I’m in Japan and I get blinded by lights by a lot of cars these days. It shouldn’t be aiming as we have bi-yearly inspections that check that (both for regular and highbeams). It is possible, though, that people change the lights for inspection and swap them out after (though this is not legal).
SE Asia was brutal when I went there. India had all nice old yellow lights and sometimes light bulbs and sometimes oil lamps or candles to light their way. That was nice, and constantly terrifying.
Poorly installed aftermarket headlights. Being LED has little to do with it.
LED replacement bulbs are a common problem. The beam dip is designed around a single element. However, LEDs can’t produce the intense light of an incandescent or halogen type bulb. To compensate, they use an array of LEDs. This creates a large emission surface. Some of the surface is a significant distance from where the element used to be. This completely messes up the beam shaping, throwing light where it shouldn’t be.
Combine poor beam forming with higher vehicles, and higher outputs, and LEDs get a very bad rep.
A properly designed LED headlight has far less issues. Unfortunately there are a lot of stock units which also have poor designs.
Not just aftermarket. Teslas are notorious for having overly bright, misaimed headlights.
In many countries there are biannual safety checks, we have that here, and I haven’t noticed that.
But it is also known that Tesla recommendations for safety are very lacking. So 30-40% if Tesla cars fail the safety check here, and have to go to the shop and get fixed before being able to drive on the road legally.People keep telling me that acktually Tesla headlights have hi-tech sensors that avoid blinding people. And I’m like “I’m people, and they blind me all the time!”
“Yeah but that’s just an anecdote bro”
You’re not a person by Elon’s standards. It uses AI facial recognition to see if you’re a billionaire and if you’re not, it re-aims to blind you more.
Teslas notoriously have almost no quality control, so that makes sense.
There is no US regulation on headlight brightness, so it’s a little of that and also new cars maxing out what they can put on the car. Add to that the height of trucks and SUVs.
LED lights are far brighter though, and the worst color wavelength for vision.
Yeah, I think a good amount of the issue with them could be resolved simply by using warmer color LEDs - it seems so obvious that I don’t get why they don’t.
Need regulations, but it’s hilarious to think that the Trump Admin will force the NHTSA to do this.
I despise the color of LEDs. Give me a headache and actually Make it harder to see.
There are regulations but the regulations haven’t been updated since the halogen bulb era. Tests designed for headlights with a single light source can be gamed by led headlight manufacturers to get approval for lamps that are way brighter than the law ever intended. Additionally, the regulations we have aren’t enforced after the design is approved. Manufacturers have to get approval of new designs but no one ever gets a ticket for blindingly bright lights. Lifting your truck or adding extra high wheels requires adjusting the angle of the headlights, but no one ever does that.
That actually used to be the case, but then people got used to it, and now people think regular headlights are too dim because they don’t illuminate way up into the sky like a second sun, and so new cars are coming out with brighter headlights (with higher angles, presumably). But there’s no technical reason LEDs have to have their terrible reputation in headlights, so the spirit of your post is correct.
The other is idiots lifting their 4×4s and not readjusting the angles. They probably wonder why they don’t see as well now too.
They don’t teach people how to aim headlights anymore and people refuse to read the manual for the 4000 pound death machine they just purchased. So they even come from the dealership misaimed now and nobody does anything about it. We don’t even have annual inspections in my state anymore since 2002.
As with great many things, half the problem is education.
This is a real Mercedes-Benz as they ran in magazines, showing you can check how far along a cow’s pregnancy is with their stock headlights.
Definitely looks like some Ai image they used.
incorrect. stock LED headlights are blinding
No. 10 years ago you might’ve had a point but nowadays every new car on the road has blinding LED headlights
False.
I hate that this is always the excuse. People are not replacing their headlights with the frequency that would be required for how insanely common blindingly bright headlights are these days.
No way, stock leds are everywhere and they’re bullshit.
I love this idea lol
Hate LED-lighted cara, but this would only double the chances for an accident.
