I relate so hard. Honestly LED’s are nothing compared to the fucking laser headlights that now exist in Volvo models and others. Yes, you read that right, actual lasers.
I’ve been on the receiving end and actually had to pull over for a minute just to survive (ie not crash due to complete blindness from being flasbanged). Laser headlights should be illegal yesterday. The permanent damage from exposure again and again over time is going to cause long-term and slowly emerging vision problems theoughout the population. Seriously.
HID headlights were just as bad, and those go back to the 90’s.
In Canada we have mandatory DRL (Daytime Running Lights) and often, cars use high beam with a low voltage or PWM. When people replace their standard bulbs with LED bulb, it means during the day you are flashed by high beam in your eyes, even in full summer at noon you can be completely blinded by cars coming towards you, it’s fucking annoying!
Its a lot of the lighting going up on buildings next to roadways that are starting to get under my skin. If you’re going to use a 300000000000 lumen LED, can you at least not point it directly at an oncoming lane of traffic? Thanks.
I remember reading about how cars in other countries like China, and Europe have LED headlights that will detect where other cars windshields are and turn the LEDs that would shine in that direction off re-actively. But that it was illegal in the US for some reason.
My 10 year old car has that. Just adaptive headlights.
USA legalised them only recently - that’s why (“expensive”) European cars in Murikan movies always had the shitty incandescent headlights that in most markets weren’t even available.
None of us noticed what headlights were used in a movie because we aren’t serial killers :(
This sounds like something a serial killer would say…
Shit you caught me
Hold on I gotta clean the wood chipper
Oh hidy-ho officer, we’ve had a doozy of a day. There we were minding our own business, just doing chores around the house, when kids started killing themselves all over my property.
Yes, you are correct. It’s because of the slow acceptance of new technologies by the NHSTA.
I feel like there is no such thing as low beams anymore. Low beams used to be less bright, now they’re just as fucking bright and aimed SLIGHTLY down. God forbid the road isn’t exactly flat or you have a slightly different height vehicle.
I love my rear view mirror being able to auto dim, not sure if that feature is in most cars but it’s saved my eyes a number of times now.
Yep, I’m driving an '08 with this feature and it’s key. Too bad the side mirrors don’t do the same
Dodge RAM enters the chat.
crashes into minivan and driver stumbles out drunkenly
If you focus the light correctly they’re not bad.
The problem is folks put new LED bulbs in old fixtures designed for non-led bulbs. These scatter light everywhere and annoy people. Plus they have to be even brighter because the light isn’t focused where it needs to go.
Also just cars being too high/big. My car gives no issues to others, but fuck me those bigger cars…
Can we stop saying this? This might have been the case 10 years ago when conventional bulbs were the better established headlight standard but they’re coming off the line like this these days. It has nothing to do with the housing and everything to do with the height they sit at, where they’re aimed, and the brightness.
Yeah this, its brand new production cars with factory fitted light units drives me insane.
Also, the newer massive trucks that are so high they blind anyone lower than them regardless of how properly it’s configured.
It’s typically this and not the particular tech in the headlight. And when it’s not “plug n play” (pnp) bulbs, it’s bad aim because every factory aims them with an empty tank and owners are clueless headlights can be aimed. That A8 had pretty good lights for the time. Sure, the lights do tend to be more intense when you’re in the beam on a hill, curve, etc), and the bluer color isn’t great for human night vision, but that’s a tradeoff for the increased speeds we travel at now.
The further development of matrix LED lights by the Germans is a great development, really only feasible with LEDs. They turn off individual segments to give a near-high beam experience but specifically without blinding other drivers.
But blaming it all on LEDs is like blaming gas engines for loud exhaust. There’s supposed to be a system in place that makes it tolerable for everyone around.
Those smart Porsche headlights are so damn cool. I can’t wait until that tech trickles down to becoming a standard.
People having their lights aimed incorrectly is also a huge issue. Check your car against a wall. Most of them are slightly adjustable. Color temp is just manufacturing cheapness that could be regulated
That Nissan SUV from factory is horrible, lights are up high and blinding.
Brand new Nissan Rogue’s chew through their oem tires in like 15k miles. I swear they’re coming out with bad alignments from the factory.
