Lifted trucks with idiot owners have entered the chat.
I had a dickweed in a lifted truck pass me last night. That fucker had like 12 lights on the front. They lit up the area like daylight. Why cant the NTSB make a change for what is legal so we can get these dicks off the road.
The NTSB is not a legislative government body, they are an investigative government body, they can only make recommendations for other government bodies to act on
I think the agency would be the NHTSA, but I don’t know much teeth they have in making or enforcing regulations.
Those are illegal for road use where I live, but it doesn’t stop people.
It’s not illegal if it’s not enforced.
It is enforced. I have no doubt that I would get pulled over if I tried it, but it doesn’t stop everyone.
Me: Surely they left their brights on accidentally flashes my brights to alert them
Them: turns on actual brights blinding me for the next 30 seconds
I did this one time on a dark rural road, and not only did they blast my retinas with the equivalent of ten thousand supernova when they turned on their brights, but they also turned on their flashing blue-and-red lights on top of their car for a second.
oops
Dude, police flashers are criminally bright now. I had a cop blow past me a couple weeks ago with his flashers on, and he lit up the road for a 1/4 mile in all directions.
Cop pulled the guy right behind me over 2 weeks ago. It was cloudy and had rained like an hour before so there was a little water on the ground, early morning (730ish)
It blinded me a little off of the reflections in the water. Why are they that bright
Because they only care about protecting cop lives. If it reduces the chance of them being hit by a car 1%, but increases the chance of a blinded driver causing an accident that hurts someone else by 50%, that’s a tradeoff they’re willing to make.
Okay but I literally can’t see, they’ve significantly increased the chances of me plowing into them.
Reminds me of the “No full auto in buildings” clip.
Just sent me down a rabbit hole of his videos… That would be a ton of fun to play again.
Idiots that don’t change the headlight aim after installing LED lights.
Fun fact! The NHTSA requires any aftermarket replacement LED bulb be approved by them, and have noted in this letter that not a single aftermarket replacement bulb has received such approval.
As of writing this comment, LED retrofit headlights are illegal. It’s just that this rule hasn’t been enforced in a very long time (if ever)
Can confirm. I had after market xenon’s in my old car. I took great pains to make sure I had the correct housings and everything was aimed. To my surprise, they never checked
Edit: I used factory parts from the xenon option that came from the OEM. You can stop rage down voting. Not every xenon upgrade is eBay blue.
To be fair they do seem to have approved LEDs on big trucks which are the eye fuckingest type of headlight arrangement
They’re talking about after market upgrades, not factory installs.
Loads of newer vehicles have auto adjusting headlights. There needs to be s lumen cap, anything over should be illegal.
The vast majority of what blinds me on my drives are completely factory headlights. There are still those with aftermarket bulbs, but I get blinded by stock Dodge Rams and Toyota Highlanders all the time.
It isn’t just the aim. The ice cold color temperature hurts.
I live in the SF Bay Area and about 20% of cars are driven with their high beams on all the time. The drivers just click that stalk and leave it there no matter what. It’s an epidemic.
They think the blue indicator means their headlights are on.
Technically not wrong.
I thought this was just a Portland thing… “surely everyone can’t be that stupid”
My latest pair of glasses have a yellow tint for this very reason
I see this more in cities. I feel like people who drive in constantly lit streets, don’t understand when to use highbeams, because they never have to.
Are the glasses actually effective? Seems like the effect is controversial and perhaps detrimental.
https://www.healthline.com/health/night-driving-glasses#do-they-work
They technically work for me. They make bright lights darker… Because they make everything darker. I can’t see anywhere near as good normally while wearing them.
Conversely… people can’t see as well wearing these glasses or having treated windows so their headlights get brighter… this is kind of bananas
That’s interesting. Mine don’t darken at all, if very little. Instead they appear to shift the light, making a white-blue turn green, and turning yellow into orange - almost red. Doesn’t help much with glare or light intensity, but the colour change means that those LEDs don’t burn into my eyes causing me to see a black spot for a few minutes.
I’ve heard to keep away from normal " yellow tinted night driving sunglasses" or fishing/daytime polarized glasses, but I don’t know the exact science.
