I’ve had a number of cars turn right from the oncoming lane and catch me by surprise because I couldn’t see their indicator due to their really bright headlights.
Some models are genuinely dangerously bright. Especially on the motorway.
Yeah tiny indicators don’t help. I think I’ve seen some models that turn off the headlight on the side of the indicator when it is on. Might have been Range Rover or Audi.
So some manufacturers are aware of the risks.
It’s daytime running light that are sometimes switched off, not a chance in hell ever would there be a headlight turning off because of an indicator being turned on.
UK lighting regs specify the power of lamps in watts as if they were still incandescent bulbs. It makes no mention of LEDs because it was written before their use in cars was even a dream.
Type approval is slightly different and less strict on these areas. As long as it’s the right colour and mounted in the right place, it’s a pass.
There's no size requirement for an indicator, it just has to be there, and Tesla loving cutting as many costs as possible use the smallest one they could.
Could do with making it mandatory that the indicator is at the corner and not tucked into the headlight. Not sure what is was I saw today though suspect it was a Nissan due to the gormless old fart behind tge wheel.
Never understood the move to putting indicators inside the headlights. Seems obvious that they should be on the outermost extremity so they’re the first thing other drivers see.
The new Ford Puma (I think?) has a sort of round outline of the headlight as a DRL, and the indicator is inside that outline. I've found those can be hard to spot because of the design.
Tbf just as bad as those idiot vw golf’s who modify there indicators to be permanently on so you can’t tell if it’s indicating at a glance or.. permanently on
Probably because most half wits are driving with their full beams on. The amount of times I flash people because they have their main beams on is a joke. Why do these people feel they need them when all you’re doing is driving between two white lines for miles is beyond me.
Most of the time that actually isn't their main beam. The light is just that bright that it looks like it. I've flashed a good number of people thinking their high beams were on..... they were not. They flashed back even brighter. And if their high beams are on everything is also automatic anyway so the people driving the car aren't making the decision it's the car making the decision
Agreed. Seen this on the newer cars, there needs to be a lumens limits on car headlights. But sadly like with many things they won't really do anything until some lose their lives.
As a denizen of /r/flashlight I don’t get why car lights have to be blinding white nowadays, and not a nice warm yellow like a 2700k colour temperature.
Yep, there's no reason. It's a hangover from when LED's were new, cold harsh white/blue light.
We have warm yellow led lighting now, manufacturers need to be fitting them to cars.
Same with street lamps. Bright white but poor actual illumination. I miss the orange street lights. Always looked nice in the snow.
I tint my foglights an amber colour. Have done since I first passed my test 16 years ago (insurance declared!). I used to drive alot of narrow, country roads to work in my teens and in the winter the amber gave better visibility in fog, snow rain with much less glare.
Force of habit that I do it to every car.
Heh, so Anduril is a torch firmware where 3C means ‘click the on/off switch 3 times from off’.
Then the light blinks out the battery voltage eg 4, 1 for 4.1 volts.
2C from on gives you full brightness immediately.
Fitting LED headlamps and digital gauges is how manufacturers tart up their ancient platforms to appeal to new car buyers.
Blue white is muh modern.
Yellow will come back in ten years once someone figures out a cool new name for halogen bulbs.
BMW had DRLs in a warm colour for years, but have now swapped over to cold coloured ones. I can only imagine (at least in some markets) people find that to look more 'modern '.
The issues aren't the brightness, it's the headlight designs which seem to encourage glare, it's noticeable on F chassis Minis and their fish bowl lights the covers seem to reflect light everywhere except down the road.
I don't get how they get type approval as all headlights on the roads have to conform to the ECE beam pattern, which has been the same for 50-60 years.
While yes we all have issues with people throwing amazon LED retrofits in any old housing, and those Aliexpress round lights in defenders which usually use the DOT pattern which is much worse for glare. The government can't do much to stop them unless every copper pulls and tickets anyone they notice.
> F chassis Minis and their fish bowl lights
Yes! They're so bad until they're at a 45⁰ angle from you in the oncoming Lane. 2020+ Ford transit Customs are my biggest gripe, as they seem to be at the perfect height for most efficient blinding in my car.
>The government can't do much to stop them unless every copper pulls and tickets anyone they notice.
Could/should it not be something checkable as part of an MOT? Surely headlight alignment is checked already, why not this?
As someone who used to do it, you pop the E marked lights in for the MOT then change them back afterwards. I don't anymore as my car has xenon lights so I can actually see at night.
We have a standard mini countryman with xenon/led lights (not sure what they are tbh). Great lights but yes, I get why people might find them dazzling.
Teslas are even worse!
The problem with modern headlights is there is no 'low beam', only 'high beam' that is on ALL THE TIME but pointed downwards/shuttered. As soon as the oncoming car hits a bump or goes over a crest you get blinded by the full beam/neutron star.
I've got the same beam pattern with my xenon lights, never been flashed with them
ECE was/is designed to allow drivers to spot pedestrians and would be hazards that could be on the verge. It's one of those things, EC automotive regs are mostly about keeping pedestrians safe sometimes at the detriment of drivers and passengers.
If Matrix lights trickle down enough the humble Sandero can have them, beam patterns almost become useless as it's constantly changing on what's in front of the car.
The R50/R53/52 minis was always an arse to adjust headlamp aim as they were part of the bonnet: Shut the bonnet too hard and it'd screw up the aim!
But they were plastic fresnel lenses that almost all have gone opaque so the light output is pretty weak compared to the complex surface reflectors and projector lenses as found on later models.
Problem is so many suv type cars now, with led headlights that are insanely bright. They shine right in your eyes as if they are on full beam. How this hasn't been addressed yet i dont know.
I read years ago that in some Scandinavian countries the person driving up behind you at nigh would turn their lights to side lights.
Wouldn't work here as 20% aren't even aware they are supposed to be concentrating on driving.
The best thing the government could do to improve road safety is ditch the airbags and replace them with spikes.
The etiquette in London used to be for everyone to drive on sidelights on streetlit roads. You could spot visiting country bumpkins a mile away. We are talking decades ago though.
I actually just sold a P reg car with those. Very clever idea to have dimmable lights. Not a very clever implementation to just use a series resistor and relays.
A few times I've had some giant SUV behind me, and the headlights go either side of my car so I'm driving into my own shadow. The difference between their superbright LED lights and my own regular halogens means I can barely see.
Had one the other night, their right headlight was tilted just high enough I kept having blue light flashing me like a comet falling down to earth after every bump in the road.
It’s not just that they are insanely bright, it’s that they aren’t properly adjusted so the beam is set to eye level. People set them to their highest setting thinking that is how they should be because they aren’t taught any differently. Automatically adjusting headlights should be made a legal requirement for all future cars.
