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Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

bbc.com

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Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#581

Post by LanceJones »

MetaWhirledPeas wrote: post #516
lukeschlather wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My parents' new Chevy Bolt automatically turns off the brights when appropriate. At first I was doing it manually but then I started trusting it, it just works, it does it at exactly the moment I would do it (actually it's better at it than me.) I'm surprised Teslas don't do it.

> I'm surprised Teslas don't do it. They do. Also, the ones with matrix LEDs (most newer Models other than the Cybertruck) automatically create a circle of darkness around anything they detect to be another vehicle.

Why the downvotes? Jesus, I have a new Model 3 Performance and the matrix lights do exactly as stated.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#582

Post by jiggawatts »

Also LED signage, especially some advertising by business is calibrated to be visible in daytime, so at night time these are "eye searingly bright". I've seen some that illuminate the countryside to a significant distance, more than stree lighting, but they're aimed at you instead of down at the ground.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#583

Post by pwg »

greybcg wrote: post #519

Ive honestly wondered why people do not ask for or demand orange tinted lights? In the old times where we had sodium vapour lamps I was always under the impression that the orange wavelengths were specifically picked because our visual system is keenest under dusklike lighting conditions. Why then do we shift so much towards cold harsh lights? I dont think it's just the brightness that makes it unpleasant but also th…

> In the old times where we had sodium vapour lamps I was always under the impression that the orange wavelengths were specifically picked because our visual system is keenest under dusklike lighting conditions.

The yellow from sodium vapor lamps was an artifact of the physics of the emission spectrum of excited sodium atoms.

The reason sodium vapor lamps were used was because before the advent of LED's, they were the most power efficient (lowest electrical energy consumption for a given light output). The 'yellow' light was just a byproduct of "more efficient bulb".

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#584

Post by webnrrd2k »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #442
0xfeba wrote: post #380

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. This is one of my pet peeves. I've categorized it into what I believe are the main causes: 1. People just don't know as well today that the blue indicator means you're blinding people 2. People with newer cars which will automatically tur…

My other pet peeve is the opposite - they've got LED daytime running lights, and use those instead of headlights. They're driving around at 11pm with no taillights and abysmal forward lighting, but there's enough of a glow from the DRLs that they assume their lights are on. Or worse, they're accustomed to "automatic" lights and don't even know where the switch is, so they're driving around at dusk or in fog, rain, or…

This hit on a peeve of mine, that automatic high beam systems really suck for pedestrians. Manual control is genuinely better in this regard. Try walking around at night in a wealthy neighborhood, and about 1/8 of the cars just blind every pedestrian.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#585

Post by tmnvix »

stefan_ wrote: post #514
kulahan wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember, when shopping for a car, the salesman told me about an Alpina model he had with laser headlights so intense they weren't even legal for new builds anymore. It's a selling point in some vehicles. Still, the idea that you should give headlight illumination control to the idiot behind the wheel is insane to me. Is it not a regulated height? Maybe that explains why it's a nightmare to drive at night anymore.

Headlight regulation obviously stopped making any sense at all when they allowed bigger cars to put them up higher. Like you are gonna regulate all kind of beam parameters and then miss the most important thing.

Good point.

Look at a large vehicle like a bus. The lights are mounted low. This should be how it is for all vehicles.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#586

Post by BrenBarn »

pipes wrote: post #536
0xfeba wrote: post #380

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. This is one of my pet peeves. I've categorized it into what I believe are the main causes: 1. People just don't know as well today that the blue indicator means you're blinding people 2. People with newer cars which will automatically tur…

I might just be getting old, but more and more I see people not using indicators and not understanding the rules of junctions. Tail gating also really annoying. I was in a mates car recently and it scared the hell out of me, he was tail gating for most of a 3 hour journey. Eventually we got to a bit with chevrons and he wasn't obeying the rule staying N chevrons away from the car in front. I told him and he replied "…

I'd say just in general people have become way more cavalier and oblivious as drivers. I frequently see people doing wild stuff like driving at night with no headlights, or driving for several blocks in a bike lane. Every single yellow light is pushed to the limit, with often at least one (and sometimes multiple) drivers running the red light as well. I feel like a lot of is connected to a more general post-COVID decline in awareness of how one's actions affect others. People are just fine with doing anything they can get away with. I suspect the trend won't be reversed without a major increase in enforcement.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#587

Post by switchbak »

vegancap wrote: post #226

I was at a junction the other day, there was some new Audi EV at the other side of the junction and I couldn't see a damn thing. I've got perfect 20/20 vision, never had any form of eye problem ever in my life, and I was completely blinded. I'm convinced if they'd turned the full beams on, I'd have disintegrated.

I high-beamed one of them, then they turned their high beams on - it was a shockingly ridiculous amount of light that's simply dangerous anywhere. Fuck Audi.

Man, this feels like a vehicular instantiation of class war. Pay enough and you too can blind others on the road.

What's next - frickin laser beams?

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#588

Post by lucianbr »

1718627440 wrote: post #408
lucianbr wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I didn't write that. Pay attention to usernames.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#589

Post by switchbak »

robertlagrant wrote: post #322
_fat_santa wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the problem I've identified are SUV's and Trucks. Back home I drive a 4runner so I never noticed this but on vacation one week and we rented a Corolla. While the lights from other cars never bothered me in the 4runner, it was so apparent in the smaller Corolla. I would see light behind me and go "why do they have high beams on" but then looking ahead it didn't look like they had their high beams on, I was jus…

> but then looking ahead it didn't look like they had their high beams on, I was just in a short car. You were in a normal car, and the SUV manufacturer has mounted the lights higher just for aesthetic reasons.

You were in a normal car ... for 2004.

Now you're in a car that the US car industry doesn't want to sell, and thus you don't exist.

Do we need self-darkening HUDs? Like an LCD overlay that specifically mutes the intensity of these improperly engineered cars? Seems dumb, but it might happen.

I wonder if we'll just move to using IR for the really high beams? That probably doesn't do anything good to the human eye at high intensities, but if you could augment the driver's vision and not blind everyone at the same time that would be nice? Let's bring back the Cadillac Deville!

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#590

Post by Dylan16807 »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #442
0xfeba wrote: post #380

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. This is one of my pet peeves. I've categorized it into what I believe are the main causes: 1. People just don't know as well today that the blue indicator means you're blinding people 2. People with newer cars which will automatically tur…

My other pet peeve is the opposite - they've got LED daytime running lights, and use those instead of headlights. They're driving around at 11pm with no taillights and abysmal forward lighting, but there's enough of a glow from the DRLs that they assume their lights are on. Or worse, they're accustomed to "automatic" lights and don't even know where the switch is, so they're driving around at dusk or in fog, rain, or…

#3 sounds like you're either nitpicking or maybe having an eye issue?

#7 You're either doing something good or something very bad, so I hope it's the former. If you're trying to pace the lane next to you, then it sounds like it's at least an honest attempt to get things zipper merging. If you're telling yourself that cars need to be in both lanes to zipper merge, while zooming to the end and then hoping maybe a zipper merge will happen, you're getting a big benefit to yourself while still causing slowdown for everyone else.

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