They aren’t brights. I mean…maybe some of them are, but a lot of them aren’t.

How do I know? My wife got a new car and whenever I drive it people flash their brights at me, but my brights aren’t on. I used to flash them back to show that they weren’t on before, but that seemed dangerous so I just accept it.

This. The new headlights just get brighter and brighter. I swear some of them are even installed incorrectly as well. It’s like they’re aimed too high.

I have a sedan and already have trouble driving in the dark normally. Now most of the time I can't see what I'm doing. My only solutions are to avoid driving in the dark, or get a giant lifted vehicle so I can be above all of it.

Found a good article on this. Accidents increased by 12% in 2021. That's high. New adaptive systems are coming out, Europe already has had that for a while. Won't help with the bros in giant trucks and illegal aftermarket lights. Also found that the personal injury lawyers are all over this, so that tells you something. https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/02/15/feds-approve-new-headlights-that-wont-blind-oncoming-drivers/

It's really bad. On my motorcycle I'm blinded all the time. Can't see more than a few feet after one of these people passes me.

Yeah, I have them on my truck, and they are just naturally bright. If I'd had the option to not have them, I wouldn't.

FYI: if you really wanted, you could use the adjustment screws and angle them down a little bit. I does make a big difference without losing your field of sight.

Seriously. I’ve been noticing this too.

It's been a problem for at least 10 years now.

I've been having a rough time with this too as I suffer light sensitivity from a health condition. It does help to look away from the car with the bright lights. I always look at the white line, that way when I look back at the road when they've passed the blind spot that's recovering from the brightness is top left instead of close to the middle of my vision. That's how I was taught as a teen.

It doesn't bother me and I love my bright LED headlights.

Last night I was seeing spots (like after a camera flash) from the headlights if an oncoming car.

It's not just oncoming traffic. I have a sedan and if a larger car is behind me the headlight hits my sideview mirror and blinds me.

I can’t see anymore at night and hate driving anywhere I don’t know know because of it. These new lights make things 10000x worse for me

A hassle a when people switch out their halogens for LEDs, but don't replace the housing or at the very least adjust how they're aimed. Ideally, they need a new housing for ventilation purposes.

Headlight position is checked during the annual inspection, so they should at least be correctly aligned for part of the year.

Yes, they are awful. I bought a pair of night driving glasses and they help tremendously.

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This is the problem. People buy cheap lights that can’t be aimed . If the diode are at the wrong angle they will cause blinding to others and also dark spots for the driver. But also 80% of new cars come with leds lights. And also the problem is people.. so many drivers like to use highbeams and don’t give a F about anyone(literally talking to a firend who’s a cop said he pulled over 6cars for not turning down highbeams and 2 drivers said they don’t have to because they can’t see 3 had a low beam out so they thought that was ok and one was dui. ) People don’t care about anyone else but them selves on the roads weather it’s speeding, lane hogging , cellphones. You name it

For me it's cataracts starting up. I avoid night driving when I can but when I have to, I cover my bad eye with my hand and situation greatly improves. Fortunately not that much traffic in these parts. Altho now that it gets dark so early, more problematic.

Focusing on the white shoulder painted line helps, but so many of them are completely faded.

Anti reflective glasses help a little.

Is it though? I’m always curious just how thorough my annual inspection is.

Sad but so true

I had a Tacoma, stock headlights are not even that bright in them so idk why people are flashing you. My model 3 has super bright headlights but I rarely get flashed, my 2012 Taurus had bright lights too and I got flashed all the time in that, but it was all factory.

I will say, I just came back from Iceland and people there were terrible about turning off their high beams, I was constantly blinded by oncoming traffic.

Can’t stand LED lights for this reason and basically every new car has them. And of course everyone and their brother drives either a truck or SUV, so when you’re in a small car you’re constantly getting it from every angle.

I’ve had mechanics do an inspection in like 3 minutes so they can’t be that thorough.

I get mine done at a small local garage, and they have a line painted on the wall to check the headlight height.

Yeah. Mine are BRIGHT. I always feel bad but nothing I can do about it. I agree with OP though, I've got a stigmatism and see a twinkle with lights as is, these halogen/led lights are ridiculously blinding.

My 2015 and now 2020 ford eacape have an auto setting. Its very good at turning high beams on when its really dark road, then switches back to low beam when an on coming car comes down tje road

3 min to inspect the cahhh + 2 min to switch cahhhs x $35/cahhh = $420/hour. I’d hit those numbers too.

