Back when I still used Nextdoor, I once posted a picture of the regular (green) headlight dash icon and the blue high beam icon, and spelled out what they’re used for and that people should know the difference. I got flooded with hearts or whatever the Nextdoor equivalent of upvotes is, I’m sure all from people who already knew and were also frustrated. There are definitely some people who are either ignorant or oblivious; I wonder if any of them saw my post and learned something? Can’t say the problem got any better.

Auto headlights fixes that exact problem if it's implemented well. My car turns the brights on and off by itself and it does a damn good job.

I've often thought that we could polarise the headlight glass one way, and then windscreen glass the other. The glare off the road would still hit you but the lights themselves would be much darker, but still enough for you to see they're there. The day-runners in the corners could still be unpolarised so you'd still see the vehicle. It'd be a bit more expensive and require collaboration between the manufacturers which are probably two large reasons why it would never happen.

I'm sure solving this problem isn't beyond the wit of humanity, but is beyond the expense threshold that the oligarchs will tolerate from their dividends.

My 2024 Santa Fe is also up there on annoyingly bright headlights list. So many people flashing their brights at me before I'm forced to unleash Ark of the Covenant by flashing my actual brights back. Even the emergency flashers are so darn bright I feel like I can't use them at night when I'm unloading groceries because it fully illuminates the entire apartment building in front of me a block away. This can't be a necessary amount of lumens.

Trucks need to have semi levels of regulations for headlights

I see plenty of trucks with headlights well above semi trucks, and I've yet to be blinded by any semi headlights, even the stupid white blue colored ones due to their regulations of height and angle actually being enforced

Mirror doesn't work, hang emergency visibility jacket over your seats. Sometimes those do when they reflect back and catch their eye, and they won't net you a ticket

In older cars, where you could manually flip the rear view mirror to dim it, my dad would flip it back and forth trying to flash the person behind him so they’d get the hint about their high beams. Not sure it ever worked…

That's probably legal, I say go for it. Get the largest retroreflector you can find. I think they make reflective tape that should do the trick.

I blame the Internet tbh. Vast amounts of information at your finger tips with no real curve to learn any of it, skipping official books and documents on the subject and the learnings of the past.

Quick answers no friction and no learning

You'd think they'd have lights that can self adjust their direction based on the vehicle's angle and if it is turning. I'd love to have headlights that show me where I'm turning for things like pedestrians crossing in unlit areas. They had these on the 1948 Tucker.

Yea because cars back in the 30 drove at 120kph on the regular at night. Have you heard of driving gaster than what your head lights allow you to see and stop in time?

yep. there's a route I drive regularly that has hills and turns. it's so fucking dangerous at night because of these assholes with blinding headlights.

For real. Those light bars are for when you are out back in Bumfuck, Mississippi. Not the damn interstate.

In Colorado at least, you'd get a ticket for not having physical light covers installed on any lights other than your standard headlights and (possibly, I can't remember the details) fog lights. light bars and anything else had to be covered if you were on a public road. I know of at least one case of a person actually receiving a ticket for it. that should be a law everywhere.

It’s an arms race. People are blinded by the glare of oncoming headlights in their old cars, so search for a way to safely drive their next car.

I was tempted for my older car because it was getting really difficult to drive at night with how dim those headlights were, relative to oncoming glare. I see replacement LED bulbs “for off-road use only” advertised as much brighter. Turns out replacing the bulbs (with new correct ones) and cleaning the windshield made some difference. Enough

I'm probably in a significant minority, but if I was buying a new car (lol why would I do that), I would specifically avoid anything which has blinding headlights.

It's a checkbox to put on the brochure for idiots who can't make a decision. Also big bonus for the ad-exec when they don't make any changes to the vehicle but still need something "new." Idiotic arms-race for sure. Same thing with how cars are so big now, no one wants to be the "small guy" at the car measuring contest. Because humans are stupid and easily manipulated.

I have an EV that predates the external white noise requirement, it's weirdly quiet if the AC is off.

I love how quiet it is. But I wish it didn't startle cyclists.

Edit: someone at work gave me a deck of cards and a clothespin and said it was a "loud exhaust" for my car. 😆

wild that there are two people who downvoted this, as if they have the right to pollute our neighborhoods with their exhaust and noise. what a bunch of entitled pricks

I was so ready to post a "bright headlights solution is coming" // "look inside" // "it's just fucking adaptive headlights again" meme until that paragraph

this actually offers some hope

I respect the effort someone put into making that acronym. That must be a fun job.

This is completely wrong. Higher mounting means they can be pointed more down, which gives a bigger buffer to them blinding people when the back of vehicle squats. Bus and truck headlights arent an issue because their suspension doesn't squat under normal loads.

Vehicle manufacturers in the US have to meet the new headlight requirements. Which require headlights to be bright as fuck and basically parallel to the ground. Then rear suspension is left soft to improve ride quality in all suvs. Put some weight in it and the front of the vehicle points up. Pickups are usually bad because the suspension is modified or it's overloaded.

A quarter of drivers i swear leave their highbeams on. I have stopped caring and just installed blind people highbeams. 10x brighter than a high output halogen usually gets them to turn off their highbeams.

Those headlights are just improperly adjusted. Normal headlights point down, especislly on the driver side. Brights are often bright because they point forward.

Now, if you replace your headlight, for example, or decide to lift your truck, and don't adjust your headlights...well now you've just got your brights on all day long.

Given that many things, including reflectors, reflect light directly back, yes it is beneficial to have the headlights close to the drivers sightline

I think they have to be kind of close to the drivers eye level for other vehicles reflektors to work.

Manufacturers supercede parts in the middle of a model's lifecycle all the time, sometimes doesn't even coincide with a facelift

Could be that they replaced the parts with a newer design already

We did not have this problem 20ish years ago, aligned headlights can be bright and not aimed at your eyes. I'd be nice to have this also but could we just get some enforcement on the alignment.

How would super bright headlights fix the problem of super bright headlights?

no they don't and stop with that fucking bullshit propaganda

Yeah but those lights blind the hell out of me when rangers are following me. The lights are a good 2-3 feet higher than they used to be which means they are about level with my mirrors.

cool, but not effective enough at addressing the problem and useless when pointed at anything other than a vehicle

Needless tech to break.