I know I’m not the only one who feels like I’m getting visually assaulted everytime I drive at night. It was bad 10 years ago but now, it seems like headlight manufacturers have a deal with insurance companies and optometrists to make the lights as bright as possible. Is this ever going to stop or is there some kind of race in the headlight industry to see who can reproduce the power of the sun first?
Because (particularly in the US) people have the attitude of “I know that it’s going to be shit for other people, but it makes me feel a little better about things, so I’m going to do it anyway”
That’s a very complex thought process. Let me unveil the real reason:
“whoah that’s cool”
That’s it. If someone made a pan-nuclear LED with the same brightness as the surface of an entire white dwarf, people would buy it. That’s where the thinking ends. Where the light ends up, other people, etc… Who cares?
“Other people exist?”
It’s all part of The Shittening
It’s fucking horrible even here in EU, where I would expect it to be better regulated. Can’t imagine how bad it’s in the US.
I’ve even seen multiple posts on local subreddits about people buying SUV/crossovers and one of the main reason was being blinded by other SUVs.
Fucking horrible it should be checked at every MOT, and it sometimes is, but the newer vehicles are exempt from yearly MOTs for some stupid reason.
I didn’t think about it a the time I bought might but that has been a plus to be fair my are stock. Only had a hand full of people putting on their brights back at me. What you going to do.
Adjust your lights to not blind other drivers?
Well that’s no fun at all!
“Only a handful of people indicate to me that I’m being an asshole when I know I’m being an asshole. What are you going to do? I am helpless in this situation.”
Nothing better than having to cover my eyes at night because my retinas are being fucking burned out of my head.
We as a society just accept everything. It’s what we were trained to do. We get mad and make posts like this one, then go back to our daily lives, having changed little to nothing about our behavior or the behavior of others. It’s not necessarily our fault - it’s difficult for one person to make a real change, but that’s just the reality of our society.
capitalism ;)
There’s been a few campaigns against this sort of thing: https://www.theringer.com/2024/12/03/tech/headlight-brightness-cars-accidents
Because it’s the sole responsibility of the owner to repair the car (and sometimes passengers) when it hits a wild animal, and brighter bulbs are an inexpensive preventative measure. And you really can’t replace people.
Other people complain about the bright lights, but they get real quiet when you say you hit a deer and now you have to pay hundreds you can’t afford to fix your car.
It’s the same with ad blockers. People say they cost websites money, but as soon as you get ransomware they say that’s on you, you should have used an ad blocker.
It’s a catch 22. Those who are proactive are painted as the problem by those who won’t help those who aren’t and wind up owing or paying more.
That’s what we gotta figure out. Otherwise we’ll all just keep talking past each other.
So basically what someone wrote above: “what’s important is that me and my family and property are safe”. Fantastic way to live in a society with other people.
Other people complain about the bright lights, but they get real quiet when you say you hit a deer and now you have to pay hundreds you can’t afford to fix your car.
What are you saying? Why would other people get quiet about what’s bothering them because you have to repair your car? Why is that everybody else’s problem? You are aware that you could slow down at night to avoid hitting wildlife, right? Blinding other innocent people at night is not “being proactive”, and it’s in no way morally comparable to ad blockers. The people being subjected to this aren’t trying to harvest your data to make money on you.
This is why we’re in such a mess now. People have been trained that society sucks and it’s every man for themselves now.
So that’s what I’m saying. People are talking past each other, no one is accomplishing anything.
And yes, the lives of my partner and kids is worth more than your inconvenience. I’m sure your partner and kids are worth more than my inconvenience. That’s just how people are. Maybe you don’t have kids, maybe you have elderly parents you care for. Maybe you’re a lone wolf and you don’t have anybody, but surely you recognise that there are other people with people they love and value over the convenience of others, so the point stands.
I don’t like bright lights either. But I’m also not donating to some stranger’s GoFundMe because he hit a deer being a nice guy who put your convenience over his safety, and now he’s got a broken leg, smashed fender, thousands in hospital bills, and hundreds in auto repair bills. I’m a nice guy, but I got needs and I also got wants. Does that make me an arsehole? If so, then so be it. The question is, are you donating? You said “why is that everybody else’s problem” implying it isn’t yours. So you aren’t, either. You put the blame on the guy for not driving slower. You’re saying his safety is his problem. Okay, fine. Now you don’t get to judge how he fixes that problem.
But don’t get me wrong. It’s the Internet, you can say what you want. But talk is cheap. Or as we said in the 1980s, “money talks and bullshit walks.” All we’re doing is walking in circles. I’m not going to convince you and you’re not going to convince me. Therefore, the problem will not get solved, at least not between us. The silver lining there is that it is statistically unlikely that we will ever meet face to face, or on the road.
It is interesting, however, that you take the opposite position with ad blocking. True, they are not exactly the same thing, but it is a similar situation. And, like headlights, or slowing down, there are multiple solutions. But you passionately defend both sides of a similar argument when the subject changes. That should at least inform you that you are capable of reason, and that you can see that there are valid arguments on both sides. So, if nothing else, maybe you can at least appreciate that we will solve nothing by talking past each other. We’re tilting at windmills.