I'm thinking about putting a light bar on top of my ford focus just so I can see at night. Level the playing field, you know?

1. Dont look directly into oncoming headlights
2. Use the dimmer on your rear-view

Newer headlights are projected LED/HID which honestly are miles better than halogen but at the cost of being brighter in general. You mentioned being in a rural area, so undulating roads and hills/crests means headlights will sometimes flash drivers, nothing you can do about it.

Now this doesn’t discount the dollar store Edison’s who throw LEDs into halogen housings, lifted trucks/jeeps who dont adjust their lights down or just cracker barrel seniors who drive with their high-beams on all the time.

There are some models (2019 and later RAV4 for sure, I’m assuming others as well) that have the default headlight focused significantly higher than is preferable. They’re not turning their lights down, because they’re not using highbeams… It’s just that their regular beams are aimed to focus much farther forward and therefore hit eye level on oncoming traffic. I noticed it on my parents car and thought it was a fluke, until I also experienced it riding in two different friends’ new RAV4’s. One of said friends went to the dealer to get the lights refocused, and the dealer reported that they are seeing a lot of the new model RAV4 coming with the lights like that by default.

Last week one night I am driving on a local two lane solid striped road, no passing, typical winding backroad. Speed limit is 35. I'm going 40.

There's nobody behind me.

Then suddenly there is this white light filling my rearview mirror. Its some dick in a big pickup truck with bright headlights, foglights AND a bright LED around his license plate.

The guy then flies by me crossing the solid no passing line.

I don't know how he doesn't get pulled over for the lights.

And I bet on Wednesday he'll be flying Trump 2024 flags.

Unfortunately, I've reached the point where I change the angle of my side and rear view mirrors to aim at the vehicle behind me when they're blindingly bright. It's not entirely safe, but I drive the speed limit or less everywhere for the most part so I'm not terribly worried.

Driving used to be fun in the 90's and 00's. Now it just plain sucks. Yes, I understand I'm officially an old man after admitting that.

Totally, but I’ve been in NYC for the past 15 years and I haven’t owned a car. I’m in Rhode Island this year and driving more than I have since, like, 1999 (I lived in Boston prior to NYC and didn’t drive daily like I do here.)

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I’m in the same boat. I feel bad for the oncoming drivers but love how well my auto dimming stock LEDs work.

My car has a feature that's supposed to not blind oncoming cars. I keep it enabled because I'm not evil.

Lots of cars these days also automatically turn off high beams but using that I've found it's not always quick enough. So it's possible it could be high beams not automatically turning off as they should sometimes.

I drove an SUV up until February when I bought a much smaller car and I’m blinded constantly now from behind

Same here. I've always had headlights checked

if you get a higher up car you wont be blinded

For sure he will

Same here and it’s scary, quite honestly. Not looking forward to this winter driving to and from work in the dark.

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Can you tell me more about these??

another danger is police cruisers shadowing your car at night... once they have their eyes on you and want to pull you over just to check, since they did all this work they may feel like to write some sort of warning or even a ticket to meet their daily quota just because they already pulled you over for no reason.. you can also get into an accident from the distraction of a police cruiser literally tail gating you in order to induce you to do some mistake under psychological pressure.. at 2-3 am they literally pull over every 3rd or 5th driver on the road just because it is late.

It's a new car? Bring it back to the dealership and make some noise.

I think most of them don’t even have their brights on. I flash my brights at people like that and a lot of the time they flash back then I get to sit there like

“Well fuck you and your $30K modern vehicle”

The lifted trucks are a different story. Wish I could run them into a telephone pole (causing no injuries) with the power of my mind

I have a missing headlight and I just passed inspection. I was fully prepared to pay the mechanic to install a new one, even mentioned it when I pulled in. Took him about 1 minute to slap the sticker on.

You are correct. The problem is actually that they’re aimed improperly.

They are annoying AF

If you notice super bright lights approaching, look at the road directly in front of you. If they’re behind you, tilt your rearviewmirror. This is better then staring at the super bright lights which makes you so angry you post stupid nonsense like this. Jeez. First time driver over here?