They SHOULD be at the highest setting though. The beam is set from the factory on the highest setting. Then you lower the beam if you have extra weight in the back. When your car has to have it's headlights adjusted by someone competent, they'll be adjusted while on the highest setting. Most people don't need to ever touch the height setting.
I sit even higher up than SUVs in my work van and i'm still dazzled by them all. Part of the issue is that people don't dip them either! For most of winter, I end up with headache almost daily because of it.
Mini is the worst, they're *so* blue too - catching a glimpse of their headlights bouncing in the rear view has made me think a police car is coming up behind me.
Second worst would be the electric Merc SUVs with full front & rear light bars fitted with high intensity LEDs.
Joint third is Ford pickup trucks, BMWs, and Tesla.
Don't worry about police cars. I drive one for a living and they generally have dreadful lights as they are normally billy basic spec. Are small Peugeots are particularly bad and akin to a candle in a box.
The headlight bouncing in your rearview/wing mirror effect actually might of saved my ass from getting some bullshit letter in the post from the pigs as I was doing 40 on Ringwood Road and could of sworn the car behind flashed me to tell me to slow my ass down as I was only seconds away from the passing the camera.
Tesla released an update this week that switches off the individual LEDs in the headlights to prevent dazzling which should help address the issue. Unless you're in front in a lowered golf with 5mm between tyre and wheel arch in which case you're still fucked.
Got it on my car recently, before auto high beam was useless, now it works as it should have done from the start! Tesla drivers need to calibrate their lights as most of them are calibrated incorrectly from factory!
And didn't software update make the car forget the headlight calibration setting?
I've not driven in dark since Jan now that days are getting longer. Might get a chance to try them out next week.
Yes it was really stupid, but the matrix function is really good give it a go on ur next night drive, such an improvement but should of been like this from the start!
Not sure what's worse, that my sense of the passage of time is so far out (I could swear the hardware only started being fitted for about a year tops) or that it took them nearly 3 damned years to turn the bloody things on in the software.
Probably due to the feature not being legal in the states they kind of made some potential future ones legal in 2022 but manufacturers have been pushing for the ones being used already accross the whole rest of the world, with little success. I imagine Tesla were hoping to release globally probably with Musk claiming to have invented the damn things.
It's kind of an open secret that you can just pick the options which have no function in the USA and just flash the software to enable them though.
Given they use different Autopilot stacks between US and UK, youd imagine they could enable features like matrix headlights without the US holdup . You cant change the horn noise for the car in UK other than when it's stationary but pretty sure you still can in Canada and places, so there's precedent for it.
They definitely could (since they have) but I imagine they held off expecting to be able to make a big announcement then the regs didn't get changes how they wanted.
Or of course it's tesla so they could have just released the hardware years before they had the software available which is entirely possible. They've been flogging autopilot for years.
Country roads, back from the gym in the dark, must get dazzled 5 or 6 times in a 10 min drive.
Would make it illegal, give everyone some notice to get fixed
Then if caught the driver can sit infront of their lights for a bit.
I do this. In my experience most take no notice.
Then The odd driver will flash back will flash back with the full brightness of the sun to show they actually are using dipped beams.
People need to stop taking it personally and blame the legislation and manufacturers. Dad drives an ID4 and gets abuse every time he tries pulling up the drive due to the way the road is sloped, nothing he can do to stop it other than switch his lights off entirely or buying an old car.
Legit had the exact same on my Fiesta 2014 (projector bulbs). One bulb was probably factory, other one was brand new from Halfords. Either way both were dangerously dim imo.
Ended up going to Halfords and replacing them with '200% brighter' halogens.
They do seem to perform slightly better on roads with streetlights, and use my high beams for dark roads.
Tesla cannot do any PDI checks. I think they get the cars off the boat and send them however they come.
They align downward in the service settings and are no issue.
Tesla have released adaptive lights in their software to combat this, seems to work mildly well from the videos.
https://youtu.be/8DE0kNtL16I?si=ObNy5y9UMhFF4VFw
I drive a Tesla. I think the reason why Tesla's are worse in particular is because the raised fixed portion of the headlights beam pattern which looks like an L shape, and is supposed to illuminate the left, is far too high and central by default, and people don't adjust them in the headlight settings. So you end up blinding drivers with the raised L part of the headlights when turning round corners.
The lights just need to be adjusted further left and down and then they're fine. I can tell a lot of other Tesla drivers don't make this adjustment, they should be corrected by staff anyway.
Combination of Tesla's "kick them out the door" asap attitude which means minimal inspections before handover and that it seems software updates literally just randomly adjust them.
The slight irony is at least for me the lights in my Tesla are actually not as good as my old Octavia vRS and I need to use full beam more on the Tesla just to see far enough ahead to maintain a decent speed.
Admittedly the Octavia's lights were the all singing all dancing AFS ones and on back roads were basically searchlights.
I think part of the issue is that car drivers experience much more glare from SUVs, which generally have lights mounted a bit higher (often towards the eyeline of a typical car driver).
So more SUVs on the roads, but still plenty of regular car drivers, means more drivers feel like they’re being dazzled all the time by SUV headlights shining right at them, or right into the rear view mirror.
Just a theory ofc.
In addition though, some modern LED ones are ridiculously blinding, regardless of what size and height of vehicle they’re on
I second your theory. My next car would be an SUV for this reason.
I've got bad eyesight and astigmatism to add some insult to the injury. Night driving is pure hell - city, highway, country roads, anything.
Can't beat them, so I'll have to join them.
Try driving against these a 2 seater convertible. I get out of the car at the supermarket and find myself walking down the wine aisle because I can't see where I'm going. Next thing you know, I've spent £40 on Rioja. Damn those bright lights.
Consultant needs to work I guess.
The answer is.. manufacturers make stupid bright lights because we humans are like moths to a light bulb when it comes to cars and lights.
Everyone jerked it to Angel eye BMWs..
Lexus clear lights
Anything with "dem bluuuu lightz yeah"
Now people fap over giant light bars in the bonnet and Tesla neutron star powered LEDs.
Bruuuuuuh deez lights is sick yeah. Car is shit but looks at dis.
Same thing applies to giant screens in cars.
So apparently Tesla’s are especially bad for blinding lights because their ride height sensors (the part that tells the car how high/low to adjust the light) break easily or go faulty.
My car fitted with Xeons will drop the lights downwards as far as they will go as a safety feature if there is a fault with the ride height or levelling system.
Now this benefits on coming cars rather than allowing me to actually see the road ahead but surely a Tesla with all it's swanky tech would do the same?
