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[–] 8 points 2 months ago (9 children)

I thought headlights in the US are strictly regulated with archaic standards. European headlights had a more sophisticated auto dimming and direction control, from what i remember.

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  • [–] 29 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Some things may be regulated, but others are a free for all where the manufacturer can do whatever sells their car. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many complaints these days of being blinded by the NOT high beams. And light bars should be illegal on a road, period.

    I don't know about inspections in other states, but in mine (that is reducing what they check starting next year for some reason) they make sure your headlights and brights come on. They don't do any check for aim or lumen output or anything else.

    If you've never seen them, Technology Connections on Youtube has had a few videos ranting about how bad the headlight situation is in the US.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago

    Auto dimming headlights are great in principle but in my experience a pain in the ass! They don't dim early enough, especially when cars are rounding corners so you actually dazzle a lot more people. Then if you try to dip them early but the auto-dip gets there first you end up flashing the car ahead.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    Europeans also don't tend to have the headlights 1.50m or more above ground level, because anyone who isn't 'Murican still builds comparably normal cars and no useless "Trucks". Even though they also get worse and worse (fuck SUVs).

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  • [–] 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    It's getting worse in Europe too.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah, and the worst thing is that environmental policies might be to blame (to my knowledge).

    Larger vehicles have less strict emission rules. And because "the market" also wants cheap stuff and just making the car bigger is easier than reinventing the engine… a cynic might call this shift malicious compliance by the manufacturers.

    We can only hope this trend is reversable once EVs become dominant, those benefit from less size and weight.

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