Especially bad if you’re driving a small vehicle and someone in an truck with their LEDs on high beam approaches you. Those lights are at eye level and I’m completely blinded until they pass, to the point I’ve ran off the road more than once since I live in a rural area (drivers around here like to hug the middle line too).
Not really sure what the solution is in the short term, other than buying myself a big, ugly SUV.
Why do the headlights on SUV’s and large trucks need to be above the engine? Is it just so they appear proportional to traditional cars? Mandating a height above the road for headlights would go a long way.
The other fix is to simply test headlight alignment. If I have a single nick in my windshield, I can’t get it past a safety check. However, if your lights look like the UFO from X-Files, that’s fine.
Can we also talk about all the idiots driving around now with just their running lights on at night? They don’t have any lights on in the back of their vehicle but because they can see just fine with the running lights in front they don’t know anything is wrong. Either runnings lights need to light up the rear lights too or they should not be made bright enough to see with at night, full stop no exceptions.
This has been a problem for the last 10+ years. Only now the media taking it up. I absolutely detest the new LED headlights. They need to immediatly stop producing cars with them, or produce headlights with a focus shade.
A large part of the problem with LED and HID low-beams is that manufacturers and consumers are installing them in inappropriate reflector/projector housings and they don’t bother with adjusting the elevation of the light output.
Plenty of LED lowbeam setups on cars from the factory are offensive to start with (I’m looking at you Honda/Acura and 2020+ Subaru Outback). Then you have people replacing underperforming halogen bulbs with LEDs in reflectors not designed for them.
Then we have the yahoos that think it is remotely legal to have light bars on while on the road. Banning anything is going to be a urination contest with no winners.
What we need is windshield diffusion tech. Auto-dmming mirrors have been around forever and do a damn fine job of negating the effects of dimwits with bright lights. There are plenty of people out there with astigmatism that would be grateful regardless of the light source. This isn’t exactly a “take the bullets out of the gun rather than give everyone bullet proof vests” argument. Night work/construction zones, Emergency vehicle strobes, digital signage etc all pose dangers in photopic light conditions.
Quite the American problem and a classic American solution to it.
[In the EU we have vehicle inspections every two years](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_inspection#European_Union), part of the requirements for passing is that the headlights don’t blind other drivers.
Like… how in the world is that not the first suggestion?!
a guy i knew in high school – in the mid 80s – was a devout practitioner of ‘aggressive driving’. (aka asshole-on-wheels)
one of the things he’d do so that he could “intimidate those losers” (his words) was angle the left headlight so that when he hit the brights, it would shine directly into oncoming traffic
and just as the car was going past him, he’d hit the brights. i told him it was unsafe and a jerk move, and he said no, it wasn’t unsafe, because by the time the driver could react, he was already safely behind the other now blinded car and it couldn’t hit him.
that guy is dead now. killed himself a few years ago. no big loss. he was a walking swamp of toxic behavior. a whole parade of red flags. he needed serious help, but he was too manly. therapy was for wimps.
Unfathomable that, besides smog check, cars aren’t annually checked for stuff like this in the U.S. (all states). Here in Sweden you have to have your vehicle inspected annually and they really do inspect them thoroughly. Which is why we rarely see raggedy vehicles on public roads. They have to pass certain safety requirements if they are to be allowed in traffic.
Blinded every time I drive after dark nowadays. 9 times out of 10 its an Acura with its “jewel lights”.
I spent 3 weeks in Germany recently, and drove around quite a bit at night, and I can honestly say I might have gotten blinded ONCE by an oncoming vehicle, and that was an older truck/lorry.
Its not about banning highbeams. Its mandating that lights need to be aimed properly for the low beam cutoff to not blind oncoming traffic, and allowing us to have the adaptive headlight tech that they have in Europe.
Glad to know it’s not just me screaming at everyone to turn off their brights.
Especially bad if you’re driving a small vehicle and someone in an truck with their LEDs on high beam approaches you. Those lights are at eye level and I’m completely blinded until they pass, to the point I’ve ran off the road more than once since I live in a rural area (drivers around here like to hug the middle line too).
Not really sure what the solution is in the short term, other than buying myself a big, ugly SUV.
>Experts and automakers agree that the primary solution to this problem is adaptive headlight technology.
Really?
The solution is an overly complicated and expensive technology? Recommended and pushed by auto manufactures like Audi?
To this new problem that was created by car makers adding brighter headlights, higher lights on their SUVs and the US lacking regular vehicle safety certification (see other countries like the [UK MOT](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mot-inspection-manual-for-private-passenger-and-light-commercial-vehicles/4-lamps-reflectors-and-electrical-equipment#:~:text=for%20headlamps%20with%20centres%20at,1.25%25%20and%202.75%25%20horizontal%20lines))?
A news story about a genuine problem turned in advert for Audi and an attack on regulation. Wow.
We have yearly inspections on our cars, and one of the requirements is that the headlights only shine on a certain height, to avoid this shit.
