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Transportation

US Experts Say Headlights Aren't Bright Enough (theguardian.com) 76

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Complaints about the brightness of modern headlights have become commonplace. On X, thousands of users have tweeted about headlights being too bright. The subreddit r/fuckyourheadlights has over 35,000 members who post blurry photos of offending high beams and LED headlights. Outlets like the New York Times and NBC News have written about the risks of headlight glare. Advocacy groups have called for bans on LED headlights. And the UK government launched a review into the dangers of headlight glare earlier this year, after many driver complaints. And yet, according to many experts, the problem with headlights is not that they're too bright -- it's that they're not bright enough. "We actually need more light on the road than what we have," says Greg Bannon, director of automotive engineering at the American Automobile Association (AAA). Only a minority of US roadways have overhead street lighting, as one 2019 AAA report noted. As a result, in many areas, headlights are the sole method of illumination when driving at night. But which is the safety bigger risk: inadequate illumination, or headlights that impair the vision of other drivers? The report notes that the U.S. standards set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) haven't changed in decades and are much weaker than Europe's. Adaptive headlights, which automatically adjust brightness to avoid blinding other drivers, have been approved by NHTSA since 2022 but are still relatively rare due to differing standards and costs.

US Experts Say Headlights Aren't Bright Enough

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  • Just yesterday I read a news article about removing tall overhead lights next to roads because they just cause light pollution and are not needed with modern headlights. Shrug.

    • by Junta ( 36770 )

      Problem of course being is that the car headlights direction of illumination is pointed straight at various eyes at ground level (oncoming traffic, into the mirrors of cars in front of them, at pedestrians and wildlife) and the street lamps are nicely pointed down so that unless you are looking straight up, you are unlikely to be bothered by them.

      It's crazy to remove overhead lights when they are cheaper to power and more durable than ever compared to the past.

      There's been people talking about giving headli

      • by smap77 ( 1022907 )

        It's crazy not to remove overhead lights. The brighter they are the more they glare and the more the human eye can't see into the relatively darker shadows.

        Headlights at least give two or four centers of illumination. LED Streetlights seems to have 50 individual dots, and in conditions where they are supposed to be the most helpful--dark night in the rain--they actually make driving conditions worse.

  • by DarkOx ( 621550 ) on Friday November 01, 2024 @09:09AM (#64911597) Journal

    We could also just slow down at night. Having 'night-time' speed limits on roads that don't have overhead lights would make all kinds of sense, and would not require even more expensive tech in new cars, and would mean people would not need to have black out curtains on their houses just so it does not feel like they are at a rave all night due to passing traffic.

    • We could also just slow down at night. Having 'night-time' speed limits on roads that don't have overhead lights would make all kinds of sense, and would not require even more expensive tech in new cars, and would mean people would not need to have black out curtains on their houses just so it does not feel like they are at a rave all night due to passing traffic.

      I remember reading about a the 55mph US national speed limit years ago, and it was pointed out that this particular speed limit wasted 250 person-years for every life it saved.

      Clearly there's a trade-off here, we don't want everyone going 5mph to reduce fatalities to zero, but we should also optimize for best results.

      Driving safety in the past decades has been almost completely driven by improvements in road safety (Denver barriers &c), car safety (airbags &c) and a little bit legal (clamping down o

      • by rickb928 ( 945187 ) on Friday November 01, 2024 @10:23AM (#64911869) Homepage Journal

        TFS refences headlight glare, but nothing about accidents and dangers of high speed. You have citations?

        Glare, however, is great fun. Lifted pickup trucks around here (Phoenix area) have begun to regularly operate with the low beams positioned above the height of my car (Prius), adding on the foglights/daytime running lights, leading to an intensity and focus that is distractingly bright and blinding. How about, along with 'brighter' headlights, we set standards for height, focus, and beam shape for vehicles?

        I'll leave motorcyclists out of this, they are rightfully paranoid that someone will miss them as they zip through the main streets and freeways at maximum practical speed, splitting lanes day and night. They are nimble enough to avoid many collisions, and my close calls with them are a reminder I need to pull over and get the hell out of the way. Like letting the 4x4 pickups get past to give someone else a thrill.

        Enforce headlight standards first, ok?

        • We need better headlight standards of course, because our standards are stuck in the '80s at best. I know we have a Department of Transportation, but I don't know what the fuck they actually do, except harass commercial truck traffic (presumably that pays better). They sure as hell aren't lifting a finger to regulate transportation. Maybe in 50 more years, we'll finally get amber turn signals.

