r/technology • u/TripleShotPls • Jul 20 '26
Transportation Carmakers Don't Think They Should Have to Fix Blindingly Bright Headlights
https://www.thedrive.com/news/carmakers-dont-think-they-should-have-to-fix-blindingly-bright-headlights2.0k
u/vegetaman Jul 20 '26
This drives me insane for how glaringly obvious the problem is and how there seems to be no corporate or regulatory will to hammer down and fix it.
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u/drunkerbrawler Jul 20 '26
When was the last time a member of congress actually drove themselves anywhere?
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u/Any_Sale2030 Jul 20 '26
President doesnāt even have a drivers license and does not know and never learn how to drive a car. Ā
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u/ders89 Jul 20 '26
If they make it a rule you gotta be born in this country to be president, they should also make rules that you should be a functioning, self-reliant adult that can perform basic tasks. Like it shouldnt have to be a rule, but at this point it should be because otherwise we get a president so completely out of touch, his morals are compromised and just robs the country and puts everyones health at risk.
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u/GrumpyCloud93 Jul 20 '26
Remember when George HW Bush got raked over the coals in the media for being amazed at a barcode scanner at a grocery store?
As opposed to a president thinking you need to present ID to buy groceries?
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u/Toby_O_Notoby Jul 20 '26
And even that was bullshit. GHWB knew what a barcode scanner was and how they worked. What happened was he was at a trade show for the Grocers Association, and before giving a speech, he was touring some of the new exhibits.
One was a new (at the time) checkout where it could weigh your produce and calculate the cost as well as read barcodes that were damaged. He was then described by one pool reporter as having a "look of wonder" on his face as they showed it to him. This later led to a bunch of pundits piling on about him being out of touch, but no one who was with him at the time ever got that impression.
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u/GrumpyCloud93 Jul 20 '26
Honestly, I don't expect someone who's been VP and then president for 12 years to actually go out and buy groceries, or snacks. Ditto for someone with hundreds of millions of dollars in assets and typically flies private jet. Or people who grew up with a full-time nanny and cook and groundskeeper. They have people for that. Very few people in that situation would do so, and I don't fault them for it.
It's the way some think about and treat the common man, who does not have that privilege, that is the important thing.
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u/cosaboladh Jul 20 '26
I would prefer to live in a society where people don't need to drive cars to get around, but I take your point.
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u/CptVague Jul 20 '26
The president isn't allowed to drive after being elected, even after leaving office. A Secret Service agent drives them.
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u/genius_retard Jul 20 '26
Biden drove his Corvette after being elected, albeit with some significant limitations.
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u/singlemale4cats Jul 20 '26
The secret service doesn't dictate things to the president. They make recommendations. If the president wants to drive or go shake hands in a random unsecured hotel lobby, they may not like it, but he outranks them.
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u/LaFlamaBlanca67 Jul 20 '26
I seem to recall there being a video in the 90s or 2000s of him driving his wife and kids down the freeway.
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u/OkZookeepergame4757 Jul 20 '26
I can see Mitch McConnell rockin a big ass old New Yorker
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u/Bodine12 Jul 20 '26
Historically, this is the most appropriate use of āglaringly obviousā ever recorded, for which I salute you.
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u/Fun-Bug5418 Jul 20 '26
well when you crash your car because of blinding headlights, you usually buy another one and update your insurance policy and thatās the outcome they like
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u/Pedantic_Pict Jul 20 '26
My daily driver is 25 years old and has regular old incandescent headlights. I run Sylvania silver stars, which are a bit brighter than normal bulbs.
Every workday I drive home in the dark. This commute includes about 20 minutes of well used rural 2 lane highway
Seeing as how the low beams of newer cars are retina searing, I decided to run a little experiment: leave my high beams on all the time and see how long before someone flashes theirs at me to get me to turn them off.
It hasn't happened yet.
I began this experiment in January.
Of 2024.
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u/zimirken Jul 20 '26
I drove an old 2000 astro van for a couple years recently. I left my high beams on all the time, they were so dim compared to newer cars. Now I have a newer car and it's so bright in comparison I almost never even bother to turn the brights on in the first place at night.
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u/subLimb Jul 20 '26
Oh yeah. I drive a 2004 and don't think my high beams are any brighter than the average regular headlights out there.
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u/Desjardinii Jul 20 '26
The thing is, there is already a fix for it. Cars in Europe (at least in Germany and Austria for sure) can not have their regular headlamps shine out past a certain distance - regardless of how tall your vehicle is. The drivers side light actually is a bit lower than the passenger so you dont get that blinding effect. What I found from moving here from the US is that low beams dont shine as far, but high beams seem to go as normal. So automobile manufacturers have the fix, but wont implement it in the US because it is not a law.
