What's With All the Bright Headlights/Driving Lights on Newer Cars/Trucks?

Why are allowed to put out so much light,while blinding oncoming traffic?
& just how can those LED parking/running lights be legal?
I just returned from Richmond,taking I64 & I81,& was really worn out by
all the overly bright lights in my mirrors.I hate the idiots who have to drive with their
driving lights on all the time.
And now,even the semis have them.I saw one pass me that had really bright
LED lights illuminating the license plate,which you couldn't clearly read,because the
lights were so bright.
I think I need to find a tinted piece of clear rubber to cover my outside rear -
view mirror at night.

The other thing I'm noticing is that more people are mindlessly driving with their high beams on when on multi-lane highways with lots of traffic.

I know what you mean! Today's cars have systems of lights that, when they pull up behind you, make you feel like you're in that scene from "Close Encounters" when the UFO pulls up behind Roy Neary on the country road.

My new Chevy truck has mirrors that dim at night, inside and out, their a blessing to be sure. Seems like the outside mirrors have some sort of a Polaroid film inside the glass, at least that's what they look like, in the daytime their just a normal mirror.

As long as folks have badly adjusted headlights, and can buy Xenon-HID mimicking lamps online, we'll have to deal with that problem. My neighbors added an entire bar of those bright blue monsters across the front of one of their pickups; it *does* look like the Close Encounters scene Basil mentioned.

Buying and displaying your new high tech toys - without thought to others. Don't ya love it!

Edwin Land had a solution back in the 1930s and '40s:

https://www.polarization.com/land/land.html

TM

I remember when we only had sealed beam headlights. Publications were pushing for better lights such as seen in Europe. We now have them, and I can drive again at night. But I can really see the cutoff line in the beam keeping the lights low too. But I know when heading up hill in a parking lot, they can nearly blind someone at ahead of me.

I normally keep the highs on automatic when on back roads so that they shut off if other lights or brighter areas are detected. The system cuts off the highs faster than I could when encountering other cars. And as long as I keep my windshield clear, I do not have too much trouble with most other lights.

Hi Dave - happy new year to you and Peg.

You mention you leave your lights on automatic, " ... so that they shut off if other lights or brighter areas are detected".

Do you mean they just switch from high beam to low beam? Or they actually shut off the head lights?

I've got automatic lighting on my new Altima, but don't know what they do when oncoming lights are bright.

Thanks.
Tom M.

My Santa Fe has auto lights that either turn on if it's sufficiently dark or off if it's too light. As far as I can tell they don't turn off (or dip) due to oncoming traffic, but only react to ambient light. Sometimes at Dusk I just turn the lights from auto to "on" to make sure they are on all the time.

Thanks Basil. Only way I can tell what lights are on, is to park right in front of my garage door and see what lights show on the door when I move the light switch stalk.

Eventually, we'll probably have lights which vary from 0% "off" to 100% "bright" - and all points in between - depending on conditions. But take a look at the Polarization link; interesting system.

Tom,

Happy New Year to you too. We may be making a trip to OSV in the next year or two with our granddaughters and their family, but it is hard to find dates that work so far.

My Impreza has two different automatic settings. The headlights have one that turns them on at dusk. Otherwise the car just has the running lights. But the high beams have a second auto setting. The only way I can turn on high beams manually is by pulling the lever towards me and holding it. In the middle setting of the lever, the high beams are not on. But if I push the lever away from me it holds there, and turns the highbeams on when on I have no traffic ahead and the ambient lighting is not bright from good streetlights. But when the sensors see taillights, or approaching headlights, the high beams cut off. The high beam light on the dash goes off too so that I know the change has been made.

My truck has the auto feature. When on auto it switches from driving lights to headlights and back by the brightness of the surrounding area, it works quite well, but during the day I usually keep the auto feature shut off. Never stood in front of the truck with the lights on, so I have no idea how disturbing they are to oncoming drivers, but they are bright! PJ

I'm just glad for fellow motorist using their light at all! The 30min after sunset and 30min before sunrise rules clearly are not understood or followed where I live in Orange County where only anarchy rules. Dark cars driving without any illumination at night is clearly unlawful and dangerous. Wife and I call them "bats" - connotations apply here - and look for the "black-hole" these cars make in traffic.