I know I’m not the only one who feels like I’m getting visually assaulted everytime I drive at night. It was bad 10 years ago but now, it seems like headlight manufacturers have a deal with insurance companies and optometrists to make the lights as bright as possible. Is this ever going to stop or is there some kind of race in the headlight industry to see who can reproduce the power of the sun first?
I must be taking crazy pills…the title and comment is all about how we just accept this and how manufacturers are racing to make lights as bright as the sun. No where in the comment of this post does it say misaligned.
I’ve read other articles about it the consensus is that the lights are not actually brighter:
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2024/oct/31/headlights-too-bright
“”"Although headlights feel significantly brighter than they used to, Brannon notes that the maximum standards for light output set by the US transportation department’s NHTSA haven’t changed in decades.
Part of the issue, he says, is that the temperature of the light in headlight bulbs has changed.
Experts point out that more drivers are buying bigger cars. Because these cars are taller, their headlights are more likely to shine in the eyes of drivers of smaller cars.
Additionally, many vehicles on the road have misaligned headlights. Over time, the regular wear and tear of driving can jostle headlights out of alignment, meaning the brightest part of the light ends up illuminating areas it’s not supposed to – say, right into an oncoming driver’s eyes.“”"
And this is also my experience. I see a lot of cars with LED lights but few cars in on the roads blind me and when they do they are clearly shining right in my eyes. In Europe huge cars are still not that popular so I’m guessing it’s mostly misalignment, people driving with long beams on or some custom lights that are way brighter than the norm. I have no idea if most people don’t know that they are blinding others or if they don’t care.
Some people are are more sensitive to sharper LED lights and they have bigger problems when driving at night now. In that case properly aligned LED lights are better (and safer) for some, and worst for others.
It seems most people who have issues with the new lights already have vision issues to begin with and would have the same issue with the gold/yellow halogen lights anyways but probably don’t remember. As I can damn near look at the new LEDs and do not get blinded at all by them but the old lights if the vehicle forgot to turn off their brights.