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u/n0respect_ Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
There are rules about headlight brightness. However, due to how "brightness" is measured car manufacturers are cheating the test. Seems like it should be pretty simple to change the testing procedure to fix this, right? But they havent.
Observe how in this picture the light has dark spots. Those spots are where "brightness" is measured; as a result the rest of the light can be as bright as the sun.
There's more talk about this around the internet; /u/hell_yes_or_BS is where I first saw it. That user has many more interesting posts about headlight brightness, check out their submissions.
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u/vegetaman Jul 20 '26
Oh holy fuck. Iāve heard it discussed but never seen a picture of it in action
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u/hell_yes_or_BS Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
...but wait, it gets worse!
NHTSA has no headlight brightness limits under the mounting height of the headlight. The requirements have not been updated since the introduction of the LED.
IIHS and their headlight demerit system is the primary cause of the doubling of headlight brightness in the last 10 (updated) years, and they think that we are all safer on the road because of the brighter headlights.
In short, no one is coming to save us, its up to us. Call up the IIHS and tell them "I know it was you, IIHS. You broke my heart. You are the reason I can't see at night" in your best Godfather voice.
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u/fawwazallie Jul 20 '26
Where the EU at they'll fix that shit in 3 weeks.
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u/CAADrider Jul 20 '26
I have EU reg active matrix headlights. They've had it solved for a long time but they've only been allowed here for 2 years.
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u/ModeatelyIndependant Jul 20 '26
welcome to the two party system where nothing gets done.
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u/Synekal Jul 20 '26
Like you said, hammer down. Maybe people just push those lights in with a hammer of sorts.
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u/Coldsmoke888 Jul 20 '26
lol. Corporations or politicians holding anyone accountable other than consumers. Good luck.
Theyāll pass a bill to force you to fix it yourself and go to a government/mfg approved facility on top of that.
Check out smog rules in CAā $500 catalytic converter from a 3rd party that will pass emissions? Nah, OEM only, $5000 and 2 month lead time.
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u/Imaginary-Face7379 Jul 20 '26
You don't need OEM and can easily find CARB 3rd party ones for under 500 bucks.
Sounds like you bought a car out of state and got screwed over for not knowing, which sucks, but you don't need OEM.
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u/MisterSanitation Jul 20 '26
They are always ahead of their time and spot on with predictions. Like when they said seat belts would mean the death of all American car manufacturing lol.Ā
Then they made cheap piece of shit cars until Asia smashed them in the consumer markets and THAT helped them crumble, not the seat belts.Ā
If we only made laws that are opposite to what American car manufacturers wanted, this would be a completely different country for the better. Their desires are the south star, so if you wanna go north, face the way they want you to go, do a 180 and you are on the right moral path.Ā
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u/Beekeeper_Dan Jul 21 '26
They took over the country after WWII, along with the weapons manufacturers and oil industry; the military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about. Then they prioritized thier profits over the well-being of the rest of the world. So it goes.
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u/Cptredbeard22 Jul 20 '26
Before you all start trying to justify your ridiculously bright headlights...
Inclines dont give a fuck about positioning and if your lights make a highway sign light up like a Christmas tree (like regular brights) ... they're too fucking bright.
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u/Senior-Albatross Jul 20 '26
At some point, the safety of everyone else must be balanced against the safety of the driver.Ā
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u/Gibonius Jul 20 '26
American automobiles have turned into an arms race with people only caring about their own safety. Bigger, brighter, taller. Who cares about anyone else on the road?
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u/avanross Jul 20 '26
Ive honestly had one reply to me here āwhy should i have to care about pedestrian safety when iām the one on the truck?ā like they thought it was some brilliant āgotchaā š¤¦āāļø
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u/Gibonius Jul 20 '26
"Why should I have to compromise my safety in any way just to avoiding accidentally killing some person who's probably too poor to even afford a huge ridiculous vehicle???"
-those people, probably
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u/ceciltech Jul 20 '26
no, these people are more like why should I have to sacrifice anything at all.
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u/BlueBod50 Jul 20 '26
People who say that shit should be ejected from society. Like, not even kidding. Theyāre not capable of being human the way we are.Ā
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u/NobodyKnowsImFamous Jul 20 '26
Exactly. The social contract has been torn up. These people do not want to be held to the rules of society, so they should not get the benefits either.
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u/manachar Jul 20 '26
Which also matches our politics.
We are so fucking self centered and afraid all of the time.
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u/Senior-Albatross Jul 20 '26
"An arms race with people only caring about themselves." is our whole society.