I did it mainly for looks. It’s a vanity tint more than anything. The white/blue LED lights are a tinge more yellow and seem less painful, but it’s still ridiculous that it’s even a consideration
Seeing this all the time in Chicago too. It’s really frustrating. Coupled with the same vehicle height and regular light brightness inflation that’s been occurring it’s really bad.
Same in Miami. It’s infuriating
It’s gotta be some kind of meme, where friends tell friends to do the thing, and they pass it on, because it’s gotten worse and worse over time.
How do you know they’re not really bright stock/aftermarket lights?
Far fewer than 1/5 vehicles in SF/SJ have their high beams on IMO.
I mean, 1 in 5 is a lot, just to be perfectly clear, so anything even approaching that is a pretty bad. When I was growing up, the number of cars inappropriately using high beams in city traffic was basically zero, so this is a massive regression.
You can tell that a car is using high beams because their light fixture appears fully and evenly lit from eye level. Low-beam headlights look “half full” from an opposing driver’s view. You can also tell because many lower-end cars have a separate housing just for the high beam that only light up when the high beam is on.
Seems to be happening all over past few years. I have my psychological theories as to why, but I’ll save those for later.
The issue is vehicle height has gotten obscene. A lifted truck with halogens still blinds me in my sedan
The headlights for most new SUVs and trucks are at the same level as the rear-view mirror in my normal-sized car. The hood is higher than my roof. It’s ridiculous
They’re supposed to adjust their lights and point them down, but I guess most people don’t.
OEM and correctly angled lights will still blind you from pretty far away due to the angle of attack on the beam.
Think of the lights like a triangle, inside that triangle you will be blind, and to get the same length of visibility with a taller vehicle, you will grow the triangle.
Where as my sedan is low to the ground. I could improperly aim my lights and have them firing out at 90° and still most people’s eyes wouldn’t be low enough to be in the triangle.
I replaced my work truck headlights with LEDs and parked out in front of several lines of fencing to angle them downward.
I ended up having to get a different headlight geometry because the reflectors weren’t designed for LEDs and there was too much spillage.
When I ask people how hard it was to get to the angle adjustment screws and usually get weird looks.
Honestly I don’t even know if modern cars HAVE adjustable angle headlights. Every old car I’ve owned has though. Not a huge amount of play but enough to angle up or down by about 10-15 degrees if needed.
My wife’s car is a 94 and low to the ground, even with brights on I don’t have a problem when she drives by me. 10/10 headlights on that thing.
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Auto adjusting headlights aren’t common in the US. Our automotive lighting laws are extremely outdated
Yeah on my old car it was very easy to aim. My new one has everything hidden behind panels that need to be removed
My buddy had a Malibu where you had to remove the front of the car to get to the headlights. It’s ridiculous.
That is obscene. Why on earth would they design it that way
To make you take it to the dealer for all repairs
It doesn’t seem to be limited to tall cars for me. I’m constantly blinded by little sedans and I drive a mid-sized pickup truck. I think they’re luxury cars with the power of 10,000 suns captured inside their headlights. Also, I drive a mid-sized pickup truck with aftermarket LED bulbs, but I don’t blind passenger cars. I had my wife pass me on the road in her sedan after I adjusted them to be sure I wasn’t being an asshole.
They probably have their brights on and just don’t care. I’m seeing a lot of that from luxury car drivers. They’ve basically entered an arms race where tall cars blind them, so they leave their brights on. An easy way to tell is too look for their cutoff line. If you don’t see a cutoff on the road then they’re an ass with their brights on
Another issue is the “auto brights” that never seem to work as advertised.
The auto brights in my wife’s Honda work pretty great! But we’ve rented a couple cars that shut off way too late. I guess it depends on the manufacturer and model.
Agreed. My friend’s Lexus is too eager to shut off the brights and turns off from a street light a mile away. The American brands seem to lag
They work great in my Hyundai too.
Only problem is I have to turn on the brights to cancel the auto brights.
That’s not a great design decision.