Aren’t they just yellow tinted glasses ?

eh, accidents increasing by 12% in 2021 over covid lockdown 2020 doesn't really mean anything

I notice this a lot too. What I do is pre-emptively use my own brights on empty roads (only on empty roads!) so that when someone turns a corner and blinds me, they see me turn off my brights and then they usually do the same. I'm meticulous about this so it tends to work.

When the lights are too bright look away but not off the road. Look down and to your right and keep your eyes on the solid lane marker. Obviously this is better advice in a rural area without a lot of traffic. And ideally only for a few seconds because of wildlife etc. but it will help you not be blinded temporarily.

(I just realized if you’re not in the right lane the lane marker may be dotted rather than solid. Still, same idea.)

You would cause literal fights. Visualizing this is giving me stitches lmao

Yeah, they’re yellow. I don’t know if they do anything else but they do help. I picked a pair up at Job Lot for $5.

My car's headlights are too bright even on dim. I brought it to both the dealer and an independent shop; borh say there is no adjustment for either brightness or angle.

I hate it. Will never but a car again without checking the headlights.

Two times, I have had to pull my car all the way into the garage and back it out bc the guy doing the inspections couldn't drive a stick 🙃

Chevy i believe faced a lawsuit over overly bright lights in their equinox/traverse. 2018-2020 models i believe.

Everyone thinks brighter is better, but using dimmer LEDs would mKe the lights safer (less glare and sharp contrasts).

This is all good to read because I thought I was just getting older.

I’m in my 20’s and these lights are too bright for me too!

Huh…I had one of those.

Mine are polarized too. Not just yellow.

They make a huge difference. They're not perfect. But much better.

Yep, and their solution is a little frosted sticker stuck on the lens over the hot spot. Cheesy.

I don't think they do that every time anymore. So many headlights are pointed too high it's ridiculous.

I miss the 90's my lifted pickup and the million plus candlepower on the light bar.

In well spaced traffic you see someone not dimming brights and they wouldn't even get to full power before the opposing driver was humbled and complied.

It’s the headlights automakers put in vehicles these days. Contact your local senator if you’re looking for change to be made and stop flashing me because you cannot see. No I don’t have my high rams on sorry not sorry get night time driving glasses.

Stop staring directly into them and crying..

Ugh I hate this so much. I live in central MA aka land of the giant pickup trucks, but silly me I have a sedan. The worst is sitting at a stoplight with the person behind me shining a direct path into my sideview AND rearview mirrors.

Hey asshole, it gets dark at 4:30. Try delivering mail in the dark, and having every other car coming at you have blinding headlights when they all get out of work at the same time.

I need the name of your guy

It's just the LED lights. I got an aftermarket set for my truck and I didn't realize just how bright they were until people started flashing their lights at me constantly. I don't like it, but there's not much I can do now.

I have a (slightly) lifted truck and it's pointless. You still get blinded. The only difference is now when you get blinded there's a risk of running somebody over and not even realizing.

It's bad. I cannot drive at night anymore either. The only way to combat it is to also drive with my high beams on, and that just makes me feel like too much of an a-hole. So I just avoid going anywhere unless it's a very short distance or someone else wants to drive that has good night vision.

How the fuck do you "turn them down"? I get it, some lights are bright, but if that's the way the car is designed and they're not using high beams what do you expect?

Thus is why people get into so many road rage incidents. Unrealistic expectations and constantly being offended at their perception of other people's actions.

> I’m blinded constantly now from behind

adjust your mirrors

Flip the lever on your rear mirror. It'll knock down the brightness a lot.

Adjust your side mirrors to look to the side, not the rear. When adjusted properly, cars directly behind you won't be in your side mirrors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkQX2gkwJoE

They are coming like this from the factory. I'm an old dude who bought a Subaru Outback. I did nothing to it.

I get flashed that I'm using high beams sometimes but I am not. I can't help it. It is designed that way and didn't even know it until I'd been driving it for a while.

Stop crying you big baby.

People not paying attention.

Bright lowbeams...

Cars that are higher enough off the ground than you that make it appear that they have high beams on.

Not always massholes.

Actually alot lower than I thought.

The aim is actually supposed to be checked during inspection and aftermarket kits aren't supposed to be allowed.

A source.

I know I've had my headlight aim checked before, but I can't speak to whether that is checked appropriately everywhere and of course most states don't even do inspections so out of state cars will have whatever.

And that's a bunch of vehicles.

I had not heard of this and I'm sure there are tons of them out there still which haven't seen any fix. I guess it is good that at least someone is being held to account, but this was just one model.