Could be that or the vehicle is just to heavy for that compound and excessive wear during braking, and turning etc
To be fair it’s a Nissan
This makes me sad as Nissan of the 70s-00 had some of the best cars on the market (certainly among the best motors). Can’t argue their modern state though.
i’m still amazed how these fucking lights got through regulation in germany. ‘everything’ is regulated here. but these blinding pieces of shit got through. i know the answer: money. as in cars, the crown jewel of the german economy. i hate them sooooooo much.
I actually think regulation is how we got them, but not in a known bad way. Originally car headlights had little to no standards, but eventually people realized they’re important to safety and so testing started happening to ensure that headlights met a minimum safety rating. The problem is that the testing was done from the drivers seat, and based on light projection in front of the vehicle rather than taking into account other humans looking toward it. I’ve been a big proponent of LED lights that dim when stopped or slowing, and even halogen/ultra dim lights for city driving, and keeping LEDs for brights. LEDs have really made a lot of brights basically useless, but the brightness, and harshness of color temperature is absolutely detrimental to other drivers.
true, if you’re in the driver seat these lights are awesome. I worked as a driver for a few years. Mostly in old shitboxes but sometimes i had the chance drive these modern marvels of technology. no doubt its way better for your eyes and concentration if you are in the driver seat. but for anybody else its just soooo bad. even if you steer a vehicle with fancy LEDs the other car with LEDs will blind you. but as a pedestrian, on a bicycle or in a shitbox they just straight up fuck up your cornea.
Wait, Germany bans good-quality bike lights, but allows unregulated lights on fucking cars‽‽
stop! badly adjusted way too bright bike lights are the most hated things in my life. i have nothing left but spite for them. i’m activily holding myself back right now. i could sputter nonsensical insults for hours because of them. One time i started to carry a stupid bright flash light with myself just to blind them fuckers back. since then i grown up. but awfafhasifhaoshfoahgoiahsdoigasddfafas asfdda fuck
German law literally restricts bike light brightness to a point of being impractical in the dark. It bans blinking lights despite research showing blinking lights increase visibility of cyclists. It requires cut-offs that make it so you literally can’t see what’s ahead of you until it’s too late to react to it, if you’re riding at speed.
If you’re only ever riding at a slow 20 km/h on relatively well-lit city streets, it might be fine. But that’s just not reality.
You’re required to have a rear light, but it must be mounted between 25 and 60 cm above the ground…so you can forget about a light mounted on your helmet or backpack…or even at the most natural place for a light…at the top of your seatpost. It’s fucking nonsensical. And to learn that despite all this bullshit making cyclists less safe, car lights are unrestricted? Oh boy, am I incensed right now.
tbh i dont care what theoretically is written in law. what i care about are the fuckers who light up the 200m infront of them with their led lights and with that burn up my corneas. everyday multiple times. dont get me wrong, led lights are awesome. i use them myself. but there are too much assholes who only think about them self. even if with 30km/h you certainly dont need the visibility of cars full bright.
am i overreacting? maybe. idk. but these fuckheads drive me mad everyday.
I like LEDs. The only issue is building the optic so it doesn’t glare in people’s faces
I like flashlights and I own…probably almost 100 at this point
That’s an interesting new flavor of autism I wasn’t aware of, neat ;p
Emisar, my love.
Yeah when one of those fuckers is driving behind me, I’ll just decelerate a mph every couple of seconds. Doesn’t usually take more than about 5 until they get annoyed enough to actually pass.
Most EVs, and especially Teslas, are prime offenders. It’s like the focused them specifically to blind oncoming drivers. Which would be selfishly on-brand for Tesla.
In my experience (driving a 2003 Ford KA) Teslas were one of the less bad brands for it, VW group were the worst modern fords are also horrific though.
What deregulation-used brain that that doesn’t demand safe legal infrastructure for their roads made this meme?
(LEDs are the way safer tech, if they aren’t used wrong)Brighter headlights than incandescent bulbs provided is a safety feature - legislation needs to make you safe by insuring irl that it’s not directed to other drivers (various countries also set max candles at various distances too, but that’s not even the issue).