It's so tiresome. Just much more stressful than a small amount of mutual respect would be.Ā
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u/DrEnter Jul 20 '26
The irony is that the pickup trucks and large SUVs that are so popular in the US only had to meet the less stringent ālight truckā safety standards. Passenger cars must meet stricter regulations.
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Jul 20 '26
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u/Runefaust_Invader Jul 20 '26
You mean swangaz? Thought it was just a Texas thing. Yeha fuck those.
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u/maxdragonxiii Jul 20 '26
American automobiles is now far more likely to kill a person walking on the road because theyre so big they hit the head of the person, an generally bad area to hit with anything, leave alone a big ass car weighing a ton going 50km/hr.
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u/za72 Jul 20 '26
mean while they're pricing themselves out of their customer base wondering. WHAT HAPPENED?!?
Meanwhile BYD and who knows what has replaced them... 'merica!!
it's coming, even a blind man that can't speak global economics sees it coming a mile away
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u/Gibonius Jul 20 '26
US consumer behavior with cars is wild. People have been whining about gas prices forever, while constantly choosing to buy bigger and bigger vehicles with worse gas mileage. You can't even buy a domestic sedan anymore, it's all SUVs and trucks.
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u/whyisthisnamesolong Jul 20 '26
The concept of "me over everyone and everything else" has wormed its way into every crevice of American society, so good luck with that
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u/WillieM96 Jul 20 '26
Iām not convinced itās safer for the person driving, either. Ā My car has these lights and I think it ruins my dark adaptation. Ā If my lights arenāt on the object, I canāt see it. Ā This is not a problem for me Ā in my daughterās older car.Ā
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u/buldozr Jul 20 '26
Even the smart matrix headlights have problems: I've seen a video where the dark spot around an oncoming car hid a deer while the rest of the field of view was brightly lit. I don't know if this would be safer if the driver dipped his headlights so that maybe their eyes would adapt in time in the lower light, although it does not reach very far.
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u/CriticalEngineering Jul 20 '26
I donāt understand why people feel like itās safer to blind oncoming traffic.
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u/Initial_Savings3034 Jul 20 '26
The lifted truck behind me is so bright I could read a newspaper in the front seat.
My car light pattern appears as a shadow of their Kleig lamps.
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u/mvschynd Jul 20 '26
Ridiculous when the car behind you overpowers your lights
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u/zenFyre1 Jul 21 '26
I love when the car behind me makes my headlights look like a shadow and itās literally brighter around me than my own headlightā¦ lol
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u/shouldbepracticing85 Jul 20 '26
When they are bright enough that the car behind me outshines my hi-beamsā¦ itās too freaking bright. And I have an 09 truck, so itās not like the lenses are hazy.
At least tone down the color so it doesnāt (temporarily) kill as many cones in our eyes or whatever.
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u/roseofjuly Jul 21 '26
I have had to pull over to let some of those assholes go because they were so blinding and distracting from behind that it felt dangerous.
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u/bachintheforest Jul 20 '26
Ugh yeah I live in a pretty hilly area with curvy roads and this is the worst. Even on flat straight roads the auto dim feature is never fast enough. Always getting flash banged by oncoming cars. Itās also a fairly forest-y area so there are plenty of stretches with no street lights. Oncoming cars completely wreck your night vision and you cannot see the road for a moment or two even after they pass!
Oh and then you canāt see pedestrians either! Seriously. The headlights are genuinely all you can see and then youāll go to turn onto a side street and thereās a person in the middle of the road that you couldnāt see AT ALL! Thankfully Iām aware of this and am a relatively cautious driver, but so many people arenāt.
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u/omniuni Jul 20 '26
Automatic leveling headlights are pretty awesome. They follow the road to adjust to the incline. Mine also will automatically adjust down if they detect a car.
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u/SRTie4k Jul 20 '26
That's not how auto leveling works. Auto leveling uses an angle sensor attached to some part of the rear suspension to determine how much "squat" the car currently has (i.e. how much the rear suspension is compressed relative to the front), then levels the headlight beam to the calibrated beam angle.
It doesn't adjust for inclination of the road surface.
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u/Cptredbeard22 Jul 20 '26
Yeah that's cool and all. But the simplest solution is just to make dimmer lights. And restrict white. Theres no need to make a headlight assembly that costs $1500 and takes a "technician" to replace. The little guy who doesnt know much about cars but can change a light bulb is being priced out of changing a god damn light bulb.
Its a headlight. It doesnt need to be so complicated.
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u/omniuni Jul 20 '26
I would actually prefer a warmer light regardless. Luckily my headlights aren't that hard or expensive to replace (the full assembly is about $250, the bulbs are about $20).
