Car headlights don't have to be this blinding
21–30 of 133 posts
Re: Car headlights don't have to be this blinding
#22Was discussing at home (USA) this same idea that vehicle lights are brighter and drivers are less inclined to be bothered to dip. I rented a car in the UK several years ago which auto-dimmed the beam and was fascinated by the technology which would allow it to differentiate light sources and identify oncoming vehicles.
I think most if not all US cars do this now. My current one doesn't even have a way to keep the brights on permanently. Now to wait 8 or so years for all the old ones to cycle out :(.
Double that. I think the average lifespan of a car in the US is ~16 years.
Re: Car headlights don't have to be this blinding
#23EU folks: are ADBs the panacea that all these articles always make them out to be? I’ve seen mixed reports.
Re: Car headlights don't have to be this blinding
#24Same in europe, since a few years. It should be illegal, but there you are. There is the possibility (as said by an apologetic driver) that it sometimes may be a badly functioning automation ("Too high? Oh but it's automatic").
The US is worse - an F150s headlights are at eye level if you're sitting in a Corolla. Nothing on European roads is quite as bad.
I don't understand why headlight elevation isn't standardized.
Re: Car headlights don't have to be this blinding
#25Was discussing at home (USA) this same idea that vehicle lights are brighter and drivers are less inclined to be bothered to dip. I rented a car in the UK several years ago which auto-dimmed the beam and was fascinated by the technology which would allow it to differentiate light sources and identify oncoming vehicles.
This has been available in the US for a long time. I had it on the car I bought in 2016, and on another I bought in 2023. It's just not mandatory, so it usually comes as a part of some safety / driver assistance package. And even if you have it, you need to enable it.
A looooooong time! :)
Re: Car headlights don't have to be this blinding
#26Tesla is a big part of this. They ship their headlights misaligned from the factory, so they point right into the drivers eyes. Tesla has no quality culture at all. A bunch of wankers.
No they don't.
Re: Car headlights don't have to be this blinding
#27Same in europe, since a few years. It should be illegal, but there you are. There is the possibility (as said by an apologetic driver) that it sometimes may be a badly functioning automation ("Too high? Oh but it's automatic").
> Same in europe, since a few years.
Yeah, since they started to introduce super duper led headlights and 144 Hz animations on turn signals it's been more and more blinding to drive at night even across the ocean.
Re: Car headlights don't have to be this blinding
#28Blindzone Glare Elimination Method can help address some of this https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/blindzoneglaremi... It doesn't help at all with head on traffic, but glare via my side mirrors has been reduced greatly since I implemented this.
I do this on long drives, but always have to put it back to normal when it's time to park. It would be neat if cars would implement some sort of automatic switch between this configuration and the straight-back mode when reversing.
Re: Car headlights don't have to be this blinding
#29Tesla is a big part of this. They ship their headlights misaligned from the factory, so they point right into the drivers eyes. Tesla has no quality culture at all. A bunch of wankers.
I'm sure they don't. The law requires a 10 degree downward angle for directed headlights out of the factory. It would never pass NHTSA testing without it. High beams are a different matter: They are designed to scatter in a wide arc, but people shouldn't be using them when there's opposing traffic.
Re: Car headlights don't have to be this blinding
#30If you think this is bad, try walking alongside a small road after dark. Some of the oncoming lights are blinding even from a few blocks away.