Same

Yeah I’m sure there are others

2018 driving home in the fog we had a massive truck tailgating us, felt incredibly unsafe plus their lights were blinding us so was perhaps the worst driving conditions I have ever been in. If we didn't have a left hand turn coming up in a few miles (thanks CT) we wouldn't have been in the middle lane. I swear the only solution is get LED lights for my car because it's getting more and more dangerous not to have the Angel Eyes

Hi, I see other people have answered your question. They are yellow tinted and dull the glare and allow you to see despite the glare. As others mentioned they are not perfect but they allow you to maintain a level of visibility that you would not have otherwise. Mine were an impulse purchase from Walgreens so I know I paid more than I should have. They were $20. You can probably get them cheaper and in a better style. Mine are unabomber style with yellow tint.... but it's dark when I wear them. Lol

^ found the Trump voter

Yeah cause Biden is doing so much better.

Cops won't pull over trucks like that, most likely another cop driving it. I've seen that behavior in my area from town cops.

Where I live, even before the LED lights came out , people tend to leave their brights on all the time. I'm in western Mass.

I do the same.

Sometimes I've been so blinded, I actually start going into their lane, and then all the sudden these headlights people here are insisting can't be turned down are dimmed...Only when they think a head-on collision might happen.

The number of U.S. traffic deaths surged in the first nine months of 2021 to 31,720, the government reported Tuesday, keeping up a record pace of increased dangerous driving during the coronavirus pandemic.

The estimated figure of people dying in motor vehicle crashes from January to September 2021 was 12% higher than the same period in 2020. That represents the highest percentage increase over a nine-month period since the Transportation Department began recording fatal crash data in 1975.

The tally of 31,720 deaths was the highest nine-month figure since 2006.

> I always feel bad but nothing I can do about it.

This is likely not the case. Ask your mechanic to lower the direction. There are adjustment screws for this purpose if you wish to attempt it yourself.

What type of car do you own?

Yea these new HID lamps should be illegal. I've managed to combat it a bit by tinting my side and rearview mirrors. Doesn't help with oncoming lights but it does a lot to help when one of these damn new vehicles is behind you at night. Not legal where I live and I was pulled over once for it but I was let off with a warning after explaining why they were tinted. I think the officer agreed with me about these newer vehicles being dangerously bright. I still have them tinted and havent had any issues since but I'm always nervous about it.

Yeah, this is dangerous. Very much dangerous.

Man you’d hate my truck lol. Aftermarket Morimoto LED lights that are advertised as something silly like 340% brighter than stock. Flash your lights at me because you think I have my brights on and I’ll introduce the sun to your face. They’re quite nice and DOT approved so suck it.

People are just mostly stupid assholes.they prob shouldn't even have a license most likely

Oh the irony happy cake day!!!

I thought my brand new SUV had incorrectly aimed lows, so I asked the dealer to re-aim them and they said that they were correct and wouldn't lower them. I didn't want these ridiculous lights, I don't know why this has become a thing. Sorry to everyone who thinks I have my brights on.

There’s a difference between high beams and LEDS. LEDS are not a problem to me. But I have noticed more people driver with their high beams on and that’s been pissing me off. Last few weeks I have had drivers behind me on the highway with their high beams on. And there is a distinct difference in color of LEDS and high beams.

I bought new LED headlights and they are brighter than I wanted them to be. Even without highbeams on they are extremely bright and there’s no way to control that

Thanks

I should not need sunglasses to drive at night.

It doesn’t solve the issue, and the glasses seem like a good idea. A strategy I was taught in driving school was to look at the white line on the side of the road ahead of you as someone with high beams go by. If you look far enough up at the white line, you can basically see what is in front of you, but you are not looking straight into the lights.

I literally wear my sunglasses at night because of this

This headlights are just way to bright and white now not like the old amber glow

My new car has the auto high beam feature..I’m not so sure I’m a fan. Often if I’m in a corner or a hill the car is late to dim the lights. I have gotten flashed a few times already by other drivers..

I feel bad..

Same. Just got a new SUV a few days ago. I’ve gotten people flashing at me multiple times. My brights aren’t on!! I’m sorry the typical lights are so bright but i didn’t choose it 🤷‍♀️

What a lovely attitude to have. Must be hard walking around with a giant chip on your shoulder all the time.