          But standards don't matter anyway if they aren't enforced, and there is zero will in America to enforce traffic laws
    • There's precedent. Montana used to have different speed limits for daytime and nighttime. I'm pretty sure I've seen it in Ohio too.
    • By this logic we can solve the issue by simply banning all driving at night :|
      ( Which works, I guess, but is a bit overkill for a simple solution )

      The lights simply need to be angled / collimated so they're not pointing directly into the eyes of oncoming traffic.

  • Driving is inherently risky. Pervasive light pollution has costs of its own. And some people's headlights are straight-up blinding.
    • Also, as for automated lighting, when I take a nightly walk through my neighborhood, I always notice at least one passing car with their rear lights off altogether. I believe this is because these drivers have their "auto" light dial set to the wrong setting. Machines make humans worse at whatever it is the machine does.
      • Those drivers are either just relying on their daytime running lights or their car is broken. Tail lights always illuminate whenever headlights are 'on'.

        DRLs that are bright enough to use as headlights in my opinion are a poor design. and DRLs that are amber should be illegal, amber should only be used for signalling - fuck you Kia.
    • I have found that they are only blinding if you stare directly into them. Keep your eyes straight ahead and slightly elevated and you won't have a problem.

      • Well, the road is kind of in opposite direction, though.
      • You're wrong.

        For at least 10 years before your cataracts impede your vision sufficiently for treatment, they cause some problems with nighttime driving. Sure, banish them from the roadways at night.

        Elevate your eyes, what need is there to see the road clearly? Pedestrians? Pfft.

        Eyes straight ahead? That left exit sign isn't important, you'll get there eventually. It's not about you, so stifle.

      • by sjames ( 1099 )

        So the headlights are meant to make you see the road, but I can't see the road because it curves to the left and I have my eyes straight ahead and slightly elevated. I sure hope I don't hit a car hidden in the glare head on! Guess we'll find out.

        Meanwhile, the crazy "advanced" headlights are getting so expensive that it would be cheaper to have night vision goggles and no headlights.

        In the real world, I already have to keep my eyes down and focused on the fog line to be able to keep my lane when there's onc

    • And some people's headlights are straight-up blinding.

      That's so rare. Most people are pretty dim in the headlights.

  • Not BRIGHT enough? (Score:4, Informative)

    by plate_o_shrimp ( 948271 ) on Friday November 01, 2024 @09:12AM (#64911601)

    Bullshit! I've been blinded by glare from oncoming headlights at noon on a bright sunny day! I try to no longer drive at night because of all the too-fucking-bright headlights blinding me. It's especially bad because I choose to drive a car, not a truck or SUV so all those truck and SUV headlights are at my eye level. It almost seems like modern vehicles are no longer equipped with low beams!

    • There's that, and then the LED headlights seem less effective to the driver (IME) than the old halogen headlights. The LEDs tend to be more directional where the beams from halogen headlights are more diffuse/wider.

      If you've ever used an LED headlamp to actually do work in a dark area, like under the dashboard of a car, the LED headlamps make light, but you actually can't see very well vs a regular incandescent.
      • I disagree with this. Switching from a 70s car with incandescent to a 20s car with modern LED the difference is ridiculously in favor of LED - with the LED all the pavement markings and signs glow, people and animals are much more pronounced.

        The actual problem with led is that they are very focused so it only lights what it is designed to illuminate, classic lighting just shines everywhere so half of the incandescent is just uselessly radiating up and away.

        That extreme focus of LED is actually the pro
        • by gtall ( 79522 )

          The GP was comparing halogen with LEDs, not incandescent with LEDs.

          • The GP was comparing halogen with LEDs, not incandescent with LEDs.

            Ambiguous. Tungsten-halogen lamps are actually a form of incandescent lamp (the halogen vapor keeps the tungsten filament from burning out, allowing the filament to operate hotter).

      • by piojo ( 995934 )

        Is it possible you've experienced low color rendering index (CRI) headlamps and headlights? That's a measure of how many wavelengths make up the light, thus how many colors can be rendered. For example low pressure sodium vapor lamps give off a very narrow range of orange light, and you can't see any color in that cast. The CRI is actually negative. I remember the first LED flashlights I had didn't provide good illumination, but it tends to be better these days if you buy name brand flashlights (which use n

    • Standard headlights might not be bright enough, but too many aftermarket lamps are too bright or have too much UV in them. Painful when they approach or worse, follow behind you for miles.
      Some of the aftermarket ones know they are illegal and sell them 'for off-road use only "

    • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      yep, I hear that. I made the 'mistake' of taking an 80's vintage classic out after dark. Passengers are seated very low to the ground compared to modern cars. Anytime a contemporary pickup or SUV (pretty much everything on the roads now) passed in the opposite direction, nothing but dazzling lights in my face, could not see a darn thing besides 'white'.