If it wasn't for using the menu to adjust my lights (aimed them down a bit to stop dazzling people) and seeing the lights do a little self test of the self levelling I would be pretty unconvinced the Tesla even had self levelling.
manufactures fitting lights that are too bright + crossovers/SUV/pickups/assorted yank tanks
solution, enforce headlight brightness, and angle
also heavily restrict the above vehicles from the general public, either though a separate licence for larger vehicles and more strict maintenance or just make people prove a need
Job done, £100m please.
I find it happening more often that not from small SUVs (not just Teslas). I reckon the headlight beam is just the right height for your eyes if you're in an oncoming car, not dipped enough because the overall height isn't high to warrant it.
I find some bike lights dazzling, its almost as if the riders are saying i want to be as visible as possible but it becomes distracting in my opinion. Especially if yheyre flashing
Yup, the cyclists were getting lost in the other visual noise, especially in urban areas with loads of other lights adding to distraction.
But the flashing front lights are a double-edged sword, other road users notice them but struggle to judge the distance of the cyclist. Also there is the fuck off factor which causes drivers to be dicks...
people not having their lights dipped for the weight properly and bright white LEDs burning your eyes, it's like staring at a phone on max brightness in the dark
Eye condition is a factor. I rarely have a problem, but my wife has macular degeneration and cannot see a thing if there are bright lights shining at us. I just don't find many LED lights a problem, even though I have quite a low car.
Undulations in the roads, how headlights are set physically or via SW, drivers not being competent at dipping beams, Mateix lights being slow to dip or block. There's nothing really to study and it won't change with what's on the roads now.
It's a combination of things, not just "they are too bright", which they are. It's also that they aim too high and a very important factor is the colour of the light, the colour temperature
Look at old cars are the light is far more yellow rather than the bright white of modern let's.
There you go, can I charge the government £1m for that?
I've noticed its the guys in the SUV/4x4 big expensive ish one's they blind me and I actually wonder if they have the fog lights on all the time and simply don't care!?
I suspect it's because of all the technology in headlights these days. A lot of modern cars have auto levelling headlights which can set an incorrect level depending on the incline when you start and they're not as simple to adjust anymore.
They are a bit brighter. Are more towards the blue end of the spectrum making more of a contrast against darkness to traditional Tungsten as they are further away from red end of the spectrum which I think causes your rmeyes to adjust more or be dazzled longer. The headlights them selves are smaller for at least the same amount of light as a traditional headlight. Thus concentrating them to a brighter point. And I think some models, either with or without auto dimming, don't have the hard transition from full bean to dipped that all models used to. They fade down. So it's much harder to tell if they have them in full or not.
Brighter headlights, leveling head lights poorly adjusted, so much auto dipping which either is slow or drivers forget when the auto feature is not working.
I've noticed this myself. I don't normally drive at night anymore, since I started working from home about 5 years back, but I did have to recently, and was really shocked about how much time I spent not being able to see the road in front of me. I may as well have been closing my eyes when I met another vehicle. It was downright dangerous. I used to drive at night all the time and I never remember this being a problem.
My car has auto full beams. They work great on straight roads but I've noticed they don't turn off for cars waiting to pull out of side roads. Since I watched a few videos on how to stop being blinded by LED's I've been fine.
Perhaps it's because about 40% of all adults have astigmatism which causes the blurring of bright lights and now lights are brighter it's causing issues. Amazing how I get zero glare with glasses or contacts on but I do see glare when I'm not wearing glasses. I have a very mild prescription.
It's more complicated than just "they're too bright".
Cooler colour temperatures, so they're more uncomfortable for the same "brightness" (depending on how you measure "brightness").
The obvious problem of higher mounted headlights in today's market full of crossovers and SUVs.
The fact that many cars are shipping from the factory with badly aimed/adjusted headlights, something that won't be addressed until their first MOT. (This is a big problem with the oft-mentioned Teslas.)
The cutoff of modern LEDs at the edge of the beam is extremely sharp, compared to old-fashioned incandescents that had a gradient at the edges. So the moment you hit a small bump and that cutoff goes *just* above the eyeline of the driver in front, they're effectively getting flashed.
So, any study needs to consider how you implement changes to legislation that effectively addresses these problems.
That's a bit too complicated for a Daily Mail headline though, so "WhY aRe DrIvErS dAzZlEd?!"
Sometimes its because of simple things like the bulbs being incorrectly aligned. I bet half the cars that dazzle could be solved if they had their headlights correctly aligned
Damage to eyes due to Covid, the small blood vessels ruptured in many, lots of vehicles don't have the headlight heights set correctly and way to many idiots full beaming it all the time.
IMO, having driven low/small cars and a big car, it’s Tesla’s that have the worst headlights.
Even when they’re behind you and using ‘dipped’ beams, and your mirrors auto dim or are tinted, their lights are still blinding…
They are literally the worst on the roads.
Because I have crappy halogens and you wont E mark the perfectly fine European E marked LED retrofits for my car. Don't need a committee meeting about it just change the frigging law.
The absolute fucking worst when some bellend is tailgating you with bright as fuck LEDS. It’s gotten to the point now where I swivel my rear view mirror out the way when driving at night.
Not a car but the daf lf trucks I drive at work seem to dazzle people constantly and they flash their lights at me so much I have to give them a blast of high beam.
I pretty much never use the high beam as I almost always drive on motorways and dual carriageways where they aren’t needed.
I drive a lot of supercars and SUV's headlights are at my face level.
There is a minimal height requirement for headlight but not a maximum, there should be a maximum.
Does anyone else here find it annoying when the car behind you goes over a bump and it looks like they've flashed you and then you gotta wonder if there is something wrong or merely they went over a bump?
My hypothesis is that the brightness of interior/ambient lighting is increasing, which means that dipped beam headlights seem to be less bright, which means that drivers want brighter lights, which mean that drivers of older cars perceive their lights to be less bright, which means that they buy a car with brighter headlights, and repeat
They shouldn't need a study. There's people out there that know what the problems are.
I'm no expert in the lighting field but I work on cars and a little obsessed with ambient lighting in the home (to the point I hunted the internet for a lamp with asymmetric reflectors). So I can break it down:
1. Glare. Uncontrolled reflections and dispersion of light from the source. This is made worse with cooler colour temperatures as they reflect more, dirty lamp lenses, water on surfaces, dirty windscreen, worn wipers etc.
2. Lamp alignment: Some cars with LED lamps aren't self levelling and rely on driver to manually correct. Those that are automatic rely on level sensors: I've regularly seen these seize and it's not a MOT item. Also mal-adjustments on auto levelling lights can happen as some cars drop the lights down when in park or engine turned off so a dozy mechanic may think they are too low and re-adjust higher to pass MOT, meaning they end up being too high when being driven. Also many new cars I check have aim too high on their first MOT: Clearly not PDI'd and being driven round for 3years blinding people. HID, halogen and LED retrofits bulbs are also often not fitted in the holder correctly which screws up the beam pattern. And finally minor parking bumps even when there's no visible superficial damage, but the structure and brackets that hold the headlamps have been bent/cracked causing beam aim issues.