A lot of newer cars have auto high beams. But by the time they dim it’s too late. I already see stars.

I don’t think those super bright white LED headlights are even the high beams. I only say this because I was driving to work one morning, around 5:30, and a truck with the super brights was blinding me so I flashed my highs at them….and they proceeded to flash their actual highs at me, which was like looking into the sun. I think what you’re looking at is their standard headlight now

Just has a bunch of other people have said I wouldn’t be surprised if what seems like high beams is actually just the regular headlights. I know for my car they are very bright and there’s just no way to turn the headlights them lower so even though they may look like high beams, they are not. Luckily, some of the newer vehicles have technology that automatically aims the headlights lower when it detects a vehicle. Mine seem to do a pretty good job of staying on the bumper of the car in front of me rather than in the back window

Even with your side mirrors adjusted correctly you’ll still get blinded by anyone in adjacent lanes. The night setting on the rear view does keep light out of your eyes, but it doesn’t stop your entire cabin from being filled with the light of a thousand suns from the Ram 2500 tailgating you.

Source: person with correctly adjusted side mirrors

Really depends on where you go. I’ve been failed for one of my three license plate lights being out, but I’ve also been passed with a faulty O2 sensor

It's much worse when your mirrors are badly adjusted.

Exactly. I had an old Ford Explorer that would throw a check engine light every now and then. I rolled into a wrecking yard once and asked where I should go. They pointed me in the right direction. All taxis when I got there. Long story short: I left with a sticker.

Your headlights aren’t aligned. Lower them, read the manual to see how.

I had cataract surgery and before that headlights would reflect off my cataracts. It got so bad I couldn’t drive at night.

I’m thinking about buying a pair of prescription night driving glasses. Probably better than the cheapie $5 ones I have.

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Thanks Corey but we already knew that.

Same. My new Jeep Cherokee has super bright lights. People flash their brights at me all the time. So then I really turn the brights on give them a taste of their own medicine. I agree they are too bright

My solution is simple. If the vehicle coming towards you have lights that seem like they are on high, I simply turn my high beams on. If they turn their high beams off, then so do I. If instead if they flash their high beams to show me they are using their low beams, then I simply leave my highs on so I can see where I am going. My responsibility is to make sure I can see when their lights make it difficult even if it means using my highs against their overly bright lows.

Equally bad to me is the number of people in huge SUVs and pickups right behind me in a little sedan.

Sometimes even switching the rearview to night mode doesn’t help, it’s so distracting

Yes the song plays in my head every time I put them on at night. Wicked annoying

And some of the other suckers turn on their headlights even in the morning.

My Toyota is like this too. People flash me and I don’t know what to do.

My wife has a toyota and people always flash at us. When i asked at the dealer, they said they were adjusted corrrectly but just bright. Seemed like they get asked about it alot, they seemed to know right off the bat about it

I had the same conversation with the dealer at the first service appointment. 🤷‍♂️

Lol Huge 50 thousand dollar truck with triple LEDs driven by a teenager, get fucked, this is mass

> It’s like they’re aimed too high.

There are loopholes in US auto regulations which have led to this. Theoretically it will be getting fixed by an act of Congress any year now. Then we just have to wait for all the vehicles which now pass code to age out of the nationwide fleet.

It’s not that they’re not turned down, this is how they are. Not only are they mounted higher (on pickups and SUVs), they are also bluer than the halogen lights and this is part of the problem: Headlight strength is measured in how they affect a certain part of the eye and the unit is called Lumens. But this part of the eye is more sensitive to red light than blue, so to get the same Lumen, a blue light must be much stronger. And LEDs are much bluer than the older halogen lights. (Auto makers could make them warmer but have chosen not to).

So if an LED light and a halogen light register the same Lumen value on the light meter, the LED light would look 40% brighter. This is also why LED street lamps look so bright. They have the same Lumen value as older lamps but are brighter.

Congress has passed a bipartisan bill which requires regulators approve “adaptive driving beams” by 2023. Adaptive lights will be controlled by software to regulate the strength of the light based on driving conditions. Hopefully this will lead to some relief from the glare soon!

Yeah I read the adaptive lights already used in European cars are also able to aim down and to the side when oncoming car is detected. Won't help with all the aftermarket lights though.

Was driving back to Western Mass from Boston today and I noticed that the ones with the most obnoxious lights were on pickup trucks - 2-3 rows of glaring lights and what didn't make sense