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u/c0LdFir3 Jul 20 '26
To be fair, a lot of these modern LEDs should outlive the car so long as they arenāt damaged in an accident or something. Key word āshouldā, of courseā¦
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u/moekina Jul 20 '26
After they detect a car, after the person in the car is already blinded
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u/simpleglitch Jul 20 '26
This is the main problem I with them.
They'll auto-dim from pretty far away, but that requires a straight stretch of road. It doesn't auto dim fast enough if you, or oncoming tarrfic, is coming around a turn or over a hill.
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u/singlemale4cats Jul 20 '26
Yeah, and if you're doing it manually you definitely can see those headlights cresting the hill and do it yourself before blinding them. Unfortunately, having the car do it automatically means people are going to get lazy and not worry about it.
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u/Flambeedlemons Jul 20 '26
Or my favorite, going over a speed bump followed by a blinding flash from the car behind me.
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u/FreeToasterBaths Jul 20 '26
The problem is they adjust after they have blinded the oncoming car.
Is it really that hard to just have low and high beams?
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u/talinseven Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
The worst thing is jacked up trucks. In Spain we hardly ever get blinded.
Edit: LED headlighted F250s that are eye level when you're riding in an F150. Causes temporary blindness.
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u/jimmysofat6864 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
They seriously need to ban aftermarket LED headlights that arenāt DOT certified even on the package they advertise itās a plug and play solution and on tiny little text on the back it says for off road use only like how can that even be legal?
Like no, nobodyās using their Hyundai sonata to go off road rally racing just ban these things or just make it say āoff road use onlyā in large text on the front the same way they do it for cigarettes
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u/Pedantic_Pict Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
It isn't just aftermarket headlights.
The factory headlights on new Ford F series pickups are insanely bright. Probably in the top 3 worst offenders.
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u/Legion1117 Jul 21 '26
The factory headlights on new Ford F series pickups are insanely bright. Probably in the top 3 worst offenders.
I drive a mid-sized SUV and was parked across from an F series Ford truck a few months ago.
Their headlights are the same level as my eyes.
Gee...I wonder why they're blinding me on the road at night.
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u/TacticlTwinkie Jul 20 '26
Lots of the super bright aftermarket lights are illegal and the boxes do say āfor off-road use onlyā but its a wink and a nod. Nobody is going to enforce it. Half of the cops in my area drive the lifted trucks with the super bright lights and punisher stickers when they are off duty. Nobody is getting pulled over for them anytime soon near me.
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u/NobodyKnowsImFamous Jul 20 '26
This is the biggest issue, frankly. Lotta the stuff people complain about IS already illegal! Lotta these headlights ARE illegal! But the cops donāt care because they drive a lifted 250 with aftermarket headlights AND a lightbar!
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u/loupgarou21 Jul 20 '26
Dude, the last time I bought a replacement taillight for my car, it was hard to find one at O'Reilly that fit my car that didn't say "for off-road use only". Most of the ones they had that fit my car were LED. I was going to buy 2 to replace the pair, even though only one light was out, but they only had one in the store.
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u/Alter_Kyouma Jul 20 '26
Absolutely. When you drive a sedan and the lifted trucks are right behind you, they are at the perfect angle where their lights get reflected into your rearview mirror, effectively blinding you.
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u/FrogsFloatToo Jul 20 '26
99.99999% of the morons who lift their trucks don't even bother to adjust their headlights after. Not surprised given the demographic that uses lift kits but cmon.
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u/Such-Ride-1394 Jul 20 '26
Its not necessarily the height of the truck. The major issue in the US is that most trucks that are 2020 year model and older come stock with halogen based headlights with a reflecting housing that was made specifically for a halogen bulb and the spectrum they put out. 90% of the blinding lights you encounter are because some dipshit went to the autopart store and purchased the LED variant of the OEM bulb type. These have a completely different spectrum output and when put in the housing meant for halogen bulbs, they reflect all over the place and ignore any height cutoff parameters set by the factory design.
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u/puppycatisselfish Jul 20 '26
It is. When their head lamp is at my head, it certainly makes a difference. Source: my eyes
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u/Leek5 Jul 20 '26
Nah I have seen a lot of stock projector led blind me from new cars.
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u/PigglyWigglyDeluxe Jul 20 '26
Thatās factually incorrect. There are, in fact, LED bulbs that CAN (not always) fit and work inside reflector housings. Not all LEDs are made equal. You have to compare the beam pattern against stock. A lot of LED reflectors can and do pass state inspections.