      If they are going to allow these things to be any brighter they better darn well require more downward angle at the same time, or lower placement.

    • by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Friday November 01, 2024 @09:26AM (#64911649)

      Bullshit! I've been blinded by glare from oncoming headlights at noon on a bright sunny day!

      That has been my experience as well. Even in broad daylight I end up swearing out loud several times a week at oncoming headlights - and I drive a lot fewer miles in a week than I used to. Today's headlights are actually dangerous as far as I'm concerned.

    • Hear F-ing hear!

      Those LED projector lights (great if you're driving) will completely blind you coming from some other cars. Either that or people are just flat out running with their brights on.

    • by technology_dude ( 1676610 ) on Friday November 01, 2024 @09:40AM (#64911693)
      I wonder how much is due to improperly aimed lights? Back in the day we had vehicle inspections and proper beam aiming was one of the things that were checked. Now with lift kits and such so popular, no one ever goes back and checks to see if the beam is properly aimed.
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      That's because of badly adjusted headlights on other vehicles. They are supposed to be aimed so they don't blind you.

      The good news is that there is some new tech that fixes this. Matrix headlights use a camera to detect where other sources of light are (i.e. your headlights/rear lights) and mask off that area, while still illuminating everything else on high beams. Think of it like a chess board viewed from above, and any square where there is a piece isn't lit up.

      I hear they are not legal in the US yet, bu

    • by mjwx ( 966435 ) on Friday November 01, 2024 @09:58AM (#64911747)

      Bullshit! I've been blinded by glare from oncoming headlights at noon on a bright sunny day! I try to no longer drive at night because of all the too-fucking-bright headlights blinding me. It's especially bad because I choose to drive a car, not a truck or SUV so all those truck and SUV headlights are at my eye level. It almost seems like modern vehicles are no longer equipped with low beams!

      This.

      Not only are headlights already too bright, they're aimed way too high because of the height of SUVs,

      • The factory LED solutions are indeed bright when the vehicle is going up/down slopes. They are very bright and can def blind you. The luxury cars have auto level motors that tilt the lights toward the ground no matter the slope. This is the proper solution, but who willing to pay for it unless the government makes requires it standard. One postal worker in my hood rigged his delivey truck with massive LED lumen and absolutely will blind you, its so bright it's like a freight train rig.
  • I recently was halfway forced to upgrade to a newer car. My previous car had xenon (HID) low beams and halogen high beams.

    I could drive on low beams in total darkness of our winter more or less fine, and high beams were mainly for illuminating sides of the road far away to see moose and the like. Vision ahead was good for at least 100m or so on low beams, probably more.

    Current one is bi-LED (same lamp for both beams with a solenoid that covers top half of it to cut off high beams from blinding people in fro

  • Adaptive headlights, which automatically adjust brightness to avoid blinding other drivers ...

    Maybe they do this in theory, but it seems to me that they don't actually do it until you're 50 feet away from them, and then only if you're both on flat ground. At any rate, the idea that we need brighter headlights that are already on the road has to be the dumbest thing I've heard.

    • I drove a rental that had the adaptive headlights. It seemed like more than half of the time they did not dim at all when other cars approached and people were frequently flashing me with their lights to tell me to turn the high beams off. I'm frequently blinded by other people's lights at night and I even drive a pickup, so it's not solely just a height thing. Its worse when it's hazy or the road is damp and it reflects back at me. I've had to slow down because of a loss of ability to see where my lane
  • It is the law, at least here in California where we have the most vehicles and the most vehicle-miles traveled, that headlights have to be properly adjusted. We even have official headlight adjustment check locations where you can be sent (in theory) if a cop notices that your headlights are misaimed.

    But all you have to do to find misaimed headlights is go out for a drive at night, and you will see them everywhere. It is very obvious which ones are misaimed because they are the ones that hurt.

