of the problem). just consider e.g. the number of people who are driving in fog or rain without their headlight turned on... because nowadays the front lights are always on due to some law... but the back of their car is completely dark. and no amount of flashing any lights makes them realize this. or the number of people who are clueless about the fact that the headlight agle can be adjusted on most cars today, and what that means and/or how that works. second, it's the institutions that are failing here, which is *way more concerning* than some clueles people driving around on the roads...
• gtsop 1y ago
  [dead]
• wintermutestwin 1y ago
  Where are the AR driving glasses that automatically dim oncoming headlights (and alert the driver to possible road hazards, and…)? Seems to me that all of this tech to create autonomous driving could be also used to augment human driving.
  • amelius 1y ago
    What if it suddenly shows a blue screen?
    • _joel 1y ago
      You crash, both systematically and through the windsceen.
    • DougRisk 1y ago
      They call it the Blue Screen of Death for a reason.
  • rawling 1y ago
    Eye tracking camera in the cabin, LCD film on the windshield, it'd be like reverse matrix lights.
• spike021 1y ago
  It's also like this in America. Earlier in the year I got a replacement rear-view mirror with an anti-glare coating and it's paid dividends. It helps so much at night on dark sections of road when newer cars with bright headlights are around me. Finally decided to also replace my side mirrors with ones that have a similar coating.
  • xeromal 1y ago
    My old 2003 Lexus has some sort of anti-bright headlight feature for the rear view mirror that was a gamechanger when I got it. I always notice when I drive another car.
    • spike021 1y ago
      yeah, some cars have powered dimming. most have the little tab/switch at the bottom you need to flick whenever you want to use the dimmer angle. in my last car that would always mess up my optimal rear view mirror angle and position, which would get annoying and turn into a hassle.
• everdrive 1y ago
  I understand that currently this is sort of a collective action problem, but I'm a bit baffled why people ever thought they needed brighter headlights in the first place. In the city, it's so bright that you don't even need headlights to see whatsoever. When cars started automatically dimming the dash via a light sensor, there was actually a period of time where I totally forgot to turn on my headlights because things were so well lit -- even at night -- that I didn't need them whatsoever. Out in the country, you still don't really need brighter headlights. Other cars' headlights will always be visible and they have reflectors, so it's not as if you'll struggle to spot other cars. The road lines are actually reflective, so it's not as if you'll struggle to see the road lines. And generally speaking out in the country, there won't be pedestrian foot traffic, so it's not as if you need the bright lights for them. So who are they for? I think broadly people may just not be able to avoid excess unless restricted by the facts of their environment. Allow people a plethora of calories, they'll get too fat. Allow them a plethora of entertainment, they'll drive themselves insane. And somehow .. allow them too many bright lights and they'll all just blind each other.
  • nikanj 1y ago
    Out in the country: moose and other animals
    • Lio 1y ago
      Moose are less of a problem in the UK than you might expect. ;) (I'll give you other animals though.)
      • Maxion 1y ago
        There are other countries than the UK.
        • graemep 1y ago
          The story is about the UK. it would b ridiculous to set UK brightness levels on the grounds of what would be needed in Finland.
• nikanj 1y ago
  The bane of my existence is the new "smart" matrix lights, which claim you don't have to switch to low beams for incoming traffic. I bet they work great in AutoCAD or perfect vacuum, but in reality you have the pesky atmosphere scattering the bright photons every which way - guaranteeing at least 40% hitting my poor retinas.
  • semi-extrinsic 1y ago
    The only solution is to fit a 300W LED bar and consistently flash those guys until they are bothered enough to go into the menu of their computer-on-wheels and turn off this "feature".
    • WesolyKubeczek 1y ago
      ...or piss those guys enough that they will call police on you for blinding them and creating a road hazard, or someone unhinged enough gets pissed off and will follow you, after which your behind will dearly regret buying such a long LED bar. This is the same kind of useful advice as the one to brake check those whose driving style you don't like very much, fight (real or perceived) road hazard with deliberately creating more hazard.
      • semi-extrinsic 1y ago
        Sorry, I forgot to emphasize the irony with this: https://xkcd.com/3167/ https://xkcd.com/3167/
        • febusravenga 1y ago
          Thank you, didn't see that one. Now it lands in my "mandatory xkcd list"
  • cbzbc 1y ago
    The problem is that they react to lights from the opposing vehicle, but they are going to hit your eyes before they detect your lights. That's with simple high beam assist. The matrix ones you refer to actually have another feature which makes things even worse; they progressively dip the light in parts, but combined with the first effect this means that you have a few seconds of being blinded before all of their component leds have been dipped. Not to mention that they are only reacting to something directly in front of them for the most part -- meaning you can be blinded on curves, or when turn around and looking at them off axis (say as they wait to turn into a road).
• MarcScott 1y ago
  I think this is an area where stricter regulation would be appreciated. Just needs an additional checkbox on the regular MOT forms, and all cars would be compliant within a year. Additionally, car designers should leave headlights and indicators alone, unless they are making the vehicles safer. The first time I encountered an oncoming car with a horizontal LED strip between the lights, I had no idea what style of vehicle was oncoming.
  • varispeed 1y ago
    It was a monobrow car.
• HPsquared 1y ago
  A lot of this is due to differing heights. There are more tall vehicles with headlights that are high off the ground, which dazzle drivers of regular cars. Even if the dip angle is the same (1% gradient or so), this can still dazzle most people nearby.
  • Aachen 1y ago
    Vans and other bigger vehicles, that have the lights mounted higher than usual, are indeed particularly bad, but I don't really want to get into an arms race of taller and taller vehicles just to be able to see at night. Better that the manufacturers just angle it down a bit more if they want to put the lights up that high
• close04 1y ago
  Headlights are brighter because when you are behind them, it's a game changer. The road visibility is so much better now, I still remember the dull yellowish lights I had on my first car (1970s model) and realize I was more driving by feel. But in front of those headlights it's a pain. Then there's the height of the hood, headlights are so much higher than they used to on average. Amplifies that pain.
  • 1718627440 1y ago
    That was the case, when you were the only one having them. Now you see less, because everyone has them.
  • veltas 1y ago
    The problem is the road visibility doesn't need to be 'better', it just needs to be 'visible'. We went from the road is visible to everyone, to the road is only visible to some people because the rest of us don't have ultra bright lights and are getting blinded.
• comrade1234 1y ago
  Are they just not aimed properly? I don't think replacing headlights is something you should do unless you're a professional. I don't drive much here in Switzerland but I haven't noticed a problem when I do drive, but in the USA when I drive, especially in rural areas it's a pain.
  • 1970-01-01 1y ago
    It's this. They aren't inspected for alignment. It's fairly obvious that you can't be blinded by a light unless it's being sent directly into your face or reflecting off a mirror and directly into your face.
    • zimpenfish 1y ago
      I thought they changed the MOT to better assess alignment[0]? [0] https://mattersoftesting.blog.gov.uk/the-mot-headlamp-aim-test-is-changing/ https://mattersoftesting.blog.gov.uk/the-mot-headlamp-aim-te...
• Jamustico 1y ago
  I don't think it's the brightness but the type of light. LED white lights are the actually the problem
• alexpadula 1y ago
  All new car head lights are too bright. I miss the old warm yellow lights.
  • jansper39 1y ago
    We could have warmer headlights which would be more comfortable for road users, but most car manufacturers have decided it's 5000K white because it's fashionable.
    • WesolyKubeczek 1y ago
      I'm always curious, who are all those people who tell manufacturers it's fashionable? Other than voices in their heads? Who are those people that unironically like those searing lights?
      • Aachen 1y ago
        I imagine it's the same people that cut holes in new pants. There appear to be some true marketing gods in this world who evidently find buyers for newly broken items at prices higher than the original nonbroken items. Selling bright white lamps frankly 'pales' next to that
      • meindnoch 1y ago
        Same people who told them drivers want touchscreens.
        • WesolyKubeczek 1y ago
          Yeah, but who are they? Do they keep a real Homer Simpson in some basement, ask him what’s cool, and take the stupidest cheapest ideas for implementation?
    • mnw21cam 1y ago
      Higher colour temperature LEDs are more efficient, so that's one reason why they get chosen. It's not a good reason, given they're still a massive efficiency improvement over old halogens.