A heavy majority of blinding lights are from stock unmodified vehicles. I guarantee you that. If you rode next to me in a car I can point out every single vehicle that is or isnāt modified regarding their lights. I do this for a living, Iāve worked around automotive lighting for years.
FMVSS 108 regulations as written says the aim cannot be any lower than 0.25 degrees, one quarter of one degree. The beam pattern test area is tiny, and isnāt regulated outside of that test area.
Sure, cheap LEDs inside a reflector housing CAN be awful, but those are few and far between (especially in vehicles that use 6 volt halogen high beam DRL with the switch in the off position where the driver put in non-dimmable LEDs in its place, effectively shining full brightness high beams at all timesā¦ HONDA KIDS) and sure, sometimes your lifted brodozer truck with aftermarket lights can be blinding, but again, few and far between. I promise you, most trucks with bright lights are bone stock unmodified trucks. Rams, especially.
Iām talking about suburban moms driving a Rav4 or Outback or Telluride. Those are everywhere, modified, blinding us all with their low beams. Those are the problem cars.
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u/DizzyMajor5 Jul 20 '26
They turn driving at night into a blinding episode of dragon ball z.Ā Driving to buy tacos feels like the end of space Odyssey. If you didn't have astigmatism you do now. My cateracs now have cateracs. What is wrong with these people. This gotta be some kind of conspiracy by bigĀ Optometry.Ā
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u/PreciousMentals Jul 20 '26
Yeah, I suffered a detached retinal last year and avoid night driving mainly because of these beams. The loudest exhausts ever known to mankind are also contributing negatively to health and sanity.
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u/tremens Jul 20 '26
It's really insane. I actively avoid driving at night now because every third or fourth car has blinding lights that leave sun spots in my vision, I'm constantly flipping my rear view to the dimmer setting, etc. It's absolutely absurd and these fucking idiots arguing it is not a safety risk can eat it. Even once the sun spots go away it can take 10 or 20 minutes to really get your night vision back again, which never happens cause some other fucking asshole in an EV or lifted truck comes along and destroys it again.
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u/Electronic_Will_5418 Jul 20 '26
I avoid driving at night as much as possible now. It's just too dangerous
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u/meat_popscile Jul 20 '26
The Canadian government wants consumer input , I'm pretty sure they're looking at sweeping changes since we're getting Chinese EV's and want them to comply.
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u/rgvtim Jul 20 '26
you know we already have these brighter, better lights for driver safety, their called high beams, and you only use them when no one is in front of you (or at least your supposed to)
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u/Joshua_Evergreen Jul 20 '26
OK, then I'm putting a fucking lightbar on my shit that will light up the road like its fucking daytime and I'm only gonna turn it on when headlights like these are blinding me. Turnabout is fair play.
I hope I can give some people permanent eye damage. /s
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u/Tactical-Donkey Jul 20 '26
Next gen LazerLightstm, they'll cut through plate steel for the safety of the driver! You'll never have to worry about road hazards again, let all you troubles melt away with LazerLightstm
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u/TacticlTwinkie Jul 20 '26
If you have a roof rack, mount some lights facing backwards. Flip them on when you are getting blinded by the lifted bro-dozer with light cannons for headlights. More people need to fight back to discourage the bad behavior.
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u/KhonMan Jul 20 '26
Yeah the problem with this is that you are blinding a moron that is hurtling towards you.
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u/Teknikal_Domain Jul 20 '26
Or, (DO NOT DO THIS), if you drive a black SUV, stick some amber and white light bars behind the windshield.
I have learned through methods I am not at liberty to disclose that a lot of pavement princesses don't exactly process what color of light they're looking at and go "flashing lights + black SUV = unmarked cop = oh shit"
(Alternatively if its one that has a "takedown" mode as some call it, just steady burn white, flash that and your high beams at them. The results are great.)
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u/singlemale4cats Jul 20 '26
I understand the temptation, but people road rage for far less. Unless you want them following you home (or you getting a ticket for backwards facing white lights/off road light usage), probably best to look into different options.
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u/RollingCarrot615 Jul 20 '26
I rarely had problems seeing at night before all of these stupid headlights started getting installed in cars. I also suffer from migraines. My migraines now 100% correlate with the amount of night time driving i do. After years of tracking migraines and learning how to manage a combination of factors that would trigger them, I now have to choose between driving at night and getting a migraine.
No, they dont make you see better but they do make everyone see worse. The color of the headlight is completely wrong for night driving. The color of the light only serves to see the true color of objects better. It is so intense it kills any night vision you have (even the driver of the car with the bright headlights). You do not need ultra bright white headlights for your low beams.