I hope thats reflective tape.
Kinda obvious that it is reflective tape, thus the message.
I didn’t think it was reflective tape at first. I think I thought it was just a little pixelated.
it is
Is this duck tape? Regardless of the message, that’s dedication.
Boneappletea.
Edit: I guess it is a brand of duct tape.
It’s a brand now. But the name predates duct tape by 50-odd years. It came from the “cotton duck cloth” used in the design.
TIL “canvas” is derived from “cannabis”.
presumably reflectice tape. if you want to go the extra mile for a bit like this there’s a special nautical version that reflects much higher % and directly back at source
Yeah, as an owner of a vehicle with these fucking things. I hate them but there’s literally nothing we can do. All vehicles sold have them now, and the manufacturers have no options for softer lights. I’ve tried for months.
Do what I did and write your MP. This needs to be legislated.
If it’s from the factory, it’s likely not as bad as the aftermarket ones. The problem with aftermarket is the light housing is designed for a bulb in a particular location. The aftermarket ones will often be in the wrong location, so even the low beams will shine higher than they should be. (Low/high beams have to do with height, not brightness.) Your lights might be bright, but I suspect that your low beams still don’t shine upward very far. If they do, name and shame the manufacturer of your car please.
Its bad enough that people constantly flash their lights at me because they think I have my brights on. At stop signs I literally need to flash my brights back to prove they aren’t. (It would be impossible, the brights will not stay on when there are any red or white lights in front of the vehicle unless you manually pullback and hold the control stick.)
I never use the brights on this thing. The headlights are already too bright
Mentioned in another thread, this is a Dodge. And Mopar makes sure no aftermarket parts exist. Dodge doesn’t provide any alternative light brightnesses.
The factory ones are bright but not blinding. Its always the aftermarket’s that aren’t set up properly or regulated that are blinding.
nope, the factory ones are blinding too
For reference where are you located?
The factory LEDs from any north american car manufacturer are absolutely blinding.
My car has them too, from the factory. Maybe there are tints that can be applied to the light thing. Maybe that’s illegal tho 🤷
deleted by creator
One problem is the manufacturers have made headlights into assemblies that cannot be repaired or really disassembled, forcing you to replace the entire thing if anything goes wrong. Also they can be expensive.
https://daxstreet.com/cars/419253/10-cars-where-a-headlight-assembly-costs-2000-dollars/
Also sometimes the new headlight needs to be programmed by the dealership to work correctly
Then get aftermarket headlights! Why are you guys acting like OEM housing is the only way?
You do realize their goal is less bright lights, with these LED assemblies there is often little to no aftermarket, and when there is it is brighter. Example: 2023-2026 Acura integra
Well you gotta give it a few years for an aftermarket to develop. I’m happy that there are people on Lemmy privileged enough to afford a brand new car, but most of us are driving 12-14 year old vehicles, in which there’s almost always an aftermarket available for in that age range unless you’re driving something obscure (in which case you’d have a difficult time finding even OEM parts for!).
this is one of many reasons I won’t buy a newer car.
Wtf, on my 2005 car changing the lights costs 30 bucks. They are purposefully low price because you don’t want people around going without lights
That 2005 model headlight also has a much shorter lifespan than most LEDs (assuming proper cooling in their enclosure). Up to 1,000 hours for a traditional headlight, and up to 50,000 hours for an LED headlight.
Yep, driving around without lights is dangerous, it could get you pulled over. The people designing these setups know this and want to force you back to the dealership.
Spray-on tint lol.
Why did you buy it?
Needed a vehicle and I won’t buy older than 10 years. Every vehicle in the last 10 years has led lights. That’s it.
I held off with the 2014 as long as possible, but when its maintenance costs got to be unreasonable, it was time to replace it.
Oof
pay to get them replaced with something that’s not dangerous
it’s your vehicle. you are responsible for it too.
There are no replacement options, see other threads.