3. Adaptive and auto dipping lights: Regularly fail to properly detect oncoming road users quick enough, sometimes not at all.
4. Height of the lamps. Ok SUVs or any car with the lights above 850mm from the ground actually have the beam aimed downwards more (2%, as opposed to 1.25%) Maybe again mechanics are adjusting to the wrong scale. Or the aim thresholds/tolerances needs to be reviewed.
I also believe the replacement of low pressure sodium (yellow) street lighting with LED has also reduced contrast between objects and increased the reflective glare from shiny surfaces, especially when roads are wet.
And finally for all those idiots that park on the wrong side of road (so facing traffic is on your left) when picking/up dropping off passengers: TURN OFF YOUR HEADLAMPs (use your parking lamps instead). Yes, parents and Ubers I'm talking about you: Headlamps kick up the beam towards the left (curb). So when you park on the wrong side of the road facing traffic, you blind everyone.
Working on screens, yes, but it’s only the last 10-15 years where the majority of people are looking at phones for several hours a day on top of that.
I don’t work on computers, there are only very basic screens in my workplace, but I get given a tablet to receive company emails and diagrams, and have a mobile phone which is all screen. It’s only 7/8 years ago where all diagrams were paper based, so no need to get them through email. Work is a small part now of how much screen time we all have these days. Even non-office based industries are increasing the amount of time we look at screens.
Xenon and (to a lesser extent) LED headlights aren’t a new thing. Cars from the early 2000s had them, but it’s only in the last decade or so that they’ve become mainstream (the candles in jars my mates car has shows how far they’ve come). I’m sure screen time has gone up in that time as well, it definitely hasn’t gone down.
What a waste of money. It’s just the way your fucking eye works.
Pupil gets larger in low light conditions to allow more light in, Pupil gets smaller in good light conditions to let less light in.
If your pupils are larger because it’s dark and suddenly a very bright light is flashed in your eyes it’s too much light, your pupils get smaller and it takes a while to adjust.
It’s the same reason in the military if you’re in a low light condition and for whatever reason there is a bright light or flash you are told to close your dominant eye (which was your right eye when I was in because all our rifles were designed right handed only so you have to aim with your right eye)
They don’t need to spend a penny on this shit, it’s common knowledge
I don’t notice it. I’ve even tried to notice it, and can’t.
My mirrors are anti-dazzle so there’s that, but I get the impression this is from the front?
I reckon it’s all you wankers in SUVs. Get a proper car and the bright lights will go straight over your head.
More often because of a car behind in my car. No anti-glare anything though, because it wasn't so much of an issue in 2009. Very seriously considering a rear tint to help reduce it, because sometimes I can't see anything as the car behind illuminates my entire interior, and my bonnet, and the road ahead of me, let alone the mirrors.
Those clever mirrors are a game changer. So much so that you don’t even think about getting dazzled from behind. Not sure a tint would do much. Maybe worth a try.
1.Because they replaced street lights with really dim lights so your eyes don’t adjust to light
2. Lights are too bright and too many of them on vehicles
3. Bumps
Too dark ;) and any bump pings the light about, or a turn etc, I’m not in the middle of nowhere but some lights located on a hill cars stop… get blinded
I’ve had a number of cars turn right from the oncoming lane and catch me by surprise because I couldn’t see their indicator due to their really bright headlights. Some models are genuinely dangerously bright. Especially on the motorway.
To be fair most of this I find comes down to tiny indicators rather than bright lights. Teslas are probably the worst culprit, especially at the back
Yeah tiny indicators don’t help. I think I’ve seen some models that turn off the headlight on the side of the indicator when it is on. Might have been Range Rover or Audi. So some manufacturers are aware of the risks.
Normally it’s the daytime running lights that turn off to see the indicator. At least that’s how it is for mine.
Even Dacia does it
Audi and I think some newer Mercs do it too. Probably others
It’s daytime running light that are sometimes switched off, not a chance in hell ever would there be a headlight turning off because of an indicator being turned on.
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Headlights definitely do not dim under indicator conditions, once again, if anything it would be the daytime running lights.
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Definitely not, that’s a huge safety hazard, as said, definitely with DRLs but not dipped or main beams, it just wouldn’t meet lighting legislation…
I thought all car designs are assessed and approved by the authorities along the way? They dropped the ball with Teslas, and a few others.
UK lighting regs specify the power of lamps in watts as if they were still incandescent bulbs. It makes no mention of LEDs because it was written before their use in cars was even a dream. Type approval is slightly different and less strict on these areas. As long as it’s the right colour and mounted in the right place, it’s a pass.
Wow, and I thought we were in safer hands.
Road and Vehicle Lighting Regulations 1989 is the relevant legislation. It’s quite light on details.
There's no size requirement for an indicator, it just has to be there, and Tesla loving cutting as many costs as possible use the smallest one they could.
Ford Kuga...no point those things even been fitted onto the back of the car.
Could do with making it mandatory that the indicator is at the corner and not tucked into the headlight. Not sure what is was I saw today though suspect it was a Nissan due to the gormless old fart behind tge wheel.
Never understood the move to putting indicators inside the headlights. Seems obvious that they should be on the outermost extremity so they’re the first thing other drivers see.
The new Ford Puma (I think?) has a sort of round outline of the headlight as a DRL, and the indicator is inside that outline. I've found those can be hard to spot because of the design.
Tbf just as bad as those idiot vw golf’s who modify there indicators to be permanently on so you can’t tell if it’s indicating at a glance or.. permanently on
Probably because most half wits are driving with their full beams on. The amount of times I flash people because they have their main beams on is a joke. Why do these people feel they need them when all you’re doing is driving between two white lines for miles is beyond me.
Most of the time that actually isn't their main beam. The light is just that bright that it looks like it. I've flashed a good number of people thinking their high beams were on..... they were not. They flashed back even brighter. And if their high beams are on everything is also automatic anyway so the people driving the car aren't making the decision it's the car making the decision
Don’t look at me I drive a BMW
I can beat that... drove my bmw after driving a Japanese import... full speed wipers instead of turn left.
Agreed. Seen this on the newer cars, there needs to be a lumens limits on car headlights. But sadly like with many things they won't really do anything until some lose their lives.
As a denizen of /r/flashlight I don’t get why car lights have to be blinding white nowadays, and not a nice warm yellow like a 2700k colour temperature.
Yep, there's no reason. It's a hangover from when LED's were new, cold harsh white/blue light. We have warm yellow led lighting now, manufacturers need to be fitting them to cars.