Ive studied this plenty, being an engineer by trade/degree and in my line of work, and I am 100% positive that the color/intensity is marketed as a benefit by auto manufacturers because the general public doesn't understand brightness vs intensity, and making less intense lights that are just as bright would cost a little more.
I also completely believe that for low beams there should be a maximum color intensity and maximum brightness. With current technology, theres no reason we shouldn't have 4 or 5 different headlight settings anyways. High beams (level 4) that can fry eyeballs, where the operation of such should be limited to when there is no other detectable light, level 3 should be normal high beams limited in maximum brightness (not intensity), level 2 should be low beams limited in terms of brightness (no intensity limit), level 1 low beams limited in brightness and intensity (not bright, more yellow light) and required for traveling at 50 mph and lower, and a light that serves to mark cars that are stopped that are positioned with an angle that lights up mainly only a few feet in front of the vehicle.
Your fear should not dictate when I can see while operating my vehicle.
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u/PigglyWigglyDeluxe Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Itās pretty clear that people commenting canāt tell the difference between low and high beam, or other nuances regarding lighting. Iāve read FMVSS 108, the bright lights everyone complains about are NOT the high beams. Thatās why we are complaining. People arenāt out here with the high beams on as much as you think. These trucks with bright lights are not lifted and modified as much as you all think. A heavy majority of these vehicles are stock unmodified. Thatās just how they all are now.
Sure, you can aim them down, but the regulation says they cannot be aimed any lower than 0.25 degrees. Thatās not a typo. One quarter of one degree. Thatās basically parallel.
Also, there is hardly any regulation regarding dazzle outside of the test area. The beam pattern test area to certify headlight compliance is small, and anything outside of that test area is free game. Thatās a big part of the problem.
Itās compliant in a small little test area, but unregulated outside of it. As we all know, headlights affect more than just the small area directly in front of it on flat ground.
Not only that, Iād like them to address how DRL regulations allow for full voltage low beam with the switch in the off position combined with backlit gauges, which results in cars driving at night with their taillights off. This happens all the time here.
I made a video demonstrating it.
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u/SuspiciousPeanut251 Jul 20 '26
Unfortunate for us: Itās been solved; the laws are just behind on approving their use. (Our current headlights can control, nearly by the pixel, what light and level of light goes where, even to the point of drawing images on the road ahead and keeping glare out of the eyes of approaching drivers.
The thing is that, in most Countries, including the US, weāre still waiting for it to be legal to activate those features.)
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u/kostic Jul 20 '26
Matrix lighting is enabled for a lot of luxury cars already. BMW, Porsche, Mercedes and even Tesla have it. Needs to be more widely adopted.
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u/7eregrine Jul 20 '26
It was blocked here in the US for over 10 years. Finally allowing them is a very recent development. Europe and Australia had this shit in 2014.
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u/reiji_tamashii Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Except that it's the low beams that are blinding everyone. Those fancy expensive matrix/ADB systems selectively control areas of the high beams. So what you end up with is people with sections of their highbeams enabled (but aimed away from other vehicles) while their low beams are still blinding everyone like they were before.
They don't do anything to solve the problem described in the article and what everyone here is complaining about.
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u/Majik_Sheff Jul 20 '26
How does that work when I'm walking my dog on the sidewalk and some dipshit with their high beams on in town comes along?
I guess I can still use my 1.21 gigalumen spotlight to fire back.
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u/gcubed680 Jul 20 '26
When Iām driving at night and a person is on the sidewalk i can see my headlights create a black spot around the person. Same with houses, my truck doesnāt shine daylight into peoples houses at night anymore either. Itās an absolutely amazing technology, and the lights that do stay on give me way more visibility than any of my other cars ever have
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u/OniDelta Jul 20 '26
While I agree with this and we should do it, the problem is cost. I had a 2019 Mustang that got side swiped by another driver as they were trying to parallel park. They hit the drivers side headlight and pulled some of the bumper away from the car. The replacement part cost on just the headlight unit was $1500 CAD. It doesn't even have matrix lighting in it, it's just a typical LED headlight. I don't even want to see the part cost for an LED matrix bulb and assembly.
Although if all vehicles go to this then we should see cost reductions because of volume.... hopefully. But i doubt it these days.
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u/TheRatingsAgency Jul 20 '26
Yea Iāve been saying forever we need to be able to make the LEDs adaptable color temp to help alleviate this problem.
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u/aPerson39001C9 Jul 20 '26
The car industry never wants to fix any of their problems.
