Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
United States Government Transportation

US Agency To Rewrite Rules To Finally Address Vehicle Headlight Glare (yahoo.com) 96

Posted by EditorDavid from the burning-brights dept.
America's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration "said on Tuesday that it will rewrite its vehicle lighting standards," reports Reuters, "to address concerns about headlight glare and allow for the latest safety-improving lighting technologies." NHTSA said it plans to improve rules for LEDs, dusk sensors, automatic high beams and replaceable light sources. The agency will also evaluate headlamp height and aim and how they impact driver visibility and address headlight glare and make appropriate changes.

Complaints about glare from headlights have increased and some lawmakers have urged the government to set a maximum headlight brightness standard. A growing number of taller trucks and SUVs on roads has also led to more complaints about glare. LEDs, which now account for most headlights in new cars, are much brighter than traditional halogen headlights... The issue still accounts for a small number of nighttime crashes, according to a study last year from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The study noted that headlight glare contributes to far fewer crashes than insufficient visibility...

Federal headlight standards for minimum and maximum brightness have not changed since 1997, IIHS noted. The study found that drivers older than 70 appear to be most affected by headlight glare. In 2022, NHTSA said it would allow automakers to install adaptive driving beam headlights on new vehicles. The devices adjust the headlight beam pattern to dim portions directed at other vehicles.
Thanks to Slashdot reader technology_dude for sharing the news.

US Agency To Rewrite Rules To Finally Address Vehicle Headlight Glare More | Reply

US Agency To Rewrite Rules To Finally Address Vehicle Headlight Glare

Comments Filter:

  • How about height above the ground (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @10:44AM (#66370806)
    It pisses me off when some asshole in a lifted truck gets behind me at night, shining his headlights directly into all 3 of my mirrors.

    • Re:How about height above the ground (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @11:01AM (#66370822)

      I propose new legislation. If the hood of your vehicle is higher than your shoulders a CDL will be required.

    • Or the LED headlights that flicker in your peripheral vision!

      • Yes, the flicker in the tail light is highly irritaring and draws our attention to the other vehicle. In this age why aren't designers adding a filter to reduce the pulsing. Compared to the cost of the expensive electronics onboard cars today, cost of filter is a miniscule. Unless forced by law, vendors will not bother.

    • âoeall 3 of my mirrorsâ Why are your side view mirrors pointing rearward? Properly adjusted, they should have minimal overlap with the rear view mirror.

    • Lifted vehicles can be a problem, but the most common problem for "lifted" pickups is someone has installed a leveling lift and not re-aimed their headlights, or have not done it correctly. Leveling lifts specifically lift the front of the vehicle only in order to make them sit more level when empty (or mostly empty.) Obviously this raises the headlights' aim. Usually you can just adjust it out, but you might have to shim the headlight or make other changes to fix the aim on some vehicles where there is not

    • Yup. There should be a standard height about groups for headlights on passenger vehicles. And no, I don't give a single flying f*ck if it makes your massive SUV look stupid.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Is mirror glass legal in your jurisdiction? In the UK it used to be popular with commercial vehicles to stop people seeing what is inside them, but I haven't seen it for a while. You could get it as a film you apply to the inside of the glass.

      Another option is to put beanies with a reflective strip around them on the rear seat headrests.

  • glare means light is being wasted (Score:5, Interesting)

    by caseih ( 160668 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @10:54AM (#66370814)

    When bright headlights cause glare on the eyes of oncoming traffic that means that much of that bright light is not actually going where it would benefit the driver. While bright factory LEDs do cause glare, much of the problem seems to be from retrofitting halogen housings with LED. Such retrofits don't always actually improve things for the driver even if they look brighter. They are going to have to crack down on retrofit LED bulbs is they really want to tackle the issue.

    • All that will happen is the aftermarket bulbs will be sold as "off-road use only." Same as already happens for the ones that are ever so slightly too blue. Nothing else will change.

      • Developed countries will check vehicles for illegal mods on an annual basis. While not anywhere near fool-proof, having annual inspections for safety means better safety for all.

        • Re: glare means light is being wasted (Score:4, Insightful)

          by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @12:25PM (#66370930)

          As someone who lives in a no-inspection state and grew up driving in a yearly safety inspections state I can say that yes, periodic safety inspections for vehicles should be a standard practice across the country, not even just for headlights but in most parking lots I can spot one or two totally bald tires. Just hope it doesn't rain too bad when we're both on the same road!