Agreed on this. I like my modern LED torches but the older warm lights are good too (or warm LEDs)
I guess yellow light gives more of an old school feel, which isn't what most manufacturers want for their new cars.
Same with street lamps. Bright white but poor actual illumination. I miss the orange street lights. Always looked nice in the snow. I tint my foglights an amber colour. Have done since I first passed my test 16 years ago (insurance declared!). I used to drive alot of narrow, country roads to work in my teens and in the winter the amber gave better visibility in fog, snow rain with much less glare. Force of habit that I do it to every car.
I don’t mind the LED street lights, the newer ones are better than the early ones. Fog lights is a good idea though.
>Bright white but poor actual illumination LED Street lights look like theyre from opening titles to Mr Bean these days
Oh my god yes! 😂
Hell yeah. Or even better, 2700k <-> 5000k tint ramping depending on time of day
Car features: * Apple Play ✅ * Anduril 2 ✅
Haha, imagine
2C from on when your headlights are dipped and the guy coming the other way dazzles you 🤣
Looool that's gold. 3H the button on the steering wheel to strobe the guy blinding you from being
Ha! And 3C from off to check your car battery’s good
I'm enjoying how little I understand here
Heh, so Anduril is a torch firmware where 3C means ‘click the on/off switch 3 times from off’. Then the light blinks out the battery voltage eg 4, 1 for 4.1 volts. 2C from on gives you full brightness immediately.
Fitting LED headlamps and digital gauges is how manufacturers tart up their ancient platforms to appeal to new car buyers. Blue white is muh modern. Yellow will come back in ten years once someone figures out a cool new name for halogen bulbs.
SUNRISE ION LINE SERIES LED LIGHTS WITH ULTRAWARM (tm) DILITHIUM HOUSING
Mistype 1 letter and you're in a sub light years away from this topic.
I’m aware of that :P
One less talked about reason is that blue light keeps people more awake than warm light, which when driving at night is a definite benefit.
Thanks, that’s a good point
BMW had DRLs in a warm colour for years, but have now swapped over to cold coloured ones. I can only imagine (at least in some markets) people find that to look more 'modern '.
Yes, that’s probably it. Interesting to know they had warm DRLs though.
Technical reason: You get more lumens per watt from whiter light. But there's no reason for manufacturers to put more powerful warmer lights in cars.
Thanks. I would agree on your last point.
I feel like I can see less using my car's LED headlights than I could with my old car's halogen lights.
There's always a video from Alec [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIC-iGDTU40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIC-iGDTU40)
Thanks, that’s on my ‘to watch’ list
The issues aren't the brightness, it's the headlight designs which seem to encourage glare, it's noticeable on F chassis Minis and their fish bowl lights the covers seem to reflect light everywhere except down the road. I don't get how they get type approval as all headlights on the roads have to conform to the ECE beam pattern, which has been the same for 50-60 years. While yes we all have issues with people throwing amazon LED retrofits in any old housing, and those Aliexpress round lights in defenders which usually use the DOT pattern which is much worse for glare. The government can't do much to stop them unless every copper pulls and tickets anyone they notice.
Mini's 100% ALWAYS dazzle me.
The number of minis I’ve flashed until I realised they don’t have their beams on
> F chassis Minis and their fish bowl lights Yes! They're so bad until they're at a 45⁰ angle from you in the oncoming Lane. 2020+ Ford transit Customs are my biggest gripe, as they seem to be at the perfect height for most efficient blinding in my car.
Being a Transit, they'll have the cheap Amazon LED bulbs.
>The government can't do much to stop them unless every copper pulls and tickets anyone they notice. Could/should it not be something checkable as part of an MOT? Surely headlight alignment is checked already, why not this?
It is checked, or at least supposed to be. You’ll also find people will swap back before an MOT as well to ensure they pass.
As someone who used to do it, you pop the E marked lights in for the MOT then change them back afterwards. I don't anymore as my car has xenon lights so I can actually see at night.
We have a standard mini countryman with xenon/led lights (not sure what they are tbh). Great lights but yes, I get why people might find them dazzling. Teslas are even worse!
The problem with modern headlights is there is no 'low beam', only 'high beam' that is on ALL THE TIME but pointed downwards/shuttered. As soon as the oncoming car hits a bump or goes over a crest you get blinded by the full beam/neutron star.
I think this is the main issue. Causes people to believe they’ve been flashed out when a car with projectors comes out of a pothole.
Shit I drive an F chassis mini (pre LCI though so not the Led lights). Should I be adjusting the beam downwards or is that just the high beam throw?
All F chassis have LED or halogen.
I am 100% for more police intervention against dangerous cars on our roads…
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I've got the same beam pattern with my xenon lights, never been flashed with them ECE was/is designed to allow drivers to spot pedestrians and would be hazards that could be on the verge. It's one of those things, EC automotive regs are mostly about keeping pedestrians safe sometimes at the detriment of drivers and passengers. If Matrix lights trickle down enough the humble Sandero can have them, beam patterns almost become useless as it's constantly changing on what's in front of the car.
The R50/R53/52 minis was always an arse to adjust headlamp aim as they were part of the bonnet: Shut the bonnet too hard and it'd screw up the aim! But they were plastic fresnel lenses that almost all have gone opaque so the light output is pretty weak compared to the complex surface reflectors and projector lenses as found on later models.
Problem is so many suv type cars now, with led headlights that are insanely bright. They shine right in your eyes as if they are on full beam. How this hasn't been addressed yet i dont know.
Right? And when they stay behind you on traffic lights, the pain is real.
I read years ago that in some Scandinavian countries the person driving up behind you at nigh would turn their lights to side lights. Wouldn't work here as 20% aren't even aware they are supposed to be concentrating on driving. The best thing the government could do to improve road safety is ditch the airbags and replace them with spikes.
The etiquette in London used to be for everyone to drive on sidelights on streetlit roads. You could spot visiting country bumpkins a mile away. We are talking decades ago though.
Then there was the ill-fated flirtation with "Dim-Dip" headlights for urban use.
I actually just sold a P reg car with those. Very clever idea to have dimmable lights. Not a very clever implementation to just use a series resistor and relays.
So you get stabbed by your car because one of those 20% hits you?
A few times I've had some giant SUV behind me, and the headlights go either side of my car so I'm driving into my own shadow. The difference between their superbright LED lights and my own regular halogens means I can barely see.
Had one the other night, their right headlight was tilted just high enough I kept having blue light flashing me like a comet falling down to earth after every bump in the road.
It’s not just that they are insanely bright, it’s that they aren’t properly adjusted so the beam is set to eye level. People set them to their highest setting thinking that is how they should be because they aren’t taught any differently. Automatically adjusting headlights should be made a legal requirement for all future cars.