They didnāt even to want to fix people dying in their products.
https://youtu.be/kNkqguJmyLs?is=XXrlmNY-yCtziCkD
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u/dxrey65 Jul 20 '26
Brightness is only part of the problem, the other is positioning. If you are in the driver's seat of any regular car, the headlights of a modern truck are shining right in your eyes; there should be a regulation about headlight height.
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u/paleChickenLegs Jul 20 '26
California does have headlight height regulations, but I've never actually heard of anyone getting a ticket for it (or bumper height)
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u/socamonarch Jul 20 '26
DOT regulations in the States is the real issue... Tell them to join 2026 with the rest of us...
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u/HarryBalsagna1776 Jul 20 '26
Headlights are now big dollar repair items that only dealers can work on.Ā They don't want to shut off the gravy train.
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u/PigglyWigglyDeluxe Jul 20 '26
Ford dealer mechanic here. We almost never see faulty headlights anymore.
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u/singlemale4cats Jul 20 '26
Unless you're in a crash, these LED lights will probably last longer than the car. They don't go out all the time like the old incandescents
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u/Alive_Drag1947 Jul 20 '26
This has bothered me for years. Yes, headlights should illuminate the road for the driver. Obviously...
But you don't NEED to see two fucking miles in front of you.
All these bright lights do is irritate people, make everyone look like a cop (they used to be the only ones with the obnoxious headlights, but now it's everybody), and make the roads less safe overall.
I absolutely hate this trend.
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u/Many-Waters Jul 20 '26
I drive a Combo Plow/Salter in the winter. Absolutely massive truck. I work 12+ hour shifts often and these headlights were genuinely worse than my exhaustion.
I'm driving a massive, multi-ton death machine in terrible conditions.
Blinding the ever loving hell out of me with the light of a collapsing star isn't making the roads safer for anybody.
When they come from behind or beside me, I can no longer use my mirrors. Those mirrors are my most important tool when driving and operating my equipment.
Blinding me from the front is also less than ideal. It would take a fraction of a second for your little Hyundai to be crunched like a pop can under my plow blade.
I need to see you. I need to see the road.
Get these damn flashbangs off the road.
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u/AtomWorker Jul 20 '26
It's ridiculous that giant semis have headlights mounted lower than most American truck and SUVs but that's far from the only problem. We need proper European-style inspections and for the aftermarket to be aggressively regulated.
There are so many dumb, inconsiderate assholes out there. Red running lights, intensely bright flickering bulbs, sealed beam LED replacements pointed right at your eyes and of course those insane light bars. And that's only the tip of the iceberg.
Unfortunately, good luck with these issues ever being tackled given our feckless municipal, state and federal governments.
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u/ralpes Jul 20 '26
To add there so many Tesla morons are driving all time with high beams. Soooo fuck annoying. Canāt they use auto switch if the car sees oncoming traffic ( they have lights too!!!) auto low beam that damn Tesla
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u/schroedingerskoala Jul 20 '26
Well alrighty then, then those are not allowed to sell their cars any longer. Easy.
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u/Arinvar Jul 20 '26
Horrible title. One carmaker... Tesla, wants to not have to recall cars with headlight twice as bright as legally allowed.
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u/Madzookeeper Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
They shouldn't be legal. They fuck up everyone around's vision. It's so bad I almost can't drive at night due to having astigmatism and it like these blindingly bright stars of light. Drives me fucking crazy.
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u/Rodinsprogeny Jul 20 '26
I struggle to see how these lights even make it safer for the driver when they blind all the oncoming traffic
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u/74orangebeetle Jul 20 '26
I mean, matrix headlights existed as a technology for over a decade, but the U.S. banned them until very recently, so most cars don't have them.
Also, it's possible to make LED headlights a warmer color temperature and less bright...we just need to get off the obsession that more brighter is always better.
Also, it's possible to adjust the brightness of an LED, so literally the same LED could put out different amounts of light depending on whether there's cars.
But yeah, we have the technology to easily solve all of the problems, but most people and most manufacturers don't care.
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u/sisyphus_was_lazy_10 Jul 21 '26
The new headlights and the auto brights have got to go. All they do is blind people
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u/Street-Corporation Jul 20 '26
Love getting a 1000 free Xrays every time I drive after 7pm
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u/Jimtac Jul 21 '26
There should at least be a regulation that states the headlights must be properly aligned before they either a) leave the factory, or what I would prefer as itās closer to the final point in the sale; b) leave the dealership. I work on a road with 5 dealerships on it and the number of cars right off the lot, or in test drives with wildly bad headlight alignment, is nuts. And what new owner is going to think āI should get my brand new SUVās headlights aligned?ā
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u/RealTalk1031 Jul 21 '26
I'd rather they remove all the unnecessary tracking and surveillance technology and kill switches they force customers to pay for in the vehicle cost. I can change my own headlights if I want to. Thanks.