Isn’t that a thing in the US?
EDIT; Never mind, it’s answered in the video. That’s wild.
Woah, are we actually going to talk about this finally?
The solution should be regulating the maximum output of a cars headlights in terms of total lumens and allowable spectrum of emission.
How will adaptive headlights prevent people from being blinded when most cars don’t currently have it?
Oh, they wont…
This is not a solution.
It’s the “Ah yes, NOW I can see” selfish-driver mentality. Doesn’t matter if others can’t see. As long as YOU can.
Why do the headlights on SUV’s and large trucks need to be above the engine? Is it just so they appear proportional to traditional cars? Mandating a height above the road for headlights would go a long way.
The other fix is to simply test headlight alignment. If I have a single nick in my windshield, I can’t get it past a safety check. However, if your lights look like the UFO from X-Files, that’s fine.
LED’s come in lower Kelvin temperatures. They sell warm white LED bulbs. Why are headlights 5000K ?
Even worse for us who have astigmatism
If my car is casting a shadow in front of me from your headlights, I don’t like you.
Maybe instead of some overly complicated tech we could put an amber film on the lens or bulb?
Can we also talk about all the idiots driving around now with just their running lights on at night? They don’t have any lights on in the back of their vehicle but because they can see just fine with the running lights in front they don’t know anything is wrong. Either runnings lights need to light up the rear lights too or they should not be made bright enough to see with at night, full stop no exceptions.
is this just an advertisement?
This has been a problem for the last 10+ years. Only now the media taking it up. I absolutely detest the new LED headlights. They need to immediatly stop producing cars with them, or produce headlights with a focus shade.
A large part of the problem with LED and HID low-beams is that manufacturers and consumers are installing them in inappropriate reflector/projector housings and they don’t bother with adjusting the elevation of the light output.
Plenty of LED lowbeam setups on cars from the factory are offensive to start with (I’m looking at you Honda/Acura and 2020+ Subaru Outback). Then you have people replacing underperforming halogen bulbs with LEDs in reflectors not designed for them.
Then we have the yahoos that think it is remotely legal to have light bars on while on the road. Banning anything is going to be a urination contest with no winners.
What we need is windshield diffusion tech. Auto-dmming mirrors have been around forever and do a damn fine job of negating the effects of dimwits with bright lights. There are plenty of people out there with astigmatism that would be grateful regardless of the light source. This isn’t exactly a “take the bullets out of the gun rather than give everyone bullet proof vests” argument. Night work/construction zones, Emergency vehicle strobes, digital signage etc all pose dangers in photopic light conditions.
Quite the American problem and a classic American solution to it.
[In the EU we have vehicle inspections every two years](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_inspection#European_Union), part of the requirements for passing is that the headlights don’t blind other drivers.
Like… how in the world is that not the first suggestion?!
r/fuckyourheadlights
a guy i knew in high school – in the mid 80s – was a devout practitioner of ‘aggressive driving’. (aka asshole-on-wheels)
one of the things he’d do so that he could “intimidate those losers” (his words) was angle the left headlight so that when he hit the brights, it would shine directly into oncoming traffic
and just as the car was going past him, he’d hit the brights. i told him it was unsafe and a jerk move, and he said no, it wasn’t unsafe, because by the time the driver could react, he was already safely behind the other now blinded car and it couldn’t hit him.
that guy is dead now. killed himself a few years ago. no big loss. he was a walking swamp of toxic behavior. a whole parade of red flags. he needed serious help, but he was too manly. therapy was for wimps.
Unfathomable that, besides smog check, cars aren’t annually checked for stuff like this in the U.S. (all states). Here in Sweden you have to have your vehicle inspected annually and they really do inspect them thoroughly. Which is why we rarely see raggedy vehicles on public roads. They have to pass certain safety requirements if they are to be allowed in traffic.
I got blinded back in May and slammed into the car in front. He had no brake lights and I was trying to get the high Beams out of my rear view mirror.
That’s a nice commercial
… and I love the little complaint at the end that US regulations are preventing it from being used here. MMmmhmm I love some manufactured consent.
I have a low sitting sedan and mild astigmatism and every single car made within the last few years is a goddamn problem for me, especially trucks
I agree with the sentiment but this is just an undisclosed audi ad
Blinded every time I drive after dark nowadays. 9 times out of 10 its an Acura with its “jewel lights”.
I spent 3 weeks in Germany recently, and drove around quite a bit at night, and I can honestly say I might have gotten blinded ONCE by an oncoming vehicle, and that was an older truck/lorry.
Its not about banning highbeams. Its mandating that lights need to be aimed properly for the low beam cutoff to not blind oncoming traffic, and allowing us to have the adaptive headlight tech that they have in Europe.
The other thing that is pissing me off are people who keep their brights on constantly. That is happening more.
Its fucking out of control. Fuck you truck that sits so high their lights shine directly into my mirrors.