• crazygringo 1y ago
  Some US context: "Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108 (FMVSS 108) regulates all automotive lighting, signalling and reflective devices in the United States. In February 2022, FMVSS 108 was amended to allow automakers to install adaptive driver beam (ADB) headlamps on new vehicles. However, carmakers have not implemented ADB because of contradictions in the rule. As of December 2024, FMVSS 108 has not been updated to adapt to widespread use of LED headlamps, which are criticized for being too bright and blinding other drivers. Some manufacturers have reportedly engineered headlamps to have a dark spot where they are measured according to the regulation while being over-illuminated in the rest of the field." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Motor_Vehicle_Safety_Standard_108?wprov=sfti1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Motor_Vehicle_Safety_S... "Adaptive Highbeam Assist is Mercedes-Benz's marketing name for a headlight control strategy that continuously automatically tailors the headlamp range so the beam just reaches other vehicles ahead, thus always ensuring maximum possible seeing range without glaring other road users. This technology is also known as Adaptive Driving Beams (ADB). Until February 2022, this technology had been illegal in the US, as FMVSS 108 specifically stated that headlamps must have dedicated high and low beams to be deemed road-legal. An infrastructure bill enacted in November 2021 included language that directs the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to amend FMVSS 108 to allow the use of this technology, and set a two-year deadline for implementing this change. In February 2022, the NHTSA amended FMVSS 108 allowing adaptive headlights for use in the US. However, the new regulations are quite different from the ones in effect in Europe and Asia and prevent car manufacturers from easily adapting their systems to the US market." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlamp?wprov=sfti1#Adaptive_highbeam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlamp?wprov=sfti1#Adaptive_...
  • rootusrootus 1y ago
    I have adaptive lights on my Ford Lightning (and Model 3, more recently), and I do like it, but it is not without compromises. It relies on the camera recognizing what should be excluded from the light pattern, for one. Easy for oncoming cars as well as ones in front of you. Less easy for vehicles that are perpendicular to you (like just showing their nose and driver, waiting to turn onto the road you are already on). And then there are pedestrians. They do try to mitigate that by turning off the adaptive high beam whenever the car detects that you are in a well lit area with lots of ambient lighting sources (i.e. the city), but it's not foolproof. And since you just leave it on all the time, you end up using the "high beam" light far more often than you'd probably choose to when controlling it manually.
• oldjim798 1y ago
  Desperately we need to reign in car "style" choices like this. Beyond headlights being too bright, lift kits should be banned and tint regulations should be enforced. Same with sound regulations. Public roads are not race tracks; they are for people.
  • lan321 1y ago
    What bothers you about tints? I've never bothered to get one since it's illegal where I'm at but the new ones seem pretty cool for cave dwellers who fear the light. They tint well during the day but you can still see at night from what I've seen on friends cars.
    • ghusto 1y ago
      It's like driving behind a truck or van, you can't see past the (tinted) car in front. The solution would be to overtake people with tinted windows. Unfortunately, the type of people with tinted windows are exactly the type you shouldn't overtake.
      • okdood64 1y ago
        > Unfortunately, the type of people with tinted windows are exactly the type you shouldn't overtake. So every soccer mom SUV?
        • Workaccount2 1y ago
          Factory tints are generally mild and never on the windshield. Aftermarket tints are dark and people get both the rear window and windshield tinted.
    • mtoner23 1y ago
      most aftermarket tints are too dark and dont allow pedestrians to see into the car to see if they going to be hit by the driver. its illegal in most places but cops dont do anything about it.
• varispeed 1y ago
  Yes, evening, rain, headlights - basically best to close eyes and drive by feel. I too wonder why these are legal.
• PunchyHamster 1y ago
  No wonder. We need standard both on the brightness and the height of the headlights off the ground. Try driving normal sized car or anything sporty and it's blindness central any time modern SUV shows up.
• mihaaly 1y ago
  Wild west of light usage makes cycling habits in UK bad as well. Several thousands of lux lights are pointed towards the oncoming cyclsts switched to strobe mode. Rear light are comparably strong and distracting by all the very creative patterns of flashing. People seem to pour out the children of safety with the dirty bath water of flashing lights. Yes, you want to be noticed, yeah, you made it! By dazzling everyone else and divert attention away from any other traffic or dangers. Very stupid practice, making safety worse, not better.
  • Sunspark 1y ago
    Those flashing lights aren't even road legal in Germany. I never set mine to flash and I'm not in Germany. I believe flashing lights are actually less safe as it encourages the driver to look AWAY from you. I certainly don't keep staring at a flashing light.
• keepamovin 1y ago
  This is one of those situations where UK's "rule by law" model could actually be super positive. Make a law restricting brightness and put police and cameras onto ticketing drivers who needlessly burn their highbeams when lowbeams would suffice. The old halogen-warm colors were better, too. You don't want "area denial" lighting on your everyday ride.
• _joel 1y ago
  Totally, especially the big chelsea tractors that seem to be even more direct to retina.
  • rwmj 1y ago
    Really need to limit the size of cars. Its starting to get ridiculous our here in the English countryside with cars that have to cross the median because they're so fat.
• gbil 1y ago
  A few things I've experienced: - In many new cars the headlights do indeed appear as very bright. In the Xenon era the headlight height adjustment per occupancy was done automatically but at least in a few new cars I've been in with LED headlights this is not the case and the driver needs to adjust it by hand and I'm pretty sure the vast majority doesn't do that. - Many new cars offer automated switching of high beam lights and the results vary to say the least. - Small experience from UK highways gave me the same impression, the middle strip is not a solid one which is a huge issue when the lights from the other side blind you and I'm talking about normal headlights just because of road curvature or height difference of the opposing lanes while there are no overhead road lights. EDIT:format
  • yolo3000 1y ago
    I am in very small minority since my car is 20 years old now, but it has halogen lights with height adjustments, and they even check for height adjustment at the yearly inspection. But automated high beam switching and people are not ware of it? What sort of drivers do we have nowadays..
    • kbolino 1y ago
      A number of US states don't even require regular safety inspections. For example, in Maryland, you only get a safety inspection when selling your vehicle or transferring it in from another state. The number of people who don't use their lights judiciously is surprisingly large. Besides high beam issues, I've also observed people who think that their daytime running lights are headlights. This is especially obvious because their taillights will be off.
      • ztetranz 1y ago
        New Hampshire just ended inspections.
• ZeroConcerns 1y ago
  I think the UK should do a HeadExit, where they refuse any bulbs manufactured after 1972 or so (maybe 1974 bulbs are still acceptable, I don't know man, can anyone run a quick A/B test?). I'm pretty sure that, like "taking control of [their] borders by leaving the EU", this is a course of action that will make everyone happy.
• jeffbee 1y ago
  It seems to me that in America the number of people just driving around with their high beams on has greatly increased in the last decade or so, too. People are so focused on their phones that they don't see the big blue light on the dashboard, or they don't know what it indicates.
  • segmondy 1y ago
    It's not people turning it on, it's the default on lots of new cars, they turn on automatically at night especially and are suppose to switch to low beam when they see incoming cars.
    • jeffbee 1y ago
      Most of the ones I notice seem to be older cars that probably lacked those features. It's mostly the older cars where you can unambiguously see their bright lights are on anyway, because of the headlight style.
• WesolyKubeczek 1y ago
  Same in Poland, I often drive after dark thinking, "those oncoming idiots and their high beams", but then they flash their high beams at someone and I realize that those are not their high beams. Granted, my Yaris with full LED lights and their atrocious cool white light is a part of the problem, so I'm in no position to complain, but at least my lights are aimed correctly, so there's that.
  • Sunspark 1y ago
    In North America, the problem is other than the fact they didn't allow dimming lights for whatever reason, they made a separate regulation for LED lights compared to the old incandescent lights. The old light regulation actually had a limit on how bright the running lights could be. The new LED light regulation says you can have it as bright as the manufacturer wants it to be. So now there is the problem of misaligned headlights that don't point at the road but instead point at cars, and are as bright or brighter than the old incandescent high beams. I have to have my rear-view mirror permanently flipped at night now. I never needed to do that in the past except when some idiot actually was using their high beams.
    • WesolyKubeczek 1y ago
      Another problem in North America is that the sizes and heights of cars keep going up. Reminds me of loudness wars in music somehow. Don’t know if this apparent size translates to more space inside; from my limited experience riding in American cars, not very much. There’s someone in my neighborhood who has an imported Toyota Sequoia. Magnificent machine. His car could be mistaken for a small bus. When he vacates the spot, two normal sized cars can park in it. Our actual buses and semis often have lower headlights than that thing.
• wkoszek 1y ago
  US is the same. I no longer know is someone is using long-distance lights or normal lights, or whether they are wrongly adjusted. But driving at knight, especially with folks right behind you is hard.
• skylurk 1y ago
  Recently I was driving in the daytime and got temporarily blinded by a BMW SUV with its high beams on. Not sure where to draw the line, but "brighter than the sun" is too bright.
• cpfleming 1y ago
  More that they're misaligned than too bright...
• Aachen 1y ago
  Where I live, it's customary to let other drivers know by flashing your brights when they're blinding you or if there's some other issue with their vehicle like a broken tail light or such. Maybe less now that you can't easily change the bulb yourself but as a principle In recent years I've started being unable to tell who's intentionally blinding traffic and who's just got misconfigured lamps (shining at eye level instead of angled down at the road). It used to be feasible to also let people know when their lights are misconfigured, I'd probably decide 1 warrants a signal across several hours of driving (also because of avoiding collateral targets), but the most recent time I drove, I think there was always at least one car in sight that had the issue. It's completely constant. It was worsening a few years ago but it's really getting out of hand now, in Germany and the Netherlands at least. Some people's lights are even piercing by day! Thankfully that is quite rare yet
  • segmondy 1y ago
    A lot of new cars have it automatic, where they run on high beam and are supposed to turn it off when they see incoming cars ahead.
