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Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

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Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#401

Post by sokoloff »

LoganDark wrote: post #346
Wistar wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lately, I see a lot of drivers who turn on their brights and just leave them on and this includes cars with the older halogen and even incandescents. This is a change in behavior. As for LEDs, to me, the Tesla Model 3 headlights are the worst offender, but not all of them, just the majority. I can look down a column of oncoming cars and pick out the Model 3s from a few blocks distance. I suspect that the Model 3 head…

I usually drive with only the DRLs even at night. My vision is good enough that there's no reason to blind other drivers. I only use the beams at all when there's bad weather that fucks with visibility, or when the road has no retroreflectors. Also ever since a collision repair the headlight beams have been misaligned and that's extremely distracting/infuriating so I hate using them anyway.

On many cars, the beam of the DRLs are more offensive to oncoming drivers when used at night.

Properly repairing your car might make it less distracting/infuriating.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#402

Post by tonymet »

Congressional hearings on headlights seem to focus on lumens, but the bigger issue is misalignment. I worry that setting a lumen cap will undermine LEDs strengths. Adaptive matrix like Tesla Model Y etc , which shade oncoming and leading traffic, allow incredible visibility without the glare.

Even with static headlights, the beams need to be realigned every year or two. Vibration puts them out of order.

A weak beam pointed at your eye will be more blinding than a much stronger beam aimed properly.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#403

Post by yesb »

potato3732842 wrote: post #379
jcranmer wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When my taillight burned out, I went to the local autoparts store to get a replacement. The first light I picked up had printed on the packaging, in not-terribly-visible writing, "For Off-Road Use Only." I had to go back and hunt longer for the light that was legal for road use. There's probably a decent contingent of people replacing their lights with out-of-spec lights not realizing that the lights are not actually…

That's not how it works. They can write whatever they want on the packaging. It's the final assembly that's compliant. They're covering their ass in case you put their 5W bulb in some application they've never heard of where it technically fits but a 2.5W bulb was supposed to be used or something. It's like how aftermarket brake hoses all say "off road use only" despite pretty much all of them vastly exceeding the FM…

The correct bulb will not say that, aftermarket LEDs do. The light reflector housings are designed and tested for specific bulb standards. There are LEDs which try to output light from the same place as the filament in the bulb they are mimicking. But there is no guarantee they function properly, hence the warning and illegality.

If you swap one side and walk around your car, you may see that they are significantly dimmer than the stock bulbs from some or all angles. Or it may work fine. Often times the aftermarket LED dual intensity tail/stop lights have barely any difference between the two brightnesses which is egregiously unsafe

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#404

Post by danielodievich »

I drive a little 2002 Mini, those are really low to the ground. The modern hulking trucks and SUVs + with what I call "Bright-Ass Lights" + me getting older with my myopia turned driving at night into constant struggle to not be blind. Sigh. Nothing to be done, it's a tragedy of commons there

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#405

Post by tonymet »

bArray wrote: post #295

I think most vehicles are operating with their headlamps adjusted too high. I think the majority are now completely out of spec [1]. My normal lights are very respectably adjusted and are the older dimmer type, but my full beams are blinding - I rarely ever use them. A few times a driver comes towards me with full beams on, I flash mine and light up the entire night. The quality of driver is also decreasing. One of o…

We could get very far by mandating easier adjustment of headlights, and free adjustment at auto shops. It only takes a couple minutes to adjust the headlights , especially at a shop with a lift and a gauge.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#406

Post by AnimalMuppet »

kova12 wrote: post #392

Nearly all UK drivers = "total of 1,850 drivers". Also mind you, in UK you can go to jail for disagreeing with narrative. I hold this article somewhat sus. With that said, yeah, headlights are kinda bright these days

Nearly all UK drivers = a large majority of 1,850 drivers, with enough diversity in the sample set that one can reasonably extrapolate from that to the population as a whole. (Do you throw this criticism at every survey?)

> in UK you can go to jail for disagreeing with narrative.

With the narrative on headlight brightness?

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#407

Post by toast0 »

thewebguyd wrote: post #328
BobaFloutist wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that really irritates me about the animated turning lights is that they still do it when hazards are on. The one and only possible use case would be differentiating between hazards and turn signals, and they don't do it.

I've seen flashing third brake lights too. I don't get adding flashing lights to brake and tail lights. It's actually worse, flashing lights make it harder for us to judge distance as now there's no steady queue needed for depth perception. It's why when cycling I've always opted for a solid taillight instead of the flashing ones.

Flashing third brake light (in the US) is usually a dealer profit addon. Personally, I think these violate federal vehicle safety law. I'll add a link to a federal letter that I think agrees with me [1]... But no enforcement means dealers alter the wiring harness to add these on to all their inventory and add a line item on the bill. They'll remove it if you complain, but the wiring harness has been altered.

I'm ok with factory strobing on hard braking, and I think that is permitted generally.

[1] https://www.nhtsa.gov/interpretations/20288ztv

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#408

Post by 1718627440 »

lucianbr wrote: post #390
1718627440 wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wouldn't trust anyone to fiddle with mine and do a good job, including the dealership. Evidently that includes the manufacturer, since he wasn't able to give you proper lights to begin with.

What part of my comments tells you my lights are not proper?

The lights of that Honda:

> When I got my Honda van with stock LED headlights about a year ago, people started flashing me that my brights were on.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#409

Post by y-c-o-m-b »

teslabox wrote: post #194

Years ago I read a comment here sharing how they'd taken to wearing amber glasses when walking at night, so they could be protected against the excessively-blue LED streetlights in their neighborhood. I bought amber safety glasses. They magically took the shock out of the bad headlights, but I also noticed that I wasn't seeing pedestrians until it was too late. My local sunglass shop had some yellow fit-over safety g…

I used to wear these amber glasses for my motorcycle rides back when I was still riding. They not only did a great job of improving my visibility (be it subjective or not), but they also seemed to reduce overall fatigue for me. I should pick up another pair for regular driving though, thanks for the reminder.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#410

Post by Zak »

Wistar wrote: post #394
shit_game wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is a change in behavior. >I am not sure what the solution is but the situation is getting worse and quickly. The solution is legislation and enforcement. Driving at night now makes me afraid for my safety because I'm literally blinded by oncoming traffic, and I'm sure that many other people share the same sentiment. I would happily argue that driving with lights bright enough to impair other drivers counts as w…

Adaptive headlights that actively shield oncoming drivers were finally made legal in the US in 2022 but complicated bureaucratic hoops make them hard to implement. BMW seems to have them working as I find their higher-end lighting (ex: ICON Adaptive w/ Laser Light) to be among the best to oncoming drivers—at least to my eyes. CNN writes about why headlight brightness is worse in the US than in other countries: https:…

The USA seems to suffer from a not-invented-here problem when it comes to automotive regulations. Most of the world adopted the European standard for adaptive headlights, but the USA had to spend years coming up with its own incompatible standard.
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