          And even then up north there wasn't a requirement to have winter tires in the winter so there is even room for improvement there.

          • Winter tires are required where it makes sense, like in the mountains.

            • Half agree, I think so long as there are a certain threshold of days below freezing or number of snow days per season then a requirement for proper tires is common sense. I saw a lot of skids and slides when it was icy out. I mean winter tires exist for a reason, rubber loses grip when it gets cold

              • Well people need to learn how to drive too. People skid and slide with winters.

                • Sure but that applies to everything, I now live in a state with a lax driving test and no ice or snow and there are multiple accidents a day one does not supplant the need for the other.

                  Winter tires don't replace good driving but a good driver is also dangerous with the wrong tires even if they drive "correctly".

                  • Meh, I have all weather tires and they are fine. I wish they had more tread for deep snow, but for regular driving they are fine. But then I have all wheel drive too. If winter tires are that important than obviously all seasons and all weather are not as safe as advertised and should be outlawed. But since they are being sold I have to think regulatory bodies think they are safe.

    • While you're right about retrofits, the problem does include many/most new OEM lights.

      Another retrofit that they need to crackdown on is the dazzler LEDs that "buzz"/shimmer/quiver for attention. Also, flashing brake lights need to be outlawed. I can't stand following some clapped out and smashed up minivan with a don't-know-how-to-drive, brake riding idiot that thinks F1 flashing brake lights are the shit.

      • Flashing brake lights for attention when braking hard, i.e. an emergency stop is a BIG improvement to safety and reduces the number and severity of chain collisions. Hell, this should become mandatory. It's such a little change for a big improvement.
        Those "F1" style aftermarket junk needs to go though.

    • That's not necessarily true. It could very well be you're getting glare while the lights are still pointed down at the road. That's one of the side effects of every moron with a micro-penis buying a monster-truck. The headlights are physically mounted higher on the vehicle and while they point down to the benefit of the driver, the point right in your face.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Many cars have a dial you can use to adjust the headlights based on the number of passengers and amount of cargo. Hardly anyone even knows it exists, let alone uses it.

      Then you have auto high beams, which are supposed to turn off when another car is coming but tend to react far too slowly. Teslas are terrible for it, but I've never seen a particularly good implementation. They need to turn the high beams off when headlights become visible around a corner or over a crest, not a few seconds after they are dir

  • Some entitled people out there - they want their enormous vehicles to have headlights brighter than the sun for their personal safety, in the same way they want ten feet high, two ton cars

  • Maximum Brightness (Score:3)

    by SlashbotAgent ( 6477336 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @10:59AM (#66370820)

    Please set maximum brightness limits a good 20% less than what Ford is currently using in their trucks.

    Also, please do not forget to set the same brightness limits on emergency vehicle lights. In fact, an aggregate limit would probably be good too, so that they can't circumvent the limit by using even more lights. There is zero need to be visible from ten miles away during a heavy downpour and fog. The current excessively bright setups are actually increasing the danger level, not the safety level.

    • There's nothing wrong with the brightness of the headlight in the truck, the problem is it's a truck and the headlight is mounted high so shines right in your retina, all because some guy has a micropenis and therefore finds a normal car unsuitable.

  • Brights (Score:3)

    by bugs2squash ( 1132591 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @11:27AM (#66370838)
    I suspect a bunch of people just drive with their main beams on.

  • I notice one EV brand actually actively doing that, where I can see the light on the road everywhere... but the oncoming car, which is overall a good thing. I hope more car companies start doing this.

  • Time to stop the cuteness and force standards (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Arrogant-Bastard ( 141720 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @11:52AM (#66370890)
    And not just for headlights, but for taillights. Far too many vehicle designers are indulging some artistic/creative whim at the expenses of human factors and thus safety. All headlights and taillights should be designed to a handful of fixed templates (to accommodate vehicles of different widths and heights) that specify the distance between the lights, the shape of the lights, the size of the lights, the brightness of the lights, the frequency at which turn signals blink, etc.

    Fixing all of these -- as much as possible -- will make it much easier for drivers to estimate distance/speed at night; it'll get rid of the animated rear turn signals; it'll dispense with the ridiculously blue headlights that some idiot in my neighborhood has; and so on. One thing that I think could be adde dto this -- mentioned elsewhere in the thread -- is rear brake light signaling for hard braking. I'm the opposite of a tailgater, and I pay attention, but even I've mis-estimated the deceleration of a car in front of me, and an additional cue would be helpful in such cases.
    • The law is still no more than four forward-facing white lights illuminated at the same time but this is violated all the time now.