There was one moderately useful comment when I made mine: someone mentioned adaptive headlights. What they failed to mention, likely because it would undermine their point, is the cost of adaptive headlights. Ars Technica recently (week or two ago, I’m not gonna go dig for it) had an article about adaptive headlights. They sound great. They sound like they are the solution. In short, you get extremely bright light when you need it. When you have oncoming traffic, you still get stupidly bright light, but a smart array of LEDs makes sure none are pointing at the oncoming driver. Everything around them is lit up like high noon, but the other driver isn’t inconvenienced. That sounds awesome, but it’s also prohibitively expensive. The good thing is, cars will have this standard in a decade or so. Just like things like power windows and locks, power steering, and automatic transmissions became standard, so too will this. Then people will look back and call us savages.
the lives of my partner and kids is worth more than your inconvenience.
But not worth more than your inconvenience or you’d just slow down when you can’t see as well.
Don’t people who set the rules also drive? “Wow, I can’t see a damn thing. Maybe headlights are too bright?”
No, they get driven. The important people are driven around and everyone else can eat shit
A huge number of people are unaware that headlights must be aimed. Some are not adjusted by the manufacturer or dealer before sale (Tesla, Toyota). Sometimes a large enough pothole or going over a speed bump too fast will knock alignment off.
Couple this with American police driving primarily SUV’s (higher up, less bothered) and no longer issuing “fix-it” tickets unless using headlights as an excuse to pull over minorities, and we wind up with tons of issues. Feed the prison system- Don’t waste time making the roads safer!
Lawmakers are increasingly separated from those they are elected or appointed to represent by heightened economic status, and are not affected by issues that plague everyday citizens. No longer are they accountable to their constituents- Money drives their political aims.
As a frequent night driver, I often see people late at night using only the decorative running lights (because they don’t understand the light controls?) or with one or both headlights aimed at the ground just a few feet ahead of their car from hitting a bump or a minor accident. Sometimes one or both headlights will be pointed too high. Other times, drivers have their brights on purposefully because their low beams are burned out, or perhaps for their own benefit.
It is a complex issue that I can see only getting worse in the future. Social consciousness needs to become a thing in America.
Because we decided we hated to have our vehicles inspected. If we still did that these people would get violations.
Same reason we just accepted increasingly loud exhausts. Too many selfish idiots on the roads to enforce it effectively.
Same reason we accepted living further and further away from amenities. Cars are a self-reinforcing malady.
Not even the same. LEDs statistically are better for helping light up the roads during the night, and reducing lack of visibility crashes.
https://landline.media/blinded-by-the-light-are-newer-headlights-putting-drivers-at-risk/
No one said loud exhausts or LED lights* cause crashes. They are just annoying to other people. So I would say they are exactly the same.
*we’re not talking about all LED lights here. We’re talking about misaligned and excessively bright LED lights. I’m sure new, modern lights let drivers see better (that’s why they are put in the new cars) but they don’t have to blind other drivers to do that.
I must be taking crazy pills…the title and comment is all about how we just accept this and how manufacturers are racing to make lights as bright as the sun. No where in the comment of this post does it say misaligned.
I’ve read other articles about it the consensus is that the lights are not actually brighter:
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2024/oct/31/headlights-too-bright
“”"Although headlights feel significantly brighter than they used to, Brannon notes that the maximum standards for light output set by the US transportation department’s NHTSA haven’t changed in decades.
Part of the issue, he says, is that the temperature of the light in headlight bulbs has changed.
Experts point out that more drivers are buying bigger cars. Because these cars are taller, their headlights are more likely to shine in the eyes of drivers of smaller cars.
Additionally, many vehicles on the road have misaligned headlights. Over time, the regular wear and tear of driving can jostle headlights out of alignment, meaning the brightest part of the light ends up illuminating areas it’s not supposed to – say, right into an oncoming driver’s eyes.“”"
And this is also my experience. I see a lot of cars with LED lights but few cars in on the roads blind me and when they do they are clearly shining right in my eyes. In Europe huge cars are still not that popular so I’m guessing it’s mostly misalignment, people driving with long beams on or some custom lights that are way brighter than the norm. I have no idea if most people don’t know that they are blinding others or if they don’t care.
Some people are are more sensitive to sharper LED lights and they have bigger problems when driving at night now. In that case properly aligned LED lights are better (and safer) for some, and worst for others.
It seems most people who have issues with the new lights already have vision issues to begin with and would have the same issue with the gold/yellow halogen lights anyways but probably don’t remember. As I can damn near look at the new LEDs and do not get blinded at all by them but the old lights if the vehicle forgot to turn off their brights.
That’s not what we’re talking about, did you read the title???
It really is, the OP is asking why there isn’t more regulation to stop companies from swapping to the LEDs, and the statistics say that there doesn’t need to be because they’re safer.
This is like asking why they don’t regulate 3 point seatbelts cause it irritates some peoples necks…and we should go back to lap belts.
I know they have gotten brighter over the years but that’s not what’s been the biggest issue for me. To me it’s the fact these trucks keep getting taller, 3 feet ago it wasn’t as bad because the lights were closer to the road, now the headlights on these trucks are damn near eye-level.
Yeah I don’t understand why everyone needs a tank-sized SUV to drive their kids home from school. I’d love to get a small sedan sized truck with a normal car engine but the back is a truck bed, but those are long gone as an option in the states. When I was in Australia I saw these, they call them a ute.
Look up Audi’s Matrix projection headlights. I really want to see more cars incorporating this technology.
Bright lights are fine, just point them down. Although, you might have noticed that when you’re going downhill or uphill the lights are more blinding.
I’ve proposed a polarization system where you would be able to see thing illuminated but not the bright lights that illuminate. There are many ways to make this work.
Tell us your idea.
FYI you’re going to get absolutely shredded by technical responses about how light works.