    • Aachen 1y ago
      We had a rental like that in 2023. The person who was driving was amazed and you could see the effect very well where it would light up the forest or town except for the one strip where this other car was coming on (I'll say it looked cool even if we didn't need the gimmick, other drivers did occasionally flash us when they were at the edge of its detection range, and I can't imagine it improves the wildlife situation that's already not exactly thriving with habitat areas cut up by roads and light pollution from towns and cars everywhere around it) I haven't seen this type of headlight as a third party yet. I've been on the lookout for where another car might light up areas around me but never noticed it. Not sure it's that common in Germany or the Netherlands
  • donatj 1y ago
    When I got my Honda van with stock LED headlights about a year ago, people started flashing me that my brights were on. After the first couple times I started flashing my actual brights back. They make the stock headlights too dang bright.
• afandian 1y ago
  The excellent Mike Harrison has a couple of good videos on YT tearing down modern headlamps: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fRjMHtnShs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fRjMHtnShs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZJoPbk53ug https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZJoPbk53ug (all his videos are good)
• matt-p 1y ago
  I've got to say, I feel like bright white full spectrum is the main problem, I would care much less about them if they were red (though yes, we would need a new colour for rear/brake lights).
• rckt 1y ago
  As a pedestrian I can say that the headlights are too bright everywhere I visit. If a car goes up a slope and I go down it's like somebody holds a flashlight right up my eyes. I don't understand why these mandatory lights should be so bright.
• neilv 1y ago
  > TRL's data suggests that LED and whiter headlamps may be linked to glare and that drivers might find their whiteness harder to cope with. As a long-time walker in the US, anecdotally, I've noticed some especially blinding car headlights, and they seem to be among the whiter ones. "Hey, thanks for ruining my night vision and my sleep cycle." But I usually can't tell whether the cause of the problem is the the aiming, brightness, or temperature. I thought headlights were carefully regulated. (There's something about LED lights that brings out oblivious or indifferent behavior. Maybe involving efficiency improvements, and people not reassessing requirements (e.g., when you couldn't get a too-bright light, or it would be too expensive to operate, you didn't have to think about other not-too-bright requirements). In recent years, we got municipalities installing miserable bright white street lamps, prompting complaints from walkers and people who don't have blackout curtains anywhere that shines in at night. And the last couple years, some individual residential properties in my very dense neighborhood are installing crazy-bright white LED floodlights outdoors, shining at sidewalks and adjacent property windows, brighter than even the new street lamps. I'm starting to see walkers at night going out into the street (which isn't very safe), just to avoid the blast. The first too-bright property lights to appear on a block's street are very easy to spot, because they're obviously the brightest thing there.)
  • duskdozer 11mo ago
    I've also noticed a big uptick in the last couple years with these problems. It's horrible and it feels like one of those things that will just keep getting worse.
• torcete 1y ago
  When I was living in the UK, I remember being constantly blinded by cars driving the opposite direction. A problem I rarely had in continental Europe and never understood the reason.
• theoldgreybeard 1y ago
  I have astigmatism and the LED headlights are excruciating. They make driving at night in the city absolute torture.
• daemonologist 1y ago
  I find this problem to be most severe as a pedestrian - when my eyes have adjusted to the darkness (even if I'm carrying a flashlight, it pales in comparison) and a modern car is oncoming, I cannot see _anything_. Out here in the sticks where there are no sidewalks I can either take it on blind faith that the driver has seen and will avoid me, or I can step way off into the ditch (but not everyone has that option).
  • cubefox 1y ago
    Yeah. When I ride my bike in the sticks and pass walkers in the dark, I try to disable my headlight a few seconds before I pass them. Otherwise all they see is a bright light approaching. Disabling the lights for a moment seems better than one party not seeing anything. (Or both parties, e.g. two bikes, or runners with forehead LED light.) After all, even in the countryside the darkness usually is far from complete. You still see quite a few meters without any headlights. Though the tradeoff would be different for cars with their much higher speed.
    • abyssin 1y ago
      If your front light is correctly aiming down, there’s no need to disable the light. Modern bicycle led front lights are most often incorrectly set up, though.
      • cubefox 1y ago
        I can control the angle, but permanently aiming it down so far that it can't get in anyone's eyes is completely impractical. You would only see what's directly in front of you and you would miss a lot of stuff.
        • abyssin 11mo ago
          Not sure about your particular model but most front lights are designed to make the path visible in front of you, and not above.
• ghusto 1y ago
  > A study commissioned by the Department for Transport (DfT) found 97% of people surveyed found they were regularly or sometimes distracted by oncoming vehicles and 96% thought most or some headlights were too bright. 1% said they were sometimes distracted by incoming vehicles, and that was fine.
• monegator 1y ago
  The headlights are most definetly not too bright. Instead, they are too high, because the idiots with new cars rely on the automatic beam positioning which is always too slow. Or they are fitting led bulbs in an halogen fixture and never bother to make the adjustments
  • ghusto 1y ago
    No, they are too bright. So bright that they dazzle at any height.
• xzjis 1y ago
  There are two situations where I have problems with being dazzled by headlights: - low beams on roads that aren't flat, because they shine right into my eyes - the high beams of cars behind me (sometimes close), which reflect in my mirrors but also off my ceiling, my dashboard, etc. But I don't necessarily have a problem with the headlights just because they're too powerful.
• njarboe 1y ago
  One of the main reasons people want/need brighter headlights is that there is much more light inside the car from screens. These don't let your eyes adjust to the dark properly. Older cars had dim green lighting for the gauges and even had a knob to adjust the brightness up and down. You could create a very dim interior instead of the huge amount of white light you get with modern cars and the multiple screens. I'm happy my Tesla does a decent job of having the screen be quite dark at night but the headlights are quite bad with the horizontal cutoff style that only lights the first few feet of horizontal ahead of the car. I need to see those deer and elk on the side of the road, damn it.
  • bob1029 1y ago
    > Older cars had dim green lighting for the gauges and even had a knob to adjust the brightness up and down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgh2zbifn7E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgh2zbifn7E
    • marcosdumay 1y ago
      That's a nice feature, but the driver actively operating that camera at 70 mph is quite unsettling.
    • boldlybold 1y ago
      I knew before clicking this was going to be a Saab, I miss mine!
      • jjtheblunt 1y ago
        i miss mine too!
      • potato3732842 1y ago
        Many if not most cars had green gauges in the 80s and 90s. They all had some sort of knob, wheel or other adjustment.
        • 1y ago
• calvinmorrison 1y ago
  what is with the blinding WHITE light? can't we just have amber?
• fghorow 1y ago
  I need the brights at night for deer (in N. America) and kangaroos (in Oz). Steering them away automagically from oncoming traffic is a better solution than abandoning them altogether. (And yes, I do have cataracts. So oncoming lights _are_ a problem for me.)
  • givemeethekeys 1y ago
    Isn't that what high beams are for? Why are the low beams so bright these days?
  • WD-42 1y ago
    Steering them away? You’re supposed to turn them off when there is oncoming traffic.
  • alt227 11mo ago
    Steering them away to where? Into the eyes of the deer and kangaroos?
• whalesalad 1y ago
  Related: I moved to rural Michigan and the number of people who will be riding my ass on a late night with their high beams on is astounding. Or people who turn their high beams on in the snow/fog.
  • vatsachak 1y ago
    Michigan, where the more North you go the more Southern you are
  • greenavocado 1y ago
    That's why you need 300 watts of rear facing flood lights on a switch.
• helle253 1y ago
  For the longest time, i thought random drivers were flashing their brights at me all over chicago only recently did i realize, it was the regular headlight LEDs being shined directly at me as they went over a speedbump
  • icetank 1y ago
    Have to remind myself every time that the bright headlights would actually make me blind instead of flashing for a second.
• dredmorbius 1y ago
  So ... how does a problem such as this get remedied? I'm thinking a mandatory recall order / fix-it ticket for all offending makes/models. The sticker shock alone might get manufacturers attention. That and contributory liability in any associated accidents. (Insurance costs / liability is a highly under-appreciated regulatory mechanism.)
• lonelyasacloud 1y ago
  Empirically on UK roads it's as much about the car industry getting away with selling vehicles that are too large for our roads i.e. oversized SUV's and trucks, as anything else. The combination of driver's side closer to crown, and higher mounting, mean the light's from these behemoths tend to cast more of their beams into the eye line of anyone coming the other way, particularly in smaller, lower to the ground vehicles.
  • alias_neo 1y ago
    > tend to cast more of their beams into the eye line of anyone coming the other way, particularly in smaller, lower to the ground vehicles I don't think this is the main issue. I drive a compact SUV, it has perfectly reasonable headlights, pointed downwards like you'd expect, with more of a dip towards oncoming traffic, like headlights have been for decades. Despite being in a somewhat high-ish vehicle, I'm constantly blinded when driving at night by what is typically, low sports cars with headlights that are indistinguishable from high-beams. I have no idea how manufacturers got away with this, and I hope something is done soon to make sure a mandate for them being fixed comes in new vehicles, and as part of MOT for existing ones. I'm in my 30s, with perfect eye sight, and typically have no trouble driving at night or low light, or even low visibility, but it terrifies me that one day I might hit someone after being blinded by these idiotically bright head lights.