I’m in an element, so I’m pretty high up and I get blinded. When I drive my wife’s Mazda 3 it’s fucking horrible
Dude, I drive tractor-trailer and still get blinded frequently, with my eyeballs like eight or nine fucking feet off the ground. It’s ridiculous. New Subarus are the worst offenders right now, their low beams are literally aimed up on like a 15 degree angle
I feel like in that case they just have their brights on because Subaru drivers
Even an element has the driver’s eyes below the hood of a lot of these new SUVs. I agree, shit sucks. There needs to be regulations around vehicle heights and weights. I don’t get why I need a special license to drive a work van that weighs less than these things
Light trucks exist in kind of a legal loophole in the US
These vehicles have been pushed hard because they’re not held to the same standard as cars and are more profitable as a result
I’m pretty sure that even tho cars have gotten more efficient that average fuel economy has gone down because of the proliferation of these massive vehicles sold to Americans a daily drivers
A “trick” I learned was to look down and to the right side of the road at the lines so you can still see where you are going but don’t have to go blind.
Another “trick” I learned is that headlights don’t work after you smash them with a sledgehammer.
Whichever trick you want, they should both work.
Both were rendered obsolete with led headlights. And cars behind blinding the driver way too much.
Good thing though is they see my finger preeetty clear without opening the window.
It got very dangerous to drive at certain roads. I know plenty of people how stopped driving after sundown. Even if it is good for the environment; When they need to take at trip at such times, they shall not be in danger. Also LEDs are light pollution. And it madr some people feel superior ehich harmed driving culture. Humans are ignorant fucks.
Also: trucks with the LEDs being higher than real cars, behind you.
I’ve driven sedans/compact cars my entire life. I’m seriously getting a suv or crossover just because of all the damn lifted LEDs blinding me.
I really wish there was regulations on the lumens output on these freaking newer headlights. Used to be halogens on luxury cars but not its literally every car has bright ass LEDs.
Another problem is the precision they can make them now. They used to have to make them lower since they can’t be sure it’s within spec.
THEY see so YOU don’t have to!
We die in the dark so they can live in the light
I wish my windshield can turn into a oneway mirror. Let’s see how YOU like it!
Just install lasers, you can blind them, with SCIENCE!
Just turn on your brights?
Then they’ll flash theirs and completely blind you.
I want them to be blinded by their own fancy lights.
So many people in my area have absurd headlight brightness, lots of trucks with extra lights on top too. It’s ridiculous. Fuckers could blind the sun.
Almost every Tesla I pass at night has the headlights set to “sunburn.” I dunno if it’s the nature of the hardware, some kind of over-zealous automatic adjustment, or if Tesla drivers are just like that.
The Tesla cruise control feature turns the ‘auto’ high beams on every time you activate it and the feature is really poorly implemented. The camera it uses to detect other cars will loses sight of you when you get close and it’ll flip the highbeams on in your face.
Such a smart car that it automates being an asshole.
“First, do no harm.”
– No tech company ever
Teslas have a thing that automatically turns off the high beams when it sees another car driving towards it. Does it work all the time? Idk.
It does have that feature, but it’s worse than just leaving the high beams on. It uses the cameras to try to detect cars. It detects cars way later than my old Mazda used to and then right as the car gets close to passing you, the camera loses sight of it and flips the high beams back on. Looks like you are trying to intentionally blind people.
They also have a ‘feature’ where they automatically brake check the car behind you if you’re using cruise control on a bendy road. The computer interprets oncoming traffic as an imminent collision and slams the brakes.
This kind of system should be illegal.
That sounds like a great idea and I’ve experienced it zero times out of many :(
When did Limmy & Jon Hamm have a kid?
I had super brights on my last car. Many people giving me the flash at night. I spent 5 minutes to screw the angle adjuster down a couple inches. No more flash backs and I could see just fine.
This is one of the main problems with them. People install the new headlights themselves, or get it done at a cheap place where the mechanic doesn’t care, and nobody actually adjusts the angle of the lights like they are supposed to do.
Almost all new headlights come with instructions on how to calibrate and align them by using a wall in front of your vehicle. These instructions aren’t always easy to find if you aren’t aware of them, to be fair.
True.
However, some lights will still be at the “appropriate” height for state car inspection stickers. (U.S. obviously, eg: MA).
I dropped mine about 3 inches below the inspection height. I still passed at least twice.
I have to wear blue-blocking glasses when I drive at night for this very reason
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