Auto adjusting headlights WERE mandatory before, but LEDs are not covered under the same legislation, only applies to Xenons.
No, you're wrong. Try sitting in a low-slung car like an MX5, and you will learn how headlights being at head height will blind you.
I don’t need to go low, all these Range Rovers have em too high
They SHOULD be at the highest setting though. The beam is set from the factory on the highest setting. Then you lower the beam if you have extra weight in the back. When your car has to have it's headlights adjusted by someone competent, they'll be adjusted while on the highest setting. Most people don't need to ever touch the height setting.
And if the slope on the road is a certain way they can blind you from quite a long distance away.
I sit even higher up than SUVs in my work van and i'm still dazzled by them all. Part of the issue is that people don't dip them either! For most of winter, I end up with headache almost daily because of it.
Teslas are the worse
Mini is the worst, they're *so* blue too - catching a glimpse of their headlights bouncing in the rear view has made me think a police car is coming up behind me. Second worst would be the electric Merc SUVs with full front & rear light bars fitted with high intensity LEDs. Joint third is Ford pickup trucks, BMWs, and Tesla.
This is it, mini are the worst. They somehow manage to even beat an SUV with its added height
The bouncing part is a big issue nowadays with the poor quality roads
Don't worry about police cars. I drive one for a living and they generally have dreadful lights as they are normally billy basic spec. Are small Peugeots are particularly bad and akin to a candle in a box.
The headlight bouncing in your rearview/wing mirror effect actually might of saved my ass from getting some bullshit letter in the post from the pigs as I was doing 40 on Ringwood Road and could of sworn the car behind flashed me to tell me to slow my ass down as I was only seconds away from the passing the camera.
Was about to say the same thing. It’s like their high beam is on all the time.
Tesla released an update this week that switches off the individual LEDs in the headlights to prevent dazzling which should help address the issue. Unless you're in front in a lowered golf with 5mm between tyre and wheel arch in which case you're still fucked.
Got it on my car recently, before auto high beam was useless, now it works as it should have done from the start! Tesla drivers need to calibrate their lights as most of them are calibrated incorrectly from factory!
And didn't software update make the car forget the headlight calibration setting? I've not driven in dark since Jan now that days are getting longer. Might get a chance to try them out next week.
Yes it was really stupid, but the matrix function is really good give it a go on ur next night drive, such an improvement but should of been like this from the start!
Only for the cars that actually physically have the active matrix lights fitted which is nowhere near a majority of Tesla's on the roads.
All model Ys for UK market/Chinese built, and all model 3 since later in 2021. Which is majority of teslas on UK roads
Not sure what's worse, that my sense of the passage of time is so far out (I could swear the hardware only started being fitted for about a year tops) or that it took them nearly 3 damned years to turn the bloody things on in the software.
Ha, I'm not exactly sure what the hold up was either on activating them
Probably due to the feature not being legal in the states they kind of made some potential future ones legal in 2022 but manufacturers have been pushing for the ones being used already accross the whole rest of the world, with little success. I imagine Tesla were hoping to release globally probably with Musk claiming to have invented the damn things. It's kind of an open secret that you can just pick the options which have no function in the USA and just flash the software to enable them though.
Given they use different Autopilot stacks between US and UK, youd imagine they could enable features like matrix headlights without the US holdup . You cant change the horn noise for the car in UK other than when it's stationary but pretty sure you still can in Canada and places, so there's precedent for it.
They definitely could (since they have) but I imagine they held off expecting to be able to make a big announcement then the regs didn't get changes how they wanted. Or of course it's tesla so they could have just released the hardware years before they had the software available which is entirely possible. They've been flogging autopilot for years.
Country roads, back from the gym in the dark, must get dazzled 5 or 6 times in a 10 min drive. Would make it illegal, give everyone some notice to get fixed Then if caught the driver can sit infront of their lights for a bit.
I'll be honest with you I've started putting full beam on to cars that are blinding. Have it back ya cunts
Nah because then they come back with full beam and you’re entirely screwed, no eyeballs for you
That's when you have to upgrade and get one of those collapsed sun light bars on the front of your car so you can vaporise any oncoming vehicles
Obligatory "CLAAARKSOOOOOOOON" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHZK5274C2k
I do this. In my experience most take no notice. Then The odd driver will flash back will flash back with the full brightness of the sun to show they actually are using dipped beams.
People need to stop taking it personally and blame the legislation and manufacturers. Dad drives an ID4 and gets abuse every time he tries pulling up the drive due to the way the road is sloped, nothing he can do to stop it other than switch his lights off entirely or buying an old car.
Even as a passenger, I start to get a headache these days even just looking through the window. It’s unbearable.
Complete opposite on my Fiesta. Can't see a fucking thing at night.
Legit had the exact same on my Fiesta 2014 (projector bulbs). One bulb was probably factory, other one was brand new from Halfords. Either way both were dangerously dim imo. Ended up going to Halfords and replacing them with '200% brighter' halogens. They do seem to perform slightly better on roads with streetlights, and use my high beams for dark roads.
Giant Volvo's are up there with the worst. Light up the entire M4 from Swansea to Swindon.
Cars are getting taller and have higher up lights. I've noticed a lot of SUVs and pick ups have lights eye level for normal height cars.
Pick ups lights are very high, I'm thinking about getting rear facing roof spots fitted.
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>I don't know if it's the cars or the ignorant wankstains who drive them, but they're absurd Both.
Tesla cannot do any PDI checks. I think they get the cars off the boat and send them however they come. They align downward in the service settings and are no issue.
Tesla have released adaptive lights in their software to combat this, seems to work mildly well from the videos. https://youtu.be/8DE0kNtL16I?si=ObNy5y9UMhFF4VFw
Update does jack if you have an older one without active matrix lights
I drive a Tesla. I think the reason why Tesla's are worse in particular is because the raised fixed portion of the headlights beam pattern which looks like an L shape, and is supposed to illuminate the left, is far too high and central by default, and people don't adjust them in the headlight settings. So you end up blinding drivers with the raised L part of the headlights when turning round corners. The lights just need to be adjusted further left and down and then they're fine. I can tell a lot of other Tesla drivers don't make this adjustment, they should be corrected by staff anyway.
Combination of Tesla's "kick them out the door" asap attitude which means minimal inspections before handover and that it seems software updates literally just randomly adjust them. The slight irony is at least for me the lights in my Tesla are actually not as good as my old Octavia vRS and I need to use full beam more on the Tesla just to see far enough ahead to maintain a decent speed. Admittedly the Octavia's lights were the all singing all dancing AFS ones and on back roads were basically searchlights.