A yearly mandatory roadworthiness test & legislation about what the max distance from road headlights can even be positioned solves all problems (apart from deliberate long-beaming peoples peepers - which should be solved by fees/cops).
Not to mention nowdays few cars don’t have auto-leveling or adaptive headlights. So it feels like a half-solved perform.
And again, like automatic emergency braking, govs could just demand auto-headlight-leveling as minimal equipment from some production date onwards.The problem is that incandescent lights are 1) warmer in tone, which is less harsh for the same candle ratings, 2) have a more gradual boundary than LED projector-style headlights, which means you aren’t suddenly blinded when the car coming towards you goes over a minor bump, and 3) aren’t a point light-source with the reflector design they have unlike LEDs, and thus are less painful. NONE of these issues are dealt with in a vast majority of new cars (adaptive-angle headlamps would do a lot to help, but would only fix one of the three issues - and only when the camera can actually figure out when they should be lowering the angle, which is far from foolproof).
If I could easily replace the LED headlamp in my new car with an incandescent lamp, I would - because I could still see decently with my old car’s headlights, and I wasn’t at risk of blinding everyone in the oncoming lane next to me.
Oh, thx for the description, I’m starting to understand now.
There isn’t any inherent reason why we couldn’t use reflector tech with LEDs - there wouldn’t even be anything wrong of you would exchange an incandescent bulb with LED if it was certified correctly (by the manufacturer, which actually exist), by which I mean with the right power & with full round and equal light emissions (for the reflector to pick up correctly). The LED emissions needn’t be harsher (tho the cheaper ones def are, low cri led are more power efficient too, but project a diminished spectrum) tho I def understand you.
The projector style headlamps also come (came?) with incandescent (instead of xenon or led) bulbs which still had the issue you point out at your 2). It’s not a bulb thing, it’s a light casting thing.
And projectors (incandescent, xenon, or led) are indeed used exactly bcs of what bothers you - they bleed less light around their target angles so they are legally allowed to be brighter (since at level they can emit more light without it crossing the threshold of for much of it bleeds higher than allowed). Yes, this doesn’t account for actual daily life, just a sterile average (which positively def affects safety too - ofc besides the issue is blinded drives you pointed out). But road infrastructure is a giant factor here. Cars shouldn’t jump up and down due to road quality.To points 2) & 3) I would add that it makes an enormous difference if you suffer from the slightest astigmatism - for me that was what caused the diminished vision when someone slightly blinded me (the pain is considerably less to in road situations).
It’s what makes “single bright points” tolerable for short durations & it makes easier for the brains to compute around it (with astigmatism points become more like lines & brains now have to interpret/check those + lines are bigger than precise dots & it takes more info to process them). This isn’t noticeable during the day & it doesn’t necessarily mean your vision is below average.
And yet I get blinded every single day
Seems country dependent. Maybe even mean purchasing-power related.
But it’s a people problem, they either use illegal (for their vehicle) bulbs or the infrastructure doesn’t demand better.
I live somewhere with mandatory intensive yearly inspections, still a issue and is even a issue on new cars (can tell via the numberplates here) which have just rolled off the lot. Fuck these shitty headlights.
Wait, the new cars are not law compliant?
They nominally are, I still get blinded by them. These are 25 plate fords, VW group, landrovers etc.
Can I ask in what situations?
Like on even, level road when they are facing you?
Or like a hilly road?And we arent talking high beams or fog lamps (some people just drive with them constantly)?
Or are the cars loaded at the back which makes their headlights point to high up?
And people don’t use this thing:
(This is what I mean by auto-leveling & that the govs should mandate it - people aren’t doing it manually & don’t know what this switch does … or don’t notice their headlamps are illuminating peoples faces in other cars.)On a straight fairly flat A road, no clue if they’ve adjusted them properly or not thats besides the point, they’re extremely blinding very consistently. The car I drive is very small and quite low to the ground. And these are absolutely not high beams, I’ve flashed a few coming the opposite direction because I thought they had high beams on, I am then blinded even further when they return the favour.
Fucking god this is the truth.
I’m also annoyed by PWM artifacts on taillights.