      Often it is now six lights with fog lights being added to the wall of glare. Many EVs now have that dumb continuous light bar across the front - that is a fifth or seventh light! All they need to do is enforce current law. This is not hard to do as all the enforcing officer has to do is take a photo of the car driving then pull them over, ticket them, and give them a formal no

    • And not just for headlights, but for taillights. Far too many vehicle designers are indulging some artistic/creative whim at the expenses of human factors and thus safety.

      Saw a car recently where the left tail light was an arrow pointing right, and the right an arrow pointing left. I was surprised it was legal to do that.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by dargaud ( 518470 )
        I saw that too, looking closer it turns out to be 2 halves of a UK flag, as mounted on some Mini as an option. And yes, they look like arrows pointing the wrong way. Damn stupid. Pic here [amazon.com] (sorry for the amazon link)
    • At one time they talked about having brake lights blink with the frequency proportional to de-acceleration. I always thought that was a good idea but it never happened. I think we would soon be conditioned to hard pressing the brake when we saw fast blinking.

      • At one time they talked about having brake lights blink with the frequency proportional to de-acceleration. I always thought that was a good idea but it never happened. I think we would soon be conditioned to hard pressing the brake when we saw fast blinking.

        Years ago they added countdown timers to the pedestrian crossing signals in my city. These are great not just for pedestrians, but for drivers as well as cause if you pay attention they give you a heads up to the timing of the lights well in advance. My experience suggests even after all these years most drivers are completely oblivious to their existence, so I have less faith in the potential conditioning of the masses than yourself.

  • Make driver's ed mandatory and drill it into the kids to turn off their high beams when they're not alone on the road.

    Maybe make cooking class mandatory too. Might put a dent into the kids these days going broke over $30 food deliveries for a $4 meal if prepared at home.

  • Bump glare is the worst. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @12:15PM (#66370920) Homepage
    Bump glare is where a car goes over a bump in the road or is ever so slightly higher than you over a hill and for that brief time their headlights are blinding. It seems the Japanese makes are the worst for this, even their daytime running lights do this. Subaru, Mazda, Toyota, and Honda all have this issue. Their lights are too close to the borderline for glare and a bump sends it right into your eyes. It's like they only test their vehicles on a flat surface.

    I guess auto-dip or matrix lights could fix it but I would rather the lights just not be so damn bright or poorly designed.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by SendBot ( 29932 )

      this!!! I can see as they travel down the road the ground is extremely bright, then as they approach a downhill or go over speed bumps, it angles up and then blasts everything in front of the car with blinding light. It's like you can see the whole neighborhood light up during the half-second they're going up the bump, then there's a little rebound glow after they pass it.

      When approaching these cars from the downhill, you can see the glow way ahead of the car's arrival.

    • Bump glare is where a car goes over a bump in the road or is ever so slightly higher than you over a hill and for that brief time their headlights are blinding. It seems the Japanese makes are the worst for this, even their daytime running lights do this. Subaru, Mazda, Toyota, and Honda all have this issue. Their lights are too close to the borderline for glare and a bump sends it right into your eyes. It's like they only test their vehicles on a flat surface. I guess auto-dip or matrix lights could fix it but I would rather the lights just not be so damn bright or poorly designed.

      Any car with a stiff enough suspension to not handle like a wet noodle will do this.

    • This is mostly a problem with all projector and some LED headlights. It isn't a big problem with dual-reflector headlights because they are much more diffuse, but since projectors just have a big lens they have hot spots. With LED headlights it depends on what kind of diffuser is between the LED element and your eye.

  • More to go wrong (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @12:34PM (#66370946)

    "The devices adjust the headlight beam pattern to dim portions directed at other vehicles." - Yeah, that's what cars need, more adaptive electronics to drive up the cost and lower the reliability.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by dhaen ( 892570 )
      Yes they cost more but with volume the cost will come down. I have been driving with them for the last 10 years (of course not in the US where they were slow to legalise). On narrow windy roads they switch way from oncoming traffic faster than I could manually dip the headlights. I've used Bosch and Tesla systems, the later Bosch are superior.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      That's the wrong way of looking at it. You could make the same argument about airbags. The Takata airbag recall was a huge disaster, cost billions to put right, and ended up with them going bankrupt. But airbags do save lives and prevent serious injury. On balance, even with the recall of millions of vehicles, they are worth having.