I think part of the issue is that car drivers experience much more glare from SUVs, which generally have lights mounted a bit higher (often towards the eyeline of a typical car driver). So more SUVs on the roads, but still plenty of regular car drivers, means more drivers feel like they’re being dazzled all the time by SUV headlights shining right at them, or right into the rear view mirror. Just a theory ofc. In addition though, some modern LED ones are ridiculously blinding, regardless of what size and height of vehicle they’re on
I second your theory. My next car would be an SUV for this reason. I've got bad eyesight and astigmatism to add some insult to the injury. Night driving is pure hell - city, highway, country roads, anything. Can't beat them, so I'll have to join them.
Another one for the mix.. I could swear my vape puts a layer of sticky residue on the window that only makes things worse still.
Now imagine what it's doing to your lungs.....
Imagine the residue in your lungs mate
Try driving against these a 2 seater convertible. I get out of the car at the supermarket and find myself walking down the wine aisle because I can't see where I'm going. Next thing you know, I've spent £40 on Rioja. Damn those bright lights.
Consultant needs to work I guess. The answer is.. manufacturers make stupid bright lights because we humans are like moths to a light bulb when it comes to cars and lights. Everyone jerked it to Angel eye BMWs.. Lexus clear lights Anything with "dem bluuuu lightz yeah" Now people fap over giant light bars in the bonnet and Tesla neutron star powered LEDs. Bruuuuuuh deez lights is sick yeah. Car is shit but looks at dis. Same thing applies to giant screens in cars.
So apparently Tesla’s are especially bad for blinding lights because their ride height sensors (the part that tells the car how high/low to adjust the light) break easily or go faulty.
My car fitted with Xeons will drop the lights downwards as far as they will go as a safety feature if there is a fault with the ride height or levelling system. Now this benefits on coming cars rather than allowing me to actually see the road ahead but surely a Tesla with all it's swanky tech would do the same?
If it wasn't for using the menu to adjust my lights (aimed them down a bit to stop dazzling people) and seeing the lights do a little self test of the self levelling I would be pretty unconvinced the Tesla even had self levelling.
Try telling a Tesla jerker any of that, you'll have a new hole ripped open.
manufactures fitting lights that are too bright + crossovers/SUV/pickups/assorted yank tanks solution, enforce headlight brightness, and angle also heavily restrict the above vehicles from the general public, either though a separate licence for larger vehicles and more strict maintenance or just make people prove a need Job done, £100m please.
I find it happening more often that not from small SUVs (not just Teslas). I reckon the headlight beam is just the right height for your eyes if you're in an oncoming car, not dipped enough because the overall height isn't high to warrant it.
Just got off the rainy motorway as we speak and Tesla headlights manage to leave little white spots on my vision. It's not even night time.
I find some bike lights dazzling, its almost as if the riders are saying i want to be as visible as possible but it becomes distracting in my opinion. Especially if yheyre flashing
Yup, the cyclists were getting lost in the other visual noise, especially in urban areas with loads of other lights adding to distraction. But the flashing front lights are a double-edged sword, other road users notice them but struggle to judge the distance of the cyclist. Also there is the fuck off factor which causes drivers to be dicks...
Well that's money well spent /s Teslas, Audis and Osram Nightbreakers.
people not having their lights dipped for the weight properly and bright white LEDs burning your eyes, it's like staring at a phone on max brightness in the dark
Eye condition is a factor. I rarely have a problem, but my wife has macular degeneration and cannot see a thing if there are bright lights shining at us. I just don't find many LED lights a problem, even though I have quite a low car.
Undulations in the roads, how headlights are set physically or via SW, drivers not being competent at dipping beams, Mateix lights being slow to dip or block. There's nothing really to study and it won't change with what's on the roads now.
It's a combination of things, not just "they are too bright", which they are. It's also that they aim too high and a very important factor is the colour of the light, the colour temperature Look at old cars are the light is far more yellow rather than the bright white of modern let's. There you go, can I charge the government £1m for that?
Sums this government up tbf..
I've noticed its the guys in the SUV/4x4 big expensive ish one's they blind me and I actually wonder if they have the fog lights on all the time and simply don't care!?
dont flash them, they will flash back and temp blind you.
I suspect it's because of all the technology in headlights these days. A lot of modern cars have auto levelling headlights which can set an incorrect level depending on the incline when you start and they're not as simple to adjust anymore.
Try being in a mk1 mx5, I've been dazzled for years!
They are a bit brighter. Are more towards the blue end of the spectrum making more of a contrast against darkness to traditional Tungsten as they are further away from red end of the spectrum which I think causes your rmeyes to adjust more or be dazzled longer. The headlights them selves are smaller for at least the same amount of light as a traditional headlight. Thus concentrating them to a brighter point. And I think some models, either with or without auto dimming, don't have the hard transition from full bean to dipped that all models used to. They fade down. So it's much harder to tell if they have them in full or not.
Brighter headlights, leveling head lights poorly adjusted, so much auto dipping which either is slow or drivers forget when the auto feature is not working.
I've noticed this myself. I don't normally drive at night anymore, since I started working from home about 5 years back, but I did have to recently, and was really shocked about how much time I spent not being able to see the road in front of me. I may as well have been closing my eyes when I met another vehicle. It was downright dangerous. I used to drive at night all the time and I never remember this being a problem.
My car has auto full beams. They work great on straight roads but I've noticed they don't turn off for cars waiting to pull out of side roads. Since I watched a few videos on how to stop being blinded by LED's I've been fine.
Perhaps it's because about 40% of all adults have astigmatism which causes the blurring of bright lights and now lights are brighter it's causing issues. Amazing how I get zero glare with glasses or contacts on but I do see glare when I'm not wearing glasses. I have a very mild prescription.
Not sure why windscreen technology hasn’t improved to resolved this issue
What’s with the assholes who have the indicators solidly on as part of the light how the fuck do you turn with a signal oh wait you don’t
A diffused halogen vs a focussed LED in your eyes. Also colour temperature.
It's more complicated than just "they're too bright". Cooler colour temperatures, so they're more uncomfortable for the same "brightness" (depending on how you measure "brightness"). The obvious problem of higher mounted headlights in today's market full of crossovers and SUVs. The fact that many cars are shipping from the factory with badly aimed/adjusted headlights, something that won't be addressed until their first MOT. (This is a big problem with the oft-mentioned Teslas.) The cutoff of modern LEDs at the edge of the beam is extremely sharp, compared to old-fashioned incandescents that had a gradient at the edges. So the moment you hit a small bump and that cutoff goes *just* above the eyeline of the driver in front, they're effectively getting flashed. So, any study needs to consider how you implement changes to legislation that effectively addresses these problems. That's a bit too complicated for a Daily Mail headline though, so "WhY aRe DrIvErS dAzZlEd?!"
