Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

621–630 of 900 posts

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#621

Post by jackvalentine »

BrenBarn wrote: post #586
pipes wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 dec…

I’ve noticed the same, and also people’s behaviour generally everywhere has bottomed out and not recovered. I was speaking to an ED nurse who said people have just forgotten how to relate and violence is through the roof every night in the hospital.

Did we all get subtle brain damage?

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#622

Post by pipes »

paradox460 wrote: post #567
pipes wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 "…

My favorite is that if you try to follow a safe distance, some jerk will immediately move to fill the space

Or toot their horn and flash their lights behind you

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#623

Post by mulmen »

sokoloff wrote: post #450
mulmen wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad’s 1966 Oldsmobile has auto-dimming headlights. There are manual overrides of course.

Does that relate to driver-controlled height adjustment of the headlights?

No, the level is fixed for the high and low beams. I guess the driver can adjust them with a screwdriver but not while driving.

I’m just mentioning that headlight automation was being done back in the 1960s with simple electronics. Just a photo cell and a lens. The driver can adjust sensitivity.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#624

Post by m463 »

Ok, here's where this becomes a problem:

older people.

As you age, you gradually develop cataracts. These are deposits in the lens of your eye that make them cloudy, and you get glare from bright lights.

When looking at bright lights, it is like looking through a dirty windshield. Light reaches your retina indirectly from the deposits which makes it incredibly hard to see, reducing or eliminating contrast.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataract

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glare_(vision)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Flashlig...

You can also get cataracts earlier due to other health conditions

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#625

Post by groos »

njarboe wrote: post #147

One of the main reasons people want/need brighter headlights is that there is much more light inside the car from screens. These don't let your eyes adjust to the dark properly. Older cars had dim green lighting for the gauges and even had a knob to adjust the brightness up and down. You could create a very dim interior instead of the huge amount of white light you get with modern cars and the multiple screens. I'm h…

> I'm happy my Tesla does a decent job of having the screen be quite dark at night but the headlights are quite bad with the horizontal cutoff style that only lights the first few feet of horizontal ahead of the car. I need to see those deer and elk on the side of the road, damn it.

Turn on your fog lights? At least in my 2018 M3, they illuminate the sides as well.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#626

Post by njarboe »

alentred wrote: post #559
omnee wrote: post #543

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an older car with the low light gauges, and so my eyes are more adjusted the darkness. Which makes the poorly calibrated bright lights of newer cars the bane of my life at night.

Exactly. Even if my eyes adjust well to the relative darkness with my lights, the effect is erased the instant I encounter a car coming on me on the opposite side of the road.

One thing that helps is to make sure you don't look at the headlights directly. It really helps to look at the white line on the side of the road when the other car is close to preserve your night vision.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#627

Post by bespokedevelopr »

japhyr wrote: post #456
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…

> Mostly I'm hoping that automatic high-beams, like some Ford trucks I've seen do well, proliferate more! I have a 2021 Tacoma, and its automatic high-beam adjustment is terrible. It does a reasonable job of turning high beams off when a car approaches, but it has a number of problems that make it unusable. After the car passes it waits too long to reactivate the high beams. That's when they're needed most; my eyes h…

Maybe it’s an overcorrection because the Tacoma I had, a couple years older than yours, had auto high beams and they would just stay on all the time. They only turned off from reflecting on road signs or when a car was only a few lengths away approaching. Quickly found the button to disable that feature.

The feature seems to be poorly implemented by all manufacturers. I see Teslas driving around flashing high beams every night because they trigger on/off really quickly and the drivers seem oblivious to the rapid change.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#628

Post by onion2k »

m463 wrote: post #624

Ok, here's where this becomes a problem: older people. As you age, you gradually develop cataracts. These are deposits in the lens of your eye that make them cloudy, and you get glare from bright lights. When looking at bright lights, it is like looking through a dirty windshield. Light reaches your retina indirectly from the deposits which makes it incredibly hard to see, reducing or eliminating contrast. https://en…

There is a legal minimum standard for vision to be able to drive in the UK (basically you have to be able to read a number plate at 20 metres, not have double vision, and have a normal field of vision in one eye.) The punishment for failing to stop driving if you fail that is a £1000 fine.

People with serious cataracts shouldn't be driving.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#629

Post by njarboe »

haspok wrote: post #299
njarboe wrote: post #147

One of the main reasons people want/need brighter headlights is that there is much more light inside the car from screens. These don't let your eyes adjust to the dark properly. Older cars had dim green lighting for the gauges and even had a knob to adjust the brightness up and down. You could create a very dim interior instead of the huge amount of white light you get with modern cars and the multiple screens. I'm h…

> huge amount of white light you get with modern cars Maybe this is missing from your Tesla, but in my poor VW the "screen" has a dark mode which is automatically turned on when the lights are turned on - including Android Auto and Google Maps, which is pretty much the only thing I ever use it for. Previously I had a rusty Toyota with a very pale orange display, it was always either too dim or too bright, terrible co…

My Tesla does a good job with its screen and since it is a model 3, no bright gages in front of the wheel. Most other modern cars have this problem though.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#630

Post by njarboe »

bob1029 wrote: post #188
njarboe wrote: post #147

One of the main reasons people want/need brighter headlights is that there is much more light inside the car from screens. These don't let your eyes adjust to the dark properly. Older cars had dim green lighting for the gauges and even had a knob to adjust the brightness up and down. You could create a very dim interior instead of the huge amount of white light you get with modern cars and the multiple screens. I'm h…

> Older cars had dim green lighting for the gauges and even had a knob to adjust the brightness up and down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgh2zbifn7E

The low green glow in the 65 mustang I drove in high school was divine.
Post reply on HN