Ah, it's our good old friend, regulation!
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Why is America stuck with bad headlights?
41–50 of 493 posts
Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?
#42I really hate led headlights here in USA, They are too bright and need to be banned. People using these should be jailed for endangering lives. I don't know why but This seems to be particularly common here on big pickup trucks, which is even worse because they hit you right in your eyes if you are driving a regular car due to height difference. Also, I've had adaptive headlights on my subaru forever.
Good LED headlights aren’t blinding. It’s often aftermarket nonsense that causes problems. As someone else mentioned, the culprits aren’t often LEDs; there are some crazy bulbs out there, and the people using them just don’t care if they’re blinding other drivers. It’s ridiculous.
Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?
#43groups like Audi/Porsche/BMW have trouble bringing their fancy LED setups to America due to laws pertaining to high / low beams -- meanwhile every Jack and Jill on the road has glaringly illegal aftermarket Xenon bulb setups in refractor headlight housings rather than proper projectors, blinding the hell out of everyone on the road, and the police seem to do nothing about it. I mean, hey -- i'm usually happy about au…
re: "aftermarket xenon bulb setups" Is this still a big problem? While I would have agreed with you, say, back in the 2000s when the whole "import tuner" craze was in full swing, I don't think this is popular anymore. The car mod scene seems to be close to extinct now, with whats left being a lot less crazy than those in the past.
We also missed out on the yellow sodium headlight craze in Europe during the 80s or 90s. Headlights in the USA must be whitish in color. Anyone know why?
Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?
#44I really hate led headlights here in USA, They are too bright and need to be banned. People using these should be jailed for endangering lives. I don't know why but This seems to be particularly common here on big pickup trucks, which is even worse because they hit you right in your eyes if you are driving a regular car due to height difference. Also, I've had adaptive headlights on my subaru forever.
what is with Americans and jumping up at just jailing people? jesus christ you don't need to jail people because they used bright lights.
shows basic lack of concern for other people's lives on the road, same as drunk driving.
> because they used bright lights.
Why are people doing this in the first place. I don't understand.
Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?
#45I really hate led headlights here in USA, They are too bright and need to be banned. People using these should be jailed for endangering lives. I don't know why but This seems to be particularly common here on big pickup trucks, which is even worse because they hit you right in your eyes if you are driving a regular car due to height difference. Also, I've had adaptive headlights on my subaru forever.
Seriously. Driving at night with a lot of oncoming traffic is starting to become a serious hazard. Maybe doubly so if you have a car that sits relatively low to the ground.
Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?
#46Is this a standard feature in all European cars? It seems like a premium feature that might eventually trickle down to the average cars.
This is not a standard feature of new cars, but it's pretty affordable addition for middle segment cars (In my MPV it was an extra 700$). Premium cars getting this more and more frequently, not LED, but lasers in case of Audi (and VAG).
Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?
#47groups like Audi/Porsche/BMW have trouble bringing their fancy LED setups to America due to laws pertaining to high / low beams -- meanwhile every Jack and Jill on the road has glaringly illegal aftermarket Xenon bulb setups in refractor headlight housings rather than proper projectors, blinding the hell out of everyone on the road, and the police seem to do nothing about it. I mean, hey -- i'm usually happy about au…
having had several german cars in the past, it's not that hard to import euro-spec headlights and install them, but your jaw might drop when you see the price.
Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?
#48Even more importantly: Why is America still stuck with cars that honk when they're locked and that have indicator lights flashing in the same color as the tail-lights? One is a nuisance, the other one a straight-up safety issue.
When I lived in Canada we had to turn on the honk mode because there were too many people using devices that block remote vehicle locking. The honk is an obvious indicator that the car did, indeed, lock.
Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?
#49Even more importantly: Why is America still stuck with cars that honk when they're locked and that have indicator lights flashing in the same color as the tail-lights? One is a nuisance, the other one a straight-up safety issue.
Once again, we get to grace ourselves with another Technology Connections video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1lZ9n2bxWA
Re: Why is America stuck with bad headlights?
#50I really hate led headlights here in USA, They are too bright and need to be banned. People using these should be jailed for endangering lives. I don't know why but This seems to be particularly common here on big pickup trucks, which is even worse because they hit you right in your eyes if you are driving a regular car due to height difference. Also, I've had adaptive headlights on my subaru forever.
Maximum permissible wattage in USA headlights used to be 55 watts each (and probably still is). I don’t think there was ever a limit defined in lumens, so now we get LED lights with crazy brightness since they still use under 55 watts.