Transparent yellow filter tape time
bare minimum, yeah
Just build your own sodium bulb how hard could it be
go custom or eat the loss. at least tint the housings and lenses.
this is your problem because it’s your vehicle, don’t make it everybody else’s
If I illegally modified my vehicle in a way that made it worse, it would be.
This is a factory vehicle from the dealership with no alternative light options. I’m not responsible for anything with regard to the lights on it unless I’m running around with my brights on, which I don’t use.
Not sure how you think the law works, but that’s not it.
your lack of ownership for your own property disgusts me
you’re a terrible person
You have a warped view here, I have to say.
I’ve looked all over for aftermarket options, and asked the dealership repeatedly for options for 4 years… And I have no responsibility because I won’t go spending inordinate amounts of money to try and engineer a potentially worse solution…
Right… Great viewpoint you have there.
I have them as well and a lot of others around me and they’re awesome!
As long as they’re regulated properly. I’m in Germany and we love regulating stuff!
Canada used to have regulations about the maximum lumens that could be output by headlights, but corporate lobbyists undermined this with a rule that exempted cars that rolled off the dealership lot with brighter lights in the late 90’s when the manufacturers started using the bright blue halogens. Then LEDs came out and they got the same bypass automatically.
I voted against the political leaders that supported moves like this for years, but most of the population doesn’t.
So, here we are.
Yeah, we are very strict regarding max light output, but depending on what we measure, it’s Candela or Lumen. And bright beams (> 2000 Lumen) need to automatically limit how far they reach to not blind people when driving over a hill for example, etc. Without all of that, it would be carnage.
This is unfortunately just not true. I’m also from Germany and I drive a lot at night, where I get absolutely blinded by random headlights every couple of minutes. My car sits very close to the ground and the average SUV headlights are way above my trunk and hood, shining directly into my cabin. It’s gotten so bad in recent years. One day I’ll probably crash into a tree or something because yet another idiot trusts their Matrix LED high beams to recognize my car in time.
Never had that issue with my normal cars (like Golf class). What kind of Tarnmobil are you driving?
It’s a lowered 1989 Mercedes E-Class. Sitting in the car my level of sight is at about 110 cm.
Yeah well. That might be the price of lowering. Cool ride though.
Oh and fuck SUVs 😑
True, I don’t even want to know how bad it would be in a MX-5, SLK or even a Smart Roadster.
I still like that MX-5 though.
Damn that is some fine tape lettering. Great effort.
Weird that so many claim to have problems wit it. I don’t really see this getting worse, on the contrary. Most newer cars with LED here work fine. It’s the older cars with high brightness bulbs that create the problems. And those are not always LED.
LED is better than older lights in every way, including AVOIDING to blind other drivers, because the LED light can be directed way more accurately.
The problem is bad headlights, not LED.PS:
This is for Denmark/EU, it may be different in other countries?I heard the same arguments about 20 or more years ago. “These new damn headlights are too bright. They blind all the oncoming traffic. These headlights should be banned by law.” Ofcourse the one making these complaints was my dad and xenon headlights were becoming quite common at that point, even on some cheaper cars. The only time i’ve had problems with “bright” headlights is when the car that i’m driving has either terrible lights (so old and tired bulbs) or the lights are not adjusted correctly and point down way too much. Funnily enough the 2 cars i head with terrible lights both had xenon bulbs. The last 2 cars that i’ve had so far both have halogen bulbs. No issue with headlights that are too bright. Then again me not having any issues doesn’t mean that complaints from others arent valid but incorrectly aimed lights with bad bulbs are already an issue in my circle so i’d imagine that these are the people that complain about LEDs the most. I also live in the EU so yearly inspectons atleast don’t let you pass if your headlights are terrible.
or the lights are not adjusted correctly
Yes, and that will remain a problem disregarding the type of light.
Funnily enough the 2 cars i head with terrible lights both had xenon bulbs.