    A lot of people blame this on LED headlights, especially where aftermarket LED capsules are used in vehicles which were designed for halogen lights. This is generally ignorant but not entirely wrong. Some LED headlights replace multiple types, and they have to be adjusted to match the correct type. The base ring has to be unscrewed, rotated, and re-screwed. Then the LEDs are in the correct locations for the reflectors to work correctly. Also, some manufacturers' LED headlights are just full of bright point lights because of the reflector design being bad, that is a real thing.

    Anyway if we want to not be blinded we have to support police pulling people over for misaimed headlights and sending them for inspections. I know that is problematic in many ways; all of those ways are related to ways in which we are doing policing wrong, but we can't let them prevent headlight inspections.

    If our country wasn't deliberately designed to make it necessary to drive then perhaps we could make all states do mandatory recurring headlight inspections.

    Followup, all vehicles should have automatic headlight aiming so that they compensate for when heavy loads are put into them. And the manufacturers should be forced to do recalls when they have high failure rates like they are with seatbelts, because they are an essential safety feature.

    • by evanh ( 627108 )

      I've noticed I have to lower mine after I get each warrant on the car. I'm of the opinion this is a problem not with the owners so much as it is with the practices of mechanics/inspection crew and their training.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It seems like the sort of thing that could be automated. It wouldn't be difficult to build a roadside camera that detects incorrectly adjusted headlights, at least for the worst offenders. Wouldn't have to be a ticket initially, just a big red sign that lights up as you go past, like those speed check ones.

    • by sinij ( 911942 )
      No matter alignment, you will still blind people when cresting a hill. Self-leveling should be mandatory for any LED headlights.
    • "If our country wasn't deliberately designed to make it necessary to drive then perhaps we could make all states do mandatory recurring headlight inspections."

      Geography sucks, dude. Why did we make our nation so damned big? Why do people have to live in sperate houses, anyways? SO SO terrible.

      And you're not even European.

  • Headlights need to be properly aimed, have a proper lighting pattern, a reasonable brightness, and the right colour temperature. Get any one of those wrong, and you could be that asshole blinding everyone around you.

    I suspect an awful lot of aftermarket lights end up getting several if not all of those things outside the comfort zone for other drivers.

  • Add LIDAR sensors and just project an overlay of the environment for the driver to see on the inside of the windshield.
  • TFA vaguely mentions some data but nothing concrete. Give us numbers on how many severe accidents might not have happened with brighter lights, vs with less bright lights. Anything else is just people having opinions.

    • by sjames ( 1099 )

      But also consult statistics on severe accidents due to being blinded by oncoming headlights.

  • by Ronin Developer ( 67677 ) on Friday November 01, 2024 @09:36AM (#64911681)

    Oh, they ARE bright enough. The headlights are just out of alignment and not focused on the road as they should be.

    I have a 2013 Hyundai. There is no mechanism to adjust the lights. You either have to put them in correctly every time (easier said than done given the space you have to work) or have misaligned lights.

    Where I live, it's not legal to retrofit LED lights. The best I can do is to install expensive halogen bulbs.

  • New headlights are often too bright. Plus, some car direct extreme amounts of light at the ground. If the car hits a bump, you get a flash worse than brights.

    Furthermore, adaptive headlights should dim when they spot a pedestrian. At night, if you are walking and someone shines a super bright light in your face, you can't see anything at all. Same with cyclists. It isn't safe if you can't see the ground 5 feet in front of you due to some a**hole's high-beams.

  • by dogcar3604 ( 1482103 ) on Friday November 01, 2024 @09:47AM (#64911711)
    Mostly is the stupidity of people who think they have to run their high beams all the time.
    • Mostly is the stupidity of people who think they have to run their high beams all the time.

      I swear there are people out there who would say, "But I thought that was the indicator telling me my headlights were on!"

      Where I live I need to use a combination of low and high beams because there are no street lights in my neighborhood. Fortunately my car has "auto high beams" so when it detects enough light coming at me they cut down to low beams... but I am also attentive enough to turn them down manually when I see people walking (my neighborhood has no sidewalks either) so I don't blind them as well

  • by Baloo Uriza ( 1582831 ) <baloo@ursamundi.org> on Friday November 01, 2024 @09:58AM (#64911749) Homepage Journal

    We're already into "weird colors, dazzling and glaring" territory, all of which aren't allowed for headlights in any state because they make it harder for other road users and wildlife to see what they're doing to stay safe.