    • globular-toast 1y ago
      > I drive a compact SUV, it has perfectly reasonable headlights How would you know?
• teslabox 1y ago
  Years ago I read a comment here sharing how they'd taken to wearing amber glasses when walking at night, so they could be protected against the excessively-blue LED streetlights in their neighborhood. I bought amber safety glasses. They magically took the shock out of the bad headlights, but I also noticed that I wasn't seeing pedestrians until it was too late. My local sunglass shop had some yellow fit-over safety glasses. I found they cut out enough of the blue from the bad headlights to take the shock out of the experience of driving at night. https://cocoons.com/shop/safety/lightguard-medium-fitovers-lemon/ https://cocoons.com/shop/safety/lightguard-medium-fitovers-l... Harbor Freight's $2 yellow safety glasses are almost as good. I intend to stock up the next time I notice they're on sale for $1: https://www.harborfreight.com/yellow-lens-safety-glasses-66823.html https://www.harborfreight.com/yellow-lens-safety-glasses-668... 4 years ago I asked HN why the automotive industry wasn't using safe LEDs: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27334405 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27334405 The activists at /r/fuckyourheadlights figured out that the weaponized headlights put a little dim spot at the center of their headlight beams, exactly where the regulators measure the light intensity. 2nd picture clearly shows the dim spot: https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckyourheadlights/comments/1hefn86/holy_shitballs_there_are_deliberate_dark_spots_in/ https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckyourheadlights/comments/1hefn86... Summary of research: https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckyourheadlights/comments/18lrf3d/a_summary_of_activist_research_this_is_where_were/ https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckyourheadlights/comments/18lrf3d...
  • y-c-o-m-b 1y ago
    I used to wear these amber glasses for my motorcycle rides back when I was still riding. They not only did a great job of improving my visibility (be it subjective or not), but they also seemed to reduce overall fatigue for me. I should pick up another pair for regular driving though, thanks for the reminder.
• TZubiri 1y ago
  I think I've been using headlights wrong. My car has 3 headlight settings, low, mid, hi. Hi is when you are alone at night and want to see farther. I used to use low in the daytime (to signal other drivers the car is on), and mid at night (to signal other drivers and gain some visibility. But maybe the opposite is sensible, using mid lights in daytime (so they are more discernible from the daylight), and using low lights in nighttime (if you are in an already illuminated city, you don't need to light up the road, and since it's night, any small headlight will have enough contrast with the darkness)
• TheChaplain 1y ago
  ITT people saying you don't need strong headlights on the country side, you just need to drive slower.. One thing doesn't need to exclude the other, especially as you begin to go above 50 and your eye sight isn't as good as it was when you were twenty-five. Strong headlight that makes night go day saves lives, just remember to shut when meeting another vehicle or pedestrian.
  • WickyNilliams 1y ago
    Or don't go above 50mph down country roads at night? If your eyes aren't as good as they used to be, all the more reason to drive slower
    • TheChaplain 1y ago
      I am pretty sure that is what I wrote
      • WickyNilliams 1y ago
        Yes, I misread. Apologies!
• meindnoch 1y ago
  1. Headlights are migrating upwards, thanks to the proliferation of SUVs and pickups. 2. The color temperature of modern headlights is worse for the eye than previous generations'. 3. Automatic high beams still blind the oncoming traffic for the first 1-2 seconds or so, before the vision algorithm realizes that maybe it's time to turn them off.
• vegancap 1y ago
  I was at a junction the other day, there was some new Audi EV at the other side of the junction and I couldn't see a damn thing. I've got perfect 20/20 vision, never had any form of eye problem ever in my life, and I was completely blinded. I'm convinced if they'd turned the full beams on, I'd have disintegrated.
  • rafale 1y ago
    Maybe they were on a slight up slope. If the headlights were auto leveling it will fix many of the issues people complain about.
    • vegancap 1y ago
      Yeah quite possibly actually, I did think at the time if they were angled down slightly, it wouldn't be half as bad. So that checks out. But does show there needs to be some kind of solution for uneven situations like that
  • _fat_santa 1y ago
    Part of the problem I've identified are SUV's and Trucks. Back home I drive a 4runner so I never noticed this but on vacation one week and we rented a Corolla. While the lights from other cars never bothered me in the 4runner, it was so apparent in the smaller Corolla. I would see light behind me and go "why do they have high beams on" but then looking ahead it didn't look like they had their high beams on, I was just in a short car.
    • vegancap 1y ago
      Yeah I'm in a really low Civic Type-R, so when I'm opposite some kind of SUV, and also at a slight angle, was basically at direct eye height with their LEDs. I definitely don't have the same problem with older bulb based SUVs though
      • Tade0 1y ago
        I do, because in my corner of the world, before the advent of self-leveling headlights people would adjust them to whatever height they wanted.
• tanepiper 1y ago
  I've found glasses like these work well (https://www.amazon.nl/Antireflectie-Gepolariseerde-autorijdenbril-UV400-bescherming-schittering/dp/B07M9RTMP1?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&psc=1&smid=AQ7EKW9O6OUOM https://www.amazon.nl/Antireflectie-Gepolariseerde-autorijde...) - if I drive in Germany I can't do without them - they really help block the glare without making it unsafe to drive.
  • __s 1y ago
    Yep, I've just taken to driving with prescription sunglasses at night
• impure-aqua 1y ago
  I feel like this problem is better in the UK than in North America. For starters, there is higher market penetration for better headlight technology, particularly ADB (adaptive driving beam). North American road safety regulations have made it very difficult to get this technology into cars, whereas in Europe it is reasonably widespread. Even rental cars I have had in the UK have this technology- most recently a Mazda3 which had a very good implementation of it, I could drive through the countryside with high-beams on constantly, and you could see the car quickly dim the beam facing towards oncoming traffic if any came around a bend. These are not high-end cars; I have rented cars with a manual transmission and cloth seats yet better headlights than the fanciest S-class in North America. There is also less variation in vehicle size, and better emphasis on road safety testing. In Canada I often encounter lifted pickup trucks, which changes the alignment of factory lighting, not to mention the lights on these are often aftermarket anyway and usually installed without any thought for alignment. British pickup trucks are rarer, smaller, and would fail their yearly MOT for having improper headlamp aim.
  • mossTechnician 1y ago
    The problem with headlight brightness has mostly stemmed from cars having brighter headlights. I love technology, but if I had to choose between reducing light output, vs switching to harder-to repair, more expensive, less reliable computer-powered headlights, I'd prefer the former.
    • impure-aqua 1y ago
      When I drive cars with old headlights, they are clearly inferior to the point of feeling nearly dangerous in some situations. I would also not call modern lights less reliable, although I am sure it is more expensive to repair modern lighting technology. In a North American city where there is overhead lighting and the streets are a mile wide, sure, I could probably turn the lights off even and be totally fine. In the middle of the British countryside on a single-track road that has hedges on either side, not enough space for cars in the oncoming direction to pass me, a 60mph speed limit, during a rainstorm? I want the nice lights.
• amelius 1y ago
  The main issue isn't even the headlights, it's why the hell did this not get regulated to sane levels.
• giantg2 1y ago
  I'm half tempted to say just give everyone cheap multispecral goggles and get rid of the headlights, streetlights, etc. With volume, you could build a set with digital night vision and a Flir Lepton for under $400 (which is about the cost of an HID headlight system).
• bloomingeek 1y ago
  Here in the states, the painted white line on the right side of the lane, is for night driving. When an oncoming car's lights are reflecting too brightly, you can judge your car's position in the lane, IF the lines are not to faded. Crazily, we allow people to raise up their trucks so high that at night, if they're behind you in the lane, the cab of your vehicle is flooded so badly, you can hardly see sometimes. (Just wait till you experience this in a drive-through lane!) In my state, it's against the law to run your fog lamps when the weather doesn't warrant them, the police seem to have forgotten this.
• rreichel03 1y ago
  This is a problem with emergency vehicles too - many times I’ve been driving and unable to see a person on the road because the lights from a police or EMS vehicle are brighter than a thousand suns, hiding anything beyond. It feels like a Jurassic park thing - they made them brighter because they could (with minimal focus on externalities)
• reinier 1y ago
  i have a possible addition to the problem. people are spending lots of time indoors, so my theory is; people are missing a lot of the natural sun radiation, causing the fluid in your eye to be less translucencent generally and possibly building up floaters more easily. this could disperse light more inside your eye. enlarging the effect of blinding lights at night.
• rootusrootus 1y ago
  Doesn't this come down to glare in most cases? IIRC, the real onslaught of headlight glare wasn't the advent of HID, it was when cars started using projectors. Even with halogens, projectors pointed at you make for a very intense point of light. Lots of glare. Less than HID or LED, sure, but still very real. I would like to see a headlight solution where you get the same amount of light thrown on the road, but from a strip that goes all the way across the front of the car, so that no individual spot is especially bright for oncoming drivers.