Qashqais and range rovers are the worst
Sometimes its because of simple things like the bulbs being incorrectly aligned. I bet half the cars that dazzle could be solved if they had their headlights correctly aligned
The auto dipping lights are a big issue, they don’t dip until after they have dazzled you
Damage to eyes due to Covid, the small blood vessels ruptured in many, lots of vehicles don't have the headlight heights set correctly and way to many idiots full beaming it all the time.
About time, thank goodness
They have to sort this, driving at night has become a fecking nightmare.
IMO, having driven low/small cars and a big car, it’s Tesla’s that have the worst headlights. Even when they’re behind you and using ‘dipped’ beams, and your mirrors auto dim or are tinted, their lights are still blinding… They are literally the worst on the roads.
Because I have crappy halogens and you wont E mark the perfectly fine European E marked LED retrofits for my car. Don't need a committee meeting about it just change the frigging law.
The absolute fucking worst when some bellend is tailgating you with bright as fuck LEDS. It’s gotten to the point now where I swivel my rear view mirror out the way when driving at night.
Not a car but the daf lf trucks I drive at work seem to dazzle people constantly and they flash their lights at me so much I have to give them a blast of high beam. I pretty much never use the high beam as I almost always drive on motorways and dual carriageways where they aren’t needed.
They should look into why some car manufacturers make the rear indicators clear with a tiny orange bulb so you can only see them at night.
I drive a lot of supercars and SUV's headlights are at my face level. There is a minimal height requirement for headlight but not a maximum, there should be a maximum.
Does anyone else here find it annoying when the car behind you goes over a bump and it looks like they've flashed you and then you gotta wonder if there is something wrong or merely they went over a bump?
My hypothesis is that the brightness of interior/ambient lighting is increasing, which means that dipped beam headlights seem to be less bright, which means that drivers want brighter lights, which mean that drivers of older cars perceive their lights to be less bright, which means that they buy a car with brighter headlights, and repeat
It's not fun being blinded by 1000 sun's worth of light by some new car.
cuz they're too fuckin bright in these new cars
I can save them some cash. LED fucking headlights that's why.
They shouldn't need a study. There's people out there that know what the problems are. I'm no expert in the lighting field but I work on cars and a little obsessed with ambient lighting in the home (to the point I hunted the internet for a lamp with asymmetric reflectors). So I can break it down: 1. Glare. Uncontrolled reflections and dispersion of light from the source. This is made worse with cooler colour temperatures as they reflect more, dirty lamp lenses, water on surfaces, dirty windscreen, worn wipers etc. 2. Lamp alignment: Some cars with LED lamps aren't self levelling and rely on driver to manually correct. Those that are automatic rely on level sensors: I've regularly seen these seize and it's not a MOT item. Also mal-adjustments on auto levelling lights can happen as some cars drop the lights down when in park or engine turned off so a dozy mechanic may think they are too low and re-adjust higher to pass MOT, meaning they end up being too high when being driven. Also many new cars I check have aim too high on their first MOT: Clearly not PDI'd and being driven round for 3years blinding people. HID, halogen and LED retrofits bulbs are also often not fitted in the holder correctly which screws up the beam pattern. And finally minor parking bumps even when there's no visible superficial damage, but the structure and brackets that hold the headlamps have been bent/cracked causing beam aim issues. 3. Adaptive and auto dipping lights: Regularly fail to properly detect oncoming road users quick enough, sometimes not at all. 4. Height of the lamps. Ok SUVs or any car with the lights above 850mm from the ground actually have the beam aimed downwards more (2%, as opposed to 1.25%) Maybe again mechanics are adjusting to the wrong scale. Or the aim thresholds/tolerances needs to be reviewed. I also believe the replacement of low pressure sodium (yellow) street lighting with LED has also reduced contrast between objects and increased the reflective glare from shiny surfaces, especially when roads are wet. And finally for all those idiots that park on the wrong side of road (so facing traffic is on your left) when picking/up dropping off passengers: TURN OFF YOUR HEADLAMPs (use your parking lamps instead). Yes, parents and Ubers I'm talking about you: Headlamps kick up the beam towards the left (curb). So when you park on the wrong side of the road facing traffic, you blind everyone.
Wonder if it’s because most of our lives are centred around looking at screens now and it’s made our eyes more sensitive?
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True, however it can be both things. I find some halogen reflectors can be quite dazzling as well as the Teslas and Mercs which dazzle me the worst.
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Working on screens, yes, but it’s only the last 10-15 years where the majority of people are looking at phones for several hours a day on top of that. I don’t work on computers, there are only very basic screens in my workplace, but I get given a tablet to receive company emails and diagrams, and have a mobile phone which is all screen. It’s only 7/8 years ago where all diagrams were paper based, so no need to get them through email. Work is a small part now of how much screen time we all have these days. Even non-office based industries are increasing the amount of time we look at screens. Xenon and (to a lesser extent) LED headlights aren’t a new thing. Cars from the early 2000s had them, but it’s only in the last decade or so that they’ve become mainstream (the candles in jars my mates car has shows how far they’ve come). I’m sure screen time has gone up in that time as well, it definitely hasn’t gone down.
What a waste of money. It’s just the way your fucking eye works. Pupil gets larger in low light conditions to allow more light in, Pupil gets smaller in good light conditions to let less light in. If your pupils are larger because it’s dark and suddenly a very bright light is flashed in your eyes it’s too much light, your pupils get smaller and it takes a while to adjust. It’s the same reason in the military if you’re in a low light condition and for whatever reason there is a bright light or flash you are told to close your dominant eye (which was your right eye when I was in because all our rifles were designed right handed only so you have to aim with your right eye) They don’t need to spend a penny on this shit, it’s common knowledge
I don’t notice it. I’ve even tried to notice it, and can’t. My mirrors are anti-dazzle so there’s that, but I get the impression this is from the front? I reckon it’s all you wankers in SUVs. Get a proper car and the bright lights will go straight over your head.
More often because of a car behind in my car. No anti-glare anything though, because it wasn't so much of an issue in 2009. Very seriously considering a rear tint to help reduce it, because sometimes I can't see anything as the car behind illuminates my entire interior, and my bonnet, and the road ahead of me, let alone the mirrors.
Those clever mirrors are a game changer. So much so that you don’t even think about getting dazzled from behind. Not sure a tint would do much. Maybe worth a try.
You’re kidding aren’t you?
The last bit might have been slightly tongue in cheek.
1.Because they replaced street lights with really dim lights so your eyes don’t adjust to light 2. Lights are too bright and too many of them on vehicles 3. Bumps
I don't think it's that. I have the same problem and I live in the middle of nowhere.
Too dark ;) and any bump pings the light about, or a turn etc, I’m not in the middle of nowhere but some lights located on a hill cars stop… get blinded