    Doubling down isn't going to fix this. The fact of the matter is highbeams aren't effective past about 100 km/h, lowbeams aren't effective past about 50 km/h and there's no ways around that other than install highway lighting. Motorists need to start acting like adults with competent time management, trip planning and risk assessment skills instead of acting like entitled toddlers on the road. No, you don't get to drive as fast as you want, where you want, whenever you want, however you want. You don't exist in a vacuum.

    • Roadways are engineered to be driven safely at the posted speeds, allowing for darkness and the road being wet. Saying that low beams are ineffective on a interstate is just wrong.
  • by dgoldman ( 244241 ) on Friday November 01, 2024 @10:00AM (#64911753)

    Daytime Running Lights are too bright now too. It isn't that they don't work well, they work so well folks don't realize they don't have their actual headlights on. Every night I see cars driving around on highways with no tail lights on and the drivers are adamant their lights are on. Argh.

    I am thinking it is more the DLRs are too good than that drivers are unaware of the controls. One of these is fixable.

  • Headlights in the US are almost universally too bright and are a literal hazard to opposing traffic
  • I'm gonna start carrying a small shaving mirror in my car. For when the inbred retard with the Diesel Douchebag / Bro Dozer / Pavement Princess behind me insists on igniting their LED bar, roof-mounted spots and his hi-beams.

    I'll shine that shit back into their faces.

    Big problem isn't factory. Big problem is aftermarket and morons who don't realize when they "convert" from filament to arc lamps or LEDs that their lens shape and aiming is all wrong.

  • I have a number of classic cars that I occasionally drive in the dark. I also have a brand new car with modern LED lights. It is night-and-day difference and modern LED lights are fantastic, except for when you facing them from on-going traffic. LED lights should include mandatory self-leveling or beam shaping. Otherwise they are too blinding and that makes it dangerous for anyone still driving non-SUV vehicle.
  • I think the issue here is that the beam pattern on LED lights is too perfect. The top edge of the beam is a sharp horizontal line on modern lights. So if you are looking at the light and your eyes are above that line, the light looks dimmer than ever before. That's good. The problem is if the oncoming car is angled upwards, like cresting a hill, and your eyes are below that line, you get the full brightness of the lights in your face. Which is brighter than ever.

    With older non-LED lights, there was a gradie

  • Headlights are already blinding to oncoming traffic and now we want to make them brighter? That's the stupidest idea I've heard in a long time.
  • The current headlights on most on coming traffic are too bright and blinding NOW. Whether they are not aimed correctly or are already on HI beams all the time.

    If I could find good quality clear retroreflectors I have thought about putting a line of them on my dash board so that what I am seeing would be reflected back to the source.

    Before I mostly gave up driving at night I noticed that when out in a very rural area with no street lights I could see fine on either my LOW or HIGH beams in my 2001 car.
  • In Europe headlights must be 850mm +/- 150mm off of the ground and must have a downward inclination of 1 to 4% ... And they verify these parameters on the drive cars. This report (https://www.aaa.com/AAA/common/AAR/files/ResearchReportEuroSpecvsUSHeadlamps.pdf) notes that U.S. regulations allow headlights to be almost 7" higher than European vehicles BUT FAILS TO MENTION that U.S. regulations are only enforced on the original manufacturers, NOT on the actual vehicles on the road. In Europe, you cannot lif
    • It seems US headlights lack the regulations to keep some unnecessary truck or SUV from shining directly into your face or back window of a car... and I'm not even thinking of suspension lift kits.

  • Why are eyes not sensative enough?!!

    Geeze, just upgrade everyone's optics for night-vision.

  • Read a while back that Polaroid was first created to push the idea of polarised headlights and windshields. This way the lights could be much brighter without blinding the driver in the opposite direction. Polaroid tried to push this tech for a while, but no two car manufacturers could agree on which way to polarised what. Polaroid then switch to a side-hussle in the camera field.
  • When I learned to drive the guidelines, in order, for safe driving were basically: always watch where you are going, don't outdrive your vision, don't run into anything, followed by obey the traffic laws. People seem to frequently forget or ignore "not outdriving your vision", which means that if something were to randomly appear at the far range of what you can see, and you can't stop the vehicle within that distance, you are driving too fast. This is especially important at night when what you can see is
  • LEDs when looked at oncoming are too bright, but the amount of visibility they provide off objects is poor.

    So, drivers can't see, and people facing the driver can't see. It's a win win!!
  • Driving with high beams seems to be the norm around here.

  • So the experts need to change the "Driver Seat" to the opposite vehicle.

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