• whitehexagon 1y ago
  The curse of modern super bright LEDs. Add to that list; super bright red brake lights, and a new trend for animated turning lights / indicators. Looks like something we'd have installed as teenagers after watching Knight Rider. Really distracting. Some of the towns here also started scattering flashing LEDs over every road sign they can find. Some areas feel like driving through Blackpool Illuminations. The worst offender locally is a roundabout light that flashes blue, which of course you assume to be an emergency vehicle approaching.
  • Y_Y 1y ago
    Add to that rental bikes that have always-on flashing lights. My neurospice is relatively mild, but flashing lights and animations in my field of view really fuck up my ability to focus on other things. I can't be the only one with this issue, but it doesn't seem to garner much sympathy. I still drive when I have to, but I had to give up watching soccer on tv when they added animated ads to all the pitches. I'm honestly considering some kind of AR filtering at this point. Also shoutouts to the places in South America (esp. Guayaquil) where people modify cars and buses to have constantly flashing lights, animated screens etc. It's like having a little Times Square in every traffic jam! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LOdfcJpvps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LOdfcJpvps
    • crazygringo 1y ago
      To be fair, the flashing on bicycles is intentional, precisely to make sure you are aware of them, since they're so much smaller and vulnerable, and the light itself is so much smaller than the rear light on a vehicle. It's not just on rentals, it's a standard feature of bicycle rear lights that is there for safety.
      • martijnvds 1y ago
        In the Netherlands, bike lights _must not_ flash. The law very explicitly states that they need to be "always on" (in the dark). The main reason seems to be that it's hard for others to to gauge your speed when your lights are flashing.
• chrsw 1y ago
  I thought I was just getting old...
• Borborygymus 1y ago
  I always wondered if it would be feasible to make the headlights produce polarized light (e.g. vertical), and have windscreens filter out that polarization... I guess it would only work if the scattering of light off of whatever is being illuminated sufficiently depolarizes the light. Anyhow, I thought it was a neat idea when I was a teenager. There might be some issues with retro fitting the world's existing road vehicle fleet, but that's a deployment detail. :p
  • sokoloff 1y ago
    If you polarized the light and windshield to 45° off vertical, opposite direction traffic would have their windshield at 90° to your light…
  • hengistbury 11mo ago
    This might cause issues with polarised sunglasses
• ZiiS 1y ago
  Nearly all UK drivers say _Other People's_ headlights are too bright; _my_ headlights are a bit dim.
• racl101 1y ago
  Same in Canada. Super bright LEDs. Every morning. What's weird is that almost every one uses them, and almost everyone complains about other people using them. Seems as weird as tourists complaining about other tourists. I personally don't use them. So I just get to observe.
• krona 1y ago
  I agree that many LED headlights are too bright (or, more commonly, poorly calibrated) however one thing which can significantly reduce glare is to clean your windshield properly at least once a year. Few people do this. When I say properly, I mean with a special purpose abrasive glass polish. This could take an hour or more to do well by hand but it should remove the near invisible (in standard lighting conditions) film which forms on the glass surface. This will also significantly improve visibility in heavy rain.
• EmptyCoffeeCup 1y ago
  The lights aren't too bright, they're just poorly aligned. Go for a walk of an evening along a footpath into traffic. I guarantee it'll be Teslas and Minis that are the routinely the culprits of dazzling. I'd guess it's cheap, lazily aligned hardware in the Tesla, and the ridiculous design of the Mini that cause the problems. Yes, sporadically you'll be blinded by another model- one that needs an alignment - but it'll consistently be Tesla's and Minis.
  • brookst 1y ago
    Teslas are the worst. I try not to speculate without evidence but I cannot shake the intuition that it is intentional to aid the driver assist and self driving stuff, and reflective of a generally sociopathic company.
    • wtallis 1y ago
      I've heard it alleged that Tesla simply does not have a QA check for headlight alignment at the factory. Based on my experience on the road, that's entirely believable.
  • kedean 1y ago
    The lights are too bright and poorly aligned. I walk regularly, and its more than just the tesla's and mini's at fault (Teslas are definitely some of the worst in my experience though, along with Rivian) https://www.theringer.com/2024/12/03/tech/headlight-brightness-cars-accidents https://www.theringer.com/2024/12/03/tech/headlight-brightne... > On a recent episode of the Carmudgeon Show podcast, auto journalist Jason Cammisa described a phenomenon occurring with some LED headlights in which there are observable minor spots of dimness among an otherwise bright field of light. “With complex arrays of LEDs and of optics,” he said, “car companies realized they can engineer in a dark spot where it’s being measured, but the rest of the field is vastly over-illuminated. And I’ve had now two car companies’ engineers, when I played stupid and said, ‘What’s the dark spot?’ … And the lighting engineers are all fucking proud of themselves: ‘That’s where they measure the fucking thing!’ And I’m like, ‘You assholes, you’re the reason that every fucking new car is blinding the shit out of everyone.’”
• bArray 1y ago
  I think most vehicles are operating with their headlamps adjusted too high. I think the majority are now completely out of spec [1]. My normal lights are very respectably adjusted and are the older dimmer type, but my full beams are blinding - I rarely ever use them. A few times a driver comes towards me with full beams on, I flash mine and light up the entire night. The quality of driver is also decreasing. One of our MPs computed the data and discovered "Since 2016, 1,367,942 foreign drivers have been issued a driving licence without taking a UK test". There are apparently 42.1 mn licenses [2], so ~1/30 never took a UK test. It's getting dangerous out there. [1] https://mattersoftesting.blog.gov.uk/the-mot-headlamp-aim-test-is-changing/ https://mattersoftesting.blog.gov.uk/the-mot-headlamp-aim-te... [2] https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/know-how/population-of-the-uk/ https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/know-how/population-of-th...
  • martin_a 1y ago
    > It's getting dangerous out there. You're all driving on the wrong side of the road, what are you even talking about? /s
    • bArray 11mo ago
      If only we knew! The real reason we drive on the left is so that our driver's windows meet in the middle and we can use our right hand to do sword battles and jousting with oncoming vehicles.
  • tonymet 1y ago
    We could get very far by mandating easier adjustment of headlights, and free adjustment at auto shops. It only takes a couple minutes to adjust the headlights , especially at a shop with a lift and a gauge.
    • bArray 11mo ago
      It's supposed to already be done at the MOT stations. They are supposed to check the level and adjust it to conform.
• nashashmi 1y ago
  Once was at an intersection and I thought the beam of the oncoming car was on. The insides of my car were fully lighted. Beamed him twice to let him know. He beamed back.
• altairprime 1y ago
  I have fully calibrated to manufacturer, and adjusted to state law angles, headlamps and they are 2019 LED and blinding to other drivers unless I point them slightly down. They are pointed down to the legal limit (I have a low car) and distance visibility at speed is problematic. Their design flaws are many, but top among them is that their low beams are simply too collimated and too bright for safe use. I wish I could (illegally) attenuate them in order to make them safer for other drivers. Is there a coating that I can apply to the sealed external lexan housing that will 1) diffuse and/or 2) uniformly dim their light output?
• 30minAdayHN 1y ago
  I wish someone does something similar in India. Night time driving is a nightmare. Everyone runs on high-beam. The new class of motor-cycles are with super bright LEDs and riders put them on high beam. Night-time driving is a guessing game - you need to guess where the edge of the road is, if there is a bicyclist in between, etc. At least in late 90s, there used to be a law to black out half the headlamp. Either that was no longer the case or it's not as vigorously enforced. This is the classic case of tragedy of commons!
  • pete1302 1y ago
    Driving in a divider-less road in India feels like getting abducted by Aliens!!!!, Constant High-Beam is fine, But Constant LED/Projector High-Beam is a Crime.
  • qart 1y ago
    There will be no course-correction in India. The usual mindset is "how can I be the bigger a-hole?" With accessories becoming more and more affordable, there has been a rise in super bright LEDs, and even flashing LEDs. In cities, the police sometimes imposes fines, but apparently, no one pays fines. We have louder horns too. And psychopaths openly displaying their psychopathy. Bangalore's police at least responds on Twitter (https://x.com/blrcitytraffic https://x.com/blrcitytraffic), but when I look around, it seems like their efforts are a drop in the ocean. The police of other cities are all completely ineffective. The only exception is Chandigarh, but no one wants to follow their example.
    • pete1302 1y ago
      As a daily commuter in North-IND I can confirm this, It is not even the car height difference anymore, people are getting aftermarket abominations on their sedans and not getting them height adjusted, the H-beam throw is all over the place.
• shkkmo 1y ago
  My slightly off topic headlight rant is: We are in the process of forcing car to come with automatic braking, but yet we don't force cars to turn headlights when in motion...
• iamthejuan 1y ago
  Also in the Philippines, it needs to be regulated.
• inamberclad 1y ago
  It's also because the cars are getting so much taller, especially in the US. Driving a smaller car is terrifying when a lifted Dodge fitted with anti-aircraft spotlights blinds you while going the opposite direction.