That’s strange, do they get weak as they get old?
Funny enough I had just replaced the halogen bulbs in our old car to some crazy expensive ones with shorter lifespan, just before we got our EV.
Then when I got home, I found out that for the same price, I could have had LED bulbs. 🤥I just hope our headlights last really long, because they cost $2000 to replace a piece!
On my first car the mechanism that is supposed to adjust the headlight level was broken so the lights “fell” into their lowest position so only the front of my car was lit up. On my second car i took the time to fix everything and adjusted the headlights to a correct position but the bulbs themselves were old and probably had weaker or less brightness than new halogen bulbs. As far as LED bulbs, i only use LEDs in my high beams. I don’t want to be that guy who blinds everyone with their cheap LEDs but with high beams you’re supposed to switch them off anyway. Doesn’t really make much of a difference to me if you use LED high beams or if you add a LED Bar (so extra lights) to your car. LED high beams just don’t add an ugly extra lights to your car while also being a bit weaker, so if you forget or drive on a windy road then you don’t blind others as much.
the LED light can be directed way more accurately
This only works on flat roads. Where I am, this results in what looks like the driver behind you rapidly flicking their high beams on and off every time you go over a one foot hump in the road. It’s possibly worse than just having it be consistently too bright.
I agree, but bumpy roads like that are annoying disregarding what headlights are used.
We have roads that have bumps to slow traffic, and THAT is annoying IMO. Not that I can figure out a much better solution, so I guess we have to live with it, but it’s still annoying to be blinded by a car half a kilometer away because there’s a bump is super annoying.
I guess that at some point the cars will be able to prevent it automatically, Matrix light technology should definitely be able to in theory.It happens on rolling hills too, which aren’t very annoying on their own. And sure it might be possible to fix this issue in the future, but currently headlights assuming down = bright is an issue.
Are you by any chance describing Adaptive Driving Beam headlights? I believe they’ve been in available in the EU for quite some time, but only allowed in the US since 2022.
For whatever reason the US has not approved the adaptive headlights. We still have dumb lights, that keep getting brighter.
FREEDOM 😋
I saw a new truck that had them FACING-BACKWARDS in the wheel well and bumper. We’re fucked.
Riding a motorcycle against LED’s sucks. There is a moment of blindness.
Tip: DO NOT install LEDs if you had halogen previously.
They make LEDs specifically meant for halogen housings that shouldn’t blind you. They also make “off-road use only” LEDs with 10x the lumens that go in the same bulb sockets and guess which ones people will buy
My newish car has LED headlights, but it’s a CAR, and is low to the ground. I hope it doesn’t blind oncoming cars like these fucking trucks that are 3,000 feet tall.
LEDs in projection housings that are properly aimed aren’t an issue at all, the issues arise with 1)poorly aimed lights and 2)installing LEDs in reflector housings not meant for them
I don’t blame the individuals, no one is recomending shops to their friends on how to get these adjustments.
The fact that no one believes in regulation, or MAINTAINING regulation depending on our needs, that these things happen.
Wish I could blame the assholes, but I leave that for the people who commute in big fucking truck 1000 because they are too insecure to buy anything else for their commuting machine.
There is a bill before the US congress right now that would mandate a study to gather hard numbers on safe luminosity and proper mounting of vehicle headlamps. I’ve written my rep asking them to support, if not sponsor, the bill:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/7772/text
Why do people feel the need to have headlights so bright they can see to the horizon?
The problem isn’t really the brightness, it’s that they don’t bother aiming them.
First thing I do in a car is set them to the lowest they go. Some recent cars are missing that dial though…
You might be increasing your risk while night driving doing that by making it substantially easier to overdrive your headlights and reducing visibility.
Im not saying dont properly adjust them, but going to the lowest setting possible is likely not the answer and a very real risk factor.
I use high beams or adjust them in places that require it, most roads around where I live are well lit at night.
They come with most cars. Its not typically a choice.