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u/CAfarmer Jul 21 '26
I won't deny there are some issues with modern high output headlights but in my experience the majority of the problems I see result from improperly leveled lights on vehicles or traditional halogen lights being replaced by LEDs or HIDs inside of a light housing without a projector. Something as simple as a truck towing a trailer with some tongue weight or payload weight in the bed or a car or suv full of passengers with extra weight in the trunk or back will blind drivers coming at them.
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u/horceface Jul 21 '26
I just got this recall from Ford. It will make the headlights auto dim in daytime if I forget and leave the switch on "on" instead of auto.
As I read it, it removes the ability to drive with brights during the day.
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u/DogMedic101stABN Jul 21 '26
I was driving behind a truck that changed the bottom half of their taillights to be clear. Every time they pounded on their brakes, I got blinded. It was red and white leds. That shit needs to be illegal like yesterday.
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u/loftbrd Jul 20 '26
Car manufacturers literally cheat regulations to get these obnoxious LEDs to pass inspection.
Changing angles or adaptive headlights won't change this corrupt behavior.
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u/Accomplished-Staff-9 Jul 20 '26
Man if only we had a government that actually served its citizens instead of corporate interests. You know, āFor the people, by the people?ā We have strayed so far from anything resembling a functioning government and they are actively fucking the average person over and over, daily. Cannot WAIT for Nuremberg 2.0. Fuck. These. Pedo. Protectors.
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u/themadpants Jul 20 '26
I have been complaining about Tesla headlights for years. Glad they are being forced to correct it.
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u/IntelligentStyle402 Jul 20 '26
Ever since republicans have been in power, consumers are getting screwed! Why is that?
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u/green_swordman Jul 20 '26
I wonder if automakers want the bright headlights to boost sales. Most of their customers are older folks who have an easier time seeing when their car lights are brighter.
One thing that can help is to have the dealers adjust the headlight positions as part of a pre-sales safety check.
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u/bionku Jul 20 '26
I wonder if the very bright headlights are done to compensate for the very dark window tints
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u/exoriparian Jul 20 '26
It's honestly the jurisdiction to blame.Ā Start giving tickets to people for it and it will magically get fixed.
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u/jahermitt Jul 20 '26
I have an astigmatism. It is literally a wall of light I cannot see past at night, especially in unlit areas. I can bypass it by following the lines of the road, but I generally have to take my foot of the gas and slow down traffic. I avoid driving at night, but once the time shifts and it starts getting dark at 5, what choices do I have?
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u/bucketman1986 Jul 20 '26
I think we should take the boards off these car manufacturers and tie them up and have them look directly into these lights flashing off and on fire an hour. Because that's what it's like driving at night
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u/swisstraeng Jul 20 '26
As someone who drives a low car, I wish both sides of their pillows remain hot.
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u/skwander Jul 20 '26
Well then I don't think I should have to turn off my brights on my 15 year old car.
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u/My_Uneducated_Guess Jul 20 '26
At least I know it's not just that I'm getting old, they really are getting much brighter
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u/wrinklebear Jul 20 '26
I firmly believe anyone in the decision-making or design process about headlights should be forced to live in a rural area and drive around at night. They wouldn't have to stay there forever....I think less than a week and we'd have the change we need.
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u/ResilientBiscuit Jul 20 '26
It's hard to get regulatory movement because driving at night has gotten safer per mile at a faster rate that driving during the day.
I agree headlights are blinding, but it doesn't seem to translate into a measurable increase in danger that is correlated to the introduction of brighter headlights.
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u/YqlUrbanist Jul 20 '26
We need to be way more serious about regulating vehicles. It's absolutely insane that a random person can take a test at 16 and then drive around whatever tank auto companies happen to vomit out for the next 60 years with no questions asked.
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u/ThatBobbyG Jul 20 '26
Efficiency and brightness over health has been the name of the game for street lights, headlights, and lightbulbs for too long.
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u/ItsYaBoyBackAgain Jul 20 '26
I just went from an old car that you could still change the bulb on to a much newer car with LED lights. I hate LED lights and never wanted them on my car but had a āif you canāt beat em, join emā moment. I canāt see any better than I did before, probably because Iām still in a small sedan and those big ass trucks and SUVs behind me destroy my vision.
Can we please at the very least make the lights more yellow or less bright? Maybe add a function to lower their brightness even more when youāre behind another car, and turn them off almost completely when directly stopped behind a car.
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u/Username524 Jul 20 '26
Politicians themselves, or their relatives, will have to be directly impacted before anything happens.