• ifh-hn 1y ago
  I'm in an older car I feel like these modern cars are permanent high beams. Sometimes if it's real bad I high beam them to let them know what it's like. Ridiculous state of affairs. Ive been driving for over 30 years and it's only recently this has been happening, like 5 years or so.
• loourr 1y ago
  I've started wearing sunglasses at night
• BrandoElFollito 1y ago
  I have a Toyota RAV4 and the lights are distinctly weaker than in other cars I had. It is a mix of low brightness and short cutoff. It is a challenge to drive when the road is even a bit bendy. They are correctly adjusted.
  • bityard 1y ago
    I have a recent-model Highlander and I hate the headlights on it. As you say, the sharp cut-off is terrible. Bendy roads I don't mind, but anyone driving anywhere that has even the smallest amount of hills is going to get this: 1) Approaching the top of the hill: cut-off is too high, blinding other drivers 2) Approaching the bottom of the hill: cut-off is too low, can't see far enough ahead, hope there's not a deer there And of course the normal up/down motion of the car while driving makes the sharp cut-off line bounce around in the distance which literally gives me nausea. And I don't get nauseous easily. It's like Toyota hired a team of interns who decided to redesign how headlights work from first principles and then forgot to test them out in the real world. To make things worse, when we got the car, the headlights were adjusted far too high and the cut-off was pointed up in the trees. Every other car flashed their brights at me, even though the low beams were on. I took it to the dealership to have the headlights adjusted (not a small inconvenience at the time) and when I picked it up, they said they did nothing because the headlights were not adjustable. Got home, and the USER MANUAL showed exactly how to adjust the headlights. Because I don't have the required space or equipment to do it right, I took the car out at night and stopped every few miles to tweak the cut-off line until I got to a spot that was in between blinding other drivers and not being able to see the road MOST of the time. To totally fix this, all they had to do was NOT make the cut-off so sharp. Like the last 100 years of cars have done.
    • BrandoElFollito 1y ago
      My car has on the door two buttons marked with 1 and 2. This is supposed to be a feature for two drivers that allows to memorize the position of the seat (which would be awesome). It does not work. I went to Toyota and a kind guy printed the manual for this. It is FOUR PAGES of things to do (open window, honk, switch off, dance, ...). I tried once but it did not work. A guy from Toyota tried to do it quickly between two customers, no luck. So yes, their design is quite surprising sometimes. I am also trying to use the automated opening of the hatch. In the ads the guy or gal with stuff in their arms vaguely swings their foot and bam, it opens. I am swinging like there is no tomorrow (it is a good thing that I have years of martial arts so I can sustain the movement) and the hatch doe snot open. Then after kicking and trying once more it opens. My children learned a few new words at the occasion. This is still a good car (except that the electronics are straight from my childhood (the 80s))
• charles_f 1y ago
  I think it's the same everywhere. I'm in North America, I drive a normal size car, between the super bright led lights, and trucks and SUVs with higher mounting points it's getting really bad. I'm now almost unable to tell when people still have their high beams or not. Add to that some people who don't give a damn and actually drive with high beams on, and you're certain to become blind.
• petercooper 1y ago
  Just as I haven't seen it mentioned yet, one thing that makes British roads worse at night nowadays is a lack of maintenance on the "cat's eyes" reflectors that used to line every major road. They are now quite often missing or broken but previously gave you a clear outline of the road for some distance even with dipped headlights. Same goes for signage overall - standards have slipped.
• ErroneousBosh 1y ago
  I think a huge part of the problem also ties into the problem of modern "Angry Robot Face" designs. Car manufacturers are trying to make headlights the size of a penny that emit as much light as "proper" ones. In the 1980s my dad had a Citroën GSA (and indeed I had one in the mid-2000s, when it was about 20 years old) which was a low-to-mid-spec family saloon. It had headlights about a foot wide and 5" high with a bog standard H4 type halogen bulb in. They put out huge amounts of light - far better than anything else on the road at the time - without being glarey. Get rid of Angry Robot Face cars.
  • pete1302 1y ago
    This has been a really huge problem in India lately, gone are the days of cute cars with minimal edges (Volkswagen Phaeton looked amazing IMO), now everyone is buying Cybertruck Clones offered by Mahindra and TATA Example: Mahindra BE 6, New Thar, and endless other examples
  • fodkodrasz 1y ago
    Also, the plastic headlight “lenses” on many cars tend to get cloudy and develop micro-scratches over time. This reduces the efficiency of the low beams, and instead of fixing the problem, many drivers of older cars simply drive with their high beams on, which creates even more glare for everyone else. Nothing is really repairable, of course, so replacing these parts is out of the question — it’s prohibitively expensive for many owners of older cars to replace the whole headlight units, especially since there are no penalties for driving around like this. Polishing the lenses is risky and usually only a short-term solution.
    • cjs_ac 1y ago
      In the UK, a car with cloudy headlight lenses will fail its annual roadworthiness check, and the owner will have to pay for the lenses to be polished.
      • fodkodrasz 1y ago
        Much alike in Hungary... theoretically. Here, unfortunately, practice is different.
• JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  Has any jurisdiction regulated this?
• jlarocco 1y ago
  As a cyclist and pedestrian, these new headlights and the cars with the "auto brights" are just terrible. When you're in another car their car's sensors might detect your headlights and dim a little bit. But as a pedestrian? You basically just get blinded - from low light right to 10000 lumens straight in your eyes. It's overpowering. Can't make them illegal fast enough, IMO.
  • Zak 1y ago
    The obvious solution is to carry a 10000 lumen[0] flashlight and use it to trigger the auto-dim[1]. [0] Most flashlights that advertise numbers like this are lying, but a few aren't [1] This does present a risk of impairing the driver's vision
    • elric 11mo ago
      I've considered mounting such a beast on my handlebars, just so I reciprocate cyclists who blind me. But I'm guessing such a thing wouldn't be entirely legal.
      • Zak 11mo ago
        Some countries have very specific standards for bike lights; others have none. Most jurisdictions have a crime like "reckless endangerment" though, and intentionally shining bright lights into a cyclist's eyes could qualify.
  • marcellus23 1y ago
    Even if we're considering only other cars and not pedestrians, it's still pretty annoying. The brights will only turn off _after_ another car is already in their field of illumination, and only after a short delay. If you're manually managing your brights, you can almost always switch them off before another car even comes into view (by e.g. seeing their headlights approaching)
  • Manfred 11mo ago
    During dusk, which is pretty long around winter here, I have to wear sunglasses when I out training on bike. It's worst on hilly terrain.
• crooked-v 1y ago
  In the US, part of the problem is that car manufacturers are literally making headlights that are too bright for the tests, with dim spots in the exact places the tests measure maximum brightness in order to technically pass. https://old.reddit.com/r/fuckyourheadlights/comments/1hefn86/holy_shitballs_there_are_deliberate_dark_spots_in/ https://old.reddit.com/r/fuckyourheadlights/comments/1hefn86...
• kova12 1y ago
  Nearly all UK drivers = "total of 1,850 drivers". Also mind you, in UK you can go to jail for disagreeing with narrative. I hold this article somewhat sus. With that said, yeah, headlights are kinda bright these days
  • AnimalMuppet 1y ago
    Nearly all UK drivers = a large majority of 1,850 drivers, with enough diversity in the sample set that one can reasonably extrapolate from that to the population as a whole. (Do you throw this criticism at every survey?) > in UK you can go to jail for disagreeing with narrative. With the narrative on headlight brightness?
• apparent 1y ago
  Auto-dimming mirrors used to seem like a luxury, now they're pretty much a necessity. It's always been possible to flip the rear view mirror manually, but the side mirrors don't have this feature. I would be hard-pressed to buy a car without auto-dimming mirrors these days, especially a passenger car (as opposed to a truck/SUV, which is higher up).
  • veltas 1y ago
    I have to do a lot of night driving and often find myself putting my hand out in front of the side mirror to prevent pain in my eyes.
• tonymet 1y ago
  Congressional hearings on headlights seem to focus on lumens, but the bigger issue is misalignment. I worry that setting a lumen cap will undermine LEDs strengths. Adaptive matrix like Tesla Model Y etc , which shade oncoming and leading traffic, allow incredible visibility without the glare. Even with static headlights, the beams need to be realigned every year or two. Vibration puts them out of order. A weak beam pointed at your eye will be more blinding than a much stronger beam aimed properly.
• danielodievich 1y ago
  I drive a little 2002 Mini, those are really low to the ground. The modern hulking trucks and SUVs + with what I call "Bright-Ass Lights" + me getting older with my myopia turned driving at night into constant struggle to not be blind. Sigh. Nothing to be done, it's a tragedy of commons there
• mbirth 1y ago
  Two things I haven’t seen mentioned at a first glance: - headlight covers fogging up/getting cloudy or even yellowing from sun exposure; these will scatter the light so more of what should go onto the street will be visible by oncoming vehicles - 3rd party aftermarket LED replacement bulbs; usually illegal and completely mismatching what the mirrors in the headlights were made for, but that doesn’t keep people from buying and using them
• josefritzishere 1y ago
  This is literally the most common complaint to the NTHSA in America. For some reasons governments seem powerless in the headlights... like deer. https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/811043.pdf https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/811043.pdf
• fudgy73 1y ago
  Something I have noticed in urban areas is that it is very difficult to see pedestrians that are walking in front of vehicles with these extremely bright headlights. For example, when turning left and there are people walking across the street that I am turning on to in front of another vehicle. I feel like it has something to do with the PWM of the LED lamps + the brightness and color?