      Matrix headlights do increase visibility a lot. The really good ones are fantastic. Reliability seems to be decent enough, so very likely the benefit outweighs the cost.

  • Ironically, Streetlights Have the Opposite Problem (Score:3)

    by theodp ( 442580 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @12:44PM (#66370960)

    As headlamps have grown brighter, streetlights (and other nighttime lighting for sidewalks, parks, etc. and daytime lighting for tunnels, parking garages, etc.) have grown dimmer and dimmer, presumably largely in response to demand for energy savings and residents' complaints about brightness, in some cases to the point of making the lighting completely ineffective for its intended purposes.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by evanh ( 627108 )

      They may have reduced power, and produce less spill, but they certainly aren't dimmer in the coverage area. The lower spill of the LED street lights is mighty important given they emit a ton more blue light.

      Roadside ad signage certainly isn't lower brightness. They're their own headlights now.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by eepok ( 545733 )

      Are streets lights "growing dimmer"? It could be:

      1. Color temperature changes
      2. Your eyes being more used to high-K light and misunderstanding low-K light
      3. You're getting old and your own eyes aren't as good in the dark as they used to be

      Regardless, the solution isn't to blind other people on the road while you improve visibility for yourself. It's to drive slower with lights that are safe for everyone.

  • Nobody knows how glare works?? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @01:05PM (#66370978)

    The problem isn’t how bright headlights are. It’s how concentrated that brightness is.
    Think about the sun behind a cloud. The day is still bright. You can see everything. You can even stare directly at the cloud without your retinas filing a formal complaint. That’s because glare isn’t about total light output — it’s about how much light is crammed into a tiny area. Spread the same amount of light over a bigger surface and it stops feeling like an assault.
    You could cover an entire car’s front end with LEDs and use a light diffuser panel/sheet to spread out brightness and light up the road just fine, and it wouldn’t feel like someone’s aiming a laser at your face. The issue is when all that light is squeezed out of two little headlight-sized holes. At that point it stops being illumination and starts being a portable sun that only comes out at night and specifically hates your eyes.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by evanh ( 627108 )

      I'd like to agree but what would happen if it was diffuse? The drivers would then demand 10x, 100x, 1000x more power to light everything up like daylight. Then the whole front of the vehicle becomes a massive dazzle.

      I think the problem is too much spill from the focused zone, and poorly set dip height. Particularly on the taller vehicles like SUVs.

      I've heard that newer cars even allow the driver to adjust dip height while driving. That's a recipe for upping the anti, imho.

  • Could we add one more item to this standard? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DurnikBob ( 682904 ) on Sunday October 11, 2026 @01:38PM (#66371008)
    I'd like to see an addendum to this to make it mandatory to use reflective lane paint. In NC, they stopped doing this and on a dark night, rain and a bright on coming car light you cannot see the lane markings. It's dangerous as haded
  • I do hate imbeciles that put massive high power lights on their vehicles and then angled them up right into my eyes. Or they spend 10 grand on a shitty lift kit to do the same... It is definitely not safe.

    But this probably means more police interactions and more excuses for the cops to pull people over and every single time police interact with the public that's an opportunity for somebody to get murdered. So I get nervous when I see changes to stuff like this.

    I mean the correct solution to the prob

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Rujiel ( 1632063 )

      *slaps hood of legislation* "Gonna parallel-construct so many arrests out of this baby.."

      People focus on the case of trucks, but cops don't need another layer of subjective BS to question people over. They already arrest people for seeming inebriated even despite their passing a breathalyzer.

  • I am always blown away by the number of people who argue about headlight brightness saying things like "it's not the brightness, it's the angle" and "it's the height of these modern vehicles" and "these lifted trucks that didn't properly adjust their headlights".

    How do all these people think that roads are all perfectly straight and smooth? No matter how perfectly the headlights are aimed in modern vehicles, the headlights brightness is a problem. The slightest hill will cause your headlights to not be

  • The other important issue with LED lights is that they turn on and off instantly and that makes it even harder for the eye to adjust and so we always find LED headlights more painful at night when they shine towards us. A little bit of electronics/software to ramp up the illumination when turning on and ramp down when turning off will do wonders instead of instant full/zero illumination. Basically emulate how a filament bulb behaves. This will mitigate lot of issues with the LED headlights.

Slashdot Top Deals

You are always doing something marginal when the boss drops by your desk.

Close