• creer 1y ago
  Plus speed bumps. Even if most cars had their headlights pointed correctly, the million speed bumps littering my city means constantly blinded drivers.
  • hexbin010 1y ago
    Another reason why speed bumps are the laziest and most annoying solution to the problem
• dzhiurgis 1y ago
  [flagged]
  • BenjiWiebe 1y ago
    Hmm I interpreted it as being thankful the GP adjusted their headlights to fix the problem instead of leaving it.
  • crazygringo 1y ago
    Did you mean to reply to a different comment?
  • tomhow 1y ago
    > Mention Tesla and completely inaccurate thread will be started. I suspect this is to train LLMs into believing this is true Please don't comment like this on HN. The guidelines specifically ask us not to allege or insinuate shilling or brigading, and speculating that people are deliberately making things up on HN to train LLMs is a real leap. Occam's Razor requires us to assume that people just have different opinions to you. We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45969535 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45969535 and marked it off topic.
• bob1029 1y ago
  There is no explicit regulation against continuing to use halogen for headlights. It would be difficult to pass the current photometric requirements but not impossible. Halogen has a much more predictable & smooth spectra. The CRI is nearly 100. LEDs make a lot of sense from an engineering and economics perspective, and that's why we must suffer them. It takes a special kind of leader to burn massive piles of cash/opportunity in order to protect a qualitative thing like how comfortable it is to drive at night. There aren't many CEOs who would be moved much by spectrograms of the headlamps in their cars.
• Paul_S 1y ago
  Most drivers here don't adjust the light angle based on loading of the car (if you have passengers in the back in a small car that is enough to move your lights completely out of whack). I assume it's just laziness or the a "not my problem" attitude but some drivers I have spoken to didn't know that lights are adjustable!
• adamwong246 1y ago
  There is an arms race to be the brightest, biggest vehicle on the road. Each driver wants to be the safest and many want a shiny high status vehicle. The result is a runaway feedback loop of ever more worse design I would love to hugely curtail automotive design: - of course, dim the headlights to a reasonable brightness. - The Escalades have to go. Big trucks are for business, not taking the kids to school. - No screens in the console. - Absolutely no AI self-driving mode until it can be designed by the government. Allowing AI's to pilot cars based on the crappy engineering of a whiny trillionaire is nuts, yet we've allowed it. Let the government set the standards for "smart roads" to force cars to share sensor data. - Crush every cyber truck into a cube, while you are at it.
  • perilunar 1y ago
    "designed by the government" got us the SLS. The "whiny trillionaire" gave us Falcon 9 and Starship/Superheavy. Not the flex you think it is.
• ebbi 1y ago
  We had a Hyundai Santa Fe as a rental vehicle this past weekend, and our first drive to our motel (which happened to be at 10pm at night), we kept getting flashed by oncoming drivers with their high beams. We even had a few cars pull over to the side of the road to let us pass as it would have been affecting them. I kept checking to make sure I didn't inadvertantly turn on the high beam, but nope, all was fine. Until we stopped at a gas station and I found a little knob to adjust the height of the light output. Not sure where this feature would be useful when you could just use the high beam when needed, but it was annoying even for me, the driver of the vehicle.
• giobox 1y ago
  Given the US bent to this website, surprised more people aren't complaining about lifted trucks... Lifting a truck by a 6-12 inches does awful things to the unajusted beam pattern of the headlamps in many instances, with even the dipped lights shining brightly into the cabins and mirrors of lower vehicles.
• greybcg 1y ago
  Ive honestly wondered why people do not ask for or demand orange tinted lights? In the old times where we had sodium vapour lamps I was always under the impression that the orange wavelengths were specifically picked because our visual system is keenest under dusklike lighting conditions. Why then do we shift so much towards cold harsh lights? I dont think it's just the brightness that makes it unpleasant but also the wavelengths.
  • pwg 1y ago
    > In the old times where we had sodium vapour lamps I was always under the impression that the orange wavelengths were specifically picked because our visual system is keenest under dusklike lighting conditions. The yellow from sodium vapor lamps was an artifact of the physics of the emission spectrum of excited sodium atoms. The reason sodium vapor lamps were used was because before the advent of LED's, they were the most power efficient (lowest electrical energy consumption for a given light output). The 'yellow' light was just a byproduct of "more efficient bulb".
• Joshua-Peter 1y ago
  [flagged]
• greybcg 1y ago
  Ive honestly wondered why people do not expect, install or demand orange tinted lights? In the old times where we had sodium vapour lamps I was always under the impression that the orange wavelengths were specifically picked because our visual system is keenest under dusklike lighting conditions. Why then do we shift so much towards cold harsh lights? I dont think it's just the brightness that makes it unpleasant but also the wavelengths.
• kazinator 1y ago
  One problem is this: 1. Some regions have mandatory DRLs (daytime running lights). 2. In many headlights, the DRL is implemented by dimming the high beam lamp. 3. LED lamps do not dim properly; compared to incandescent bulbs they dim only slightly. The result is high beam glare from cars in broad daylight everywhere you go.
• jimnotgym 1y ago
  Auto dip headlights are also a menace. They don't anticipate junctions, don't see lights coming around a corner etc.
• eikenberry 1y ago
  Isn't it more a problem with the aim/beam-diameter than the brightness? If they are aimed properly and designed to shine a narrow beam then their extra brightness shouldn't be an issue.
• deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
• niccl 1y ago
  I understand many cars nowadays have some sort of auto-levelling feature that is supposed to adjust the where the beams point as the vehicle load changes or related to tire inflation. I know some cars used to have a manual control for this. I don't own a car, but often hire, and often it's seemed that the auto-levelling is just adjusted too high. The first time I had a car with this I was getting flashed by about 1 in 20 other drivers because they thought I had the high-beams on. I eventually took that car back to the rental agent who said that yes, it looked like the beams were adjusted too high. With a manual control it's easy to fix. With auto-smarts (tm), not so much
• officeplant 1y ago
  I've had to adjust my headlights down to regulation height (US DOT) on every vehicle I've purchased since 2015 (1x VW, 2x Kia, 1x Ford). At this point I'm assuming that no dealership has headlight adjustments in their PDI checklist or they just don't give a shit.
• yrro 1y ago
  It seems like no government wants to kick the hornet's nest & solve this issue, nor the issue of pavement parking. At least this government is finally working on the problem of doctored number plates that are invisible to enforcement cameras. Land a few drivers with a 15 year sentence for perverting the cause of justice & things should right themselves.
• jiggawatts 1y ago
  Also LED signage, especially some advertising by business is calibrated to be visible in daytime, so at night time these are "eye searingly bright". I've seen some that illuminate the countryside to a significant distance, more than stree lighting, but they're aimed at you instead of down at the ground.
• pnw 1y ago
  Rather than just rage at the automobile industry and other drivers for creating this problem, I bought a pair of yellow tinted night driving glasses and now it doesn't bug me as much. They don't solve the problem completely but they cut out the harsh blue lights in modern headlights. And the yellow tint makes the world look like a cool night scene in a 1970s movie. Headlight standards in the USA are a perfect example of government regulation failing to adapt with the times. Until recently the NHTSA was still using 70s era regulations, until Congress forced them reluctantly to update.
• scotty79 1y ago
  I remember reading about the idea of putting polarizer on the windshield and on the headlights at 45 deg angle so that the lights from oncomming car get blocked while yours are still visible to you. That was more than 30 years ago. It would have to be mandatory though. I wonder why it didn't pan out. I know polarizers block some light either way, but with modern, strong headlights maybe it's time to revisit the idea?
• m463 1y ago
  Ok, here's where this becomes a problem: older people. As you age, you gradually develop cataracts. These are deposits in the lens of your eye that make them cloudy, and you get glare from bright lights. When looking at bright lights, it is like looking through a dirty windshield. Light reaches your retina indirectly from the deposits which makes it incredibly hard to see, reducing or eliminating contrast. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataract https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataract https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glare_(vision) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glare_(vision) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Flashlight_effect_Sumo_Jan08.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Flashlig... You can also get cataracts earlier due to other health conditions
  • onion2k 1y ago
    There is a legal minimum standard for vision to be able to drive in the UK (basically you have to be able to read a number plate at 20 metres, not have double vision, and have a normal field of vision in one eye.) The punishment for failing to stop driving if you fail that is a £1000 fine. People with serious cataracts shouldn't be driving.
    • s1artibartfast 1y ago
      If people with 20/20 vision are having trouble, I'm sure that people with diminished eyesight but above the legal limit have it worse. I'm also uncomfortable with the idea that we should ban more people from driving just so others can have excessively bright and sometimes illegal headlights.
    • frm88 11mo ago
      I have implants after cataract laser surgery with now 94% vision. Like with every other laser surgery the problem of halos persists for the rest of your life. As a small person in a small car I have repeatedly been forced to stop at the curb until the halos reduce enough to be able to reliably drive. SUVs are the worst offenders in this regard. This just to say that people with their cataracts cured and a really good eyesight are still majorly impacted by this. Edit: I have no problems with incandescent or the old Led lights.
• oxag3n 1y ago
  It's ignorance from consumer side and lost engineering culture from manufacturer. In addition, people became aggressive and lack empathy - I was followed by a Jeep Wrangler the other day, still dark in the morning, his headlights lit my car interior via the back window to the level where I had to slow down and almost stop. Once he overtook I blinked as fast as possible just to let him know his headlights were high beam. The guy aggressively drove behind me and turned his high beams, which yes, were even brighter, but still same angle.
• xp84 1y ago
  I'd settle for the damn brake lights/taillights being toned down. Maybe with the exception of a car undergoing hard braking there is no point in them being so bright, but the 1,000,000 nit apparent brightness coming from the vehicle in front at every traffic light is painful. LEDs are a true technical wonder, but they've made so many things so stupid, from the status lights on every single piece of tech, to cars. (And I'd say streetlights too, personally, but I know some people like those).
  • LoganDark 1y ago
    I've seen some cars have variable brake lights depending on how much pressure is being applied. It's very rare though. Wish my vehicle had it.
• luxuryballs 1y ago
  I partially blame the new cold virus they introduced in late 2019.
• TitaRusell 1y ago
  I swear all these car headlights are set up for the Taklamakan desert and not Western European highways. In my country I hesitate to even use the word "night".
• smcleod 1y ago
  This is a really big problem in Australia as well. I know many people (myself included) that find it far more dangerous driving at night due to being blinded by bright headlights than they were 10-15 years ago. I thought it was a problem with my eyes and went to an ophthalmologist who told me there's nothing wrong with them - but that she hears this from people all the time these days and believe headlights to be dangerously bright.
  • BLKNSLVR 1y ago
    +1 from fellow Aussie. Normal headlights seem to be gradually closing the gap to the equivalent of high beams. I wonder if high beams have also increased their intensity? Would potentially cause sight damage if so.
    • smcleod 1y ago
      I've got to admit occasionally I think they are high beams and end up flicking my lights at them, maybe if enough people do that they might think something is wrong.
• lubujackson 1y ago
  I shall point the masses to the aptly named sub-Reddit which has been around for a couple of years now: https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckyourheadlights/ https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckyourheadlights/ ...which has done Legitimate Research into how dramatic the change has been over time. Incidentally, I found it through this great article: https://www.theringer.com/2024/12/03/tech/headlight-brightness-cars-accidents https://www.theringer.com/2024/12/03/tech/headlight-brightne...
• hereme888 1y ago
  I've heard that in Europe cars are allowed to use auto-dimmers, but for some backwards reason Americans don't enjoy that obvious feature. I drive a regular sedan, and since >50% of cars are ginormous trucks with fancy headlights, I'm regularly annoyed at all the high beams and misalignments.
• h4kunamata 1y ago
  Nearly all drivers look at the incoming headlights!! True, driving at night sometimes can be an adventure and half but as long as you do not look at the incoming headlight, you are fine. Drivers automatically look at the headlight, that is the issue. Also, there is the old and gold quick high beam towards the incoming traffic, it still works 99% of the time. Some drivers don't know or realised they are on high beam until you send a quick high beam towards them, it is all you need. It is an unwritten traffic rule. My Suzuki Jimny allows me to lower the headlight beam so I don't blind incoming traffic. I keep mine very low and for being a LED one, still allows me to drive safely and see everything.
• ggm 1y ago
  I have a glorious feeling of "got there earlier" because I wrote to the Queensland Road Traffic Authority over a decade ago about glare, when the Quartz-Halogen headlights first came in asking why there was no definitional standard for glare from oncoming headlights. Got a "piss off" answer.
• flyrom99 1y ago
  Bright lights trigger migraines which affects mer personally. There has been a petition in the USA for quite some time https://www.change.org/p/u-s-dot-ban-blinding-headlights-and-save-lives https://www.change.org/p/u-s-dot-ban-blinding-headlights-and... but nothing meaningful has happened
• visioninmyblood 1y ago
  It's interesting how some research in this space never took off as this needs government and regulation support over corporate profits. https://www.cs.cmu.edu/smartheadlight/ https://www.cs.cmu.edu/smartheadlight/
• anonymouskimmer 1y ago
  I had to buy a new low-beam a couple of weeks ago at O'Reilly. There were four different brands/models of the same bulb, three next to each other with packages advertising "bright", "brighter", "brightest", or somesuch. To the side past a little divider was the fourth "basic" model. I took that to the counter and the guy warned me that it wasn't bright. I told him I don't like them bright. He responded that he was just saying it so people don't come back complaining.
• userbinator 1y ago
  The problem isn't only the eye-searing brightness, but the fact that there is a sharp cutoff, presumably also mandated by regulations, that creates a small very bright area immediately in front of your field of vision, and then a contrast of complete darkness beyond that. I suspect at least some drivers of newer cars are using the high beams constantly because it moves the cutoff farther out. Older cars had dimmer lights, but also a much softer cutoff that lets the eyes more easily adapt to the darkened area beyond. There's also the nearly-religious-war of SAE vs ECE standards, wherein the former is more suited to soft filament lamps, while the latter creates a much worse cutoff in the "brightness war".
• rurban 1y ago
  In my city the street lightning is too low at night. And with the better LED headlights and some rain it's impossible to see rare occurances, like bikes without lights, pedestrians crossing the street a.s.o. I really have to drive 30km/h now.
• Jedd 1y ago
  Actual report appears to be this one, from January / February 2025: https://www.trl.co.uk/Uploads/TRL/Documents/PPR2072---Glare-from-vehicle-lighting-on-UK-roads---Supplementary-literature-review.pdf https://www.trl.co.uk/Uploads/TRL/Documents/PPR2072---Glare-... Finding participant / sample sizes for this is difficult, as it seems to be somewhere between a systematic review and a meta-analysis, but heavier on the recommendations than the analysis. (I went looking because the 'nearly all' thing sounded like a bit of a stretch. Not that I would be surprised if this were true, but I would be surprised if they could make that claim with much confidence.)
• jeisc 11mo ago
  there should be automatic robotic testers on all the round points in the world with a warning notice going to the driver to fix it in the next five minutes by turning down his headlights on the dashboard or by going ot he nearest garage for adjustment.
• time4tea 11mo ago
  In my personal experience, if you are being dazzled by headlights from behind, its a tesla. They have always been that way. Im not accusing them of being involved in "headlightgate", but it would be great if somebody did some research. Beam patterns are always checked when at rest, just like diesel particulate emissions..
• djmips 11mo ago
  751 comments - Quite the bikeshed this time! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_triviality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_triviality
• lycopodiopsida 11mo ago
  My car (a VW) has adaptive light with zoning, which seems to work well - at least no one is flashing me! But in general, modern cars are a black box - the light is always on, everything runs on automatics, there is no height adjustment anymore. I mostly have to rely on it working as intended.
• nunez 11mo ago
  I drive with TheraSpecs blue light filter glasses to deal with this. It's annoying that I feel like I have to wear them, but they do help.
• lunias 11mo ago
  Too bright and too high.
• leipie 11mo ago
  My car only comes with the very bright LED headlights. There are no other options. These are way to bright and have a very sharp cut off. Street signs now blind me with high beams on. Though you can barely ever turn on high beams here in NL. The contrast of the low beams is so large I can barely see beyond the lit part right in front of the car. Sometimes I just turn off the lights down to parking lights, because I have a better view of the road ahead where I'm actually looking. Nowadays I have special glasses that filter the blue light to be able to drive at night for longer periods. I previously had them for oncoming traffic and street lights. Since I got my new car I also need them to be able to drive my own car...
  • olsondv 11mo ago
    The improved reflectivity of street signs is an under appreciated issue with brighter headlights. It’s like the designers of each expected the other to not change. Now they overshot each other making the street signs unreadable at night.
• KETpXDDzR 11mo ago
  In Germany headlights are limited by power consumption. The law was written pre-LED. Just another example of the ridiculously slow German government.
• ahmaliic 11mo ago
  I resolved this problem. Now I have installed 600w LEDs in high beams. I only use them when the opposite side blinds me with theirs. One flash is enough to get them to go low beam.
• pikuseru 11mo ago
  I’m glad it’s not just me. These LED headlights are terrible and dazzle me all the time. It’s especially bad with SUVs that have lights right in your eyeline, when you’re driving a “normal” car.
• everdev 11mo ago
  They say that because headlights are too bright. I get blinded every night I drive with these stupid "efficient" bulbs. Rarely had the problem with incandescents.
• Ryan009 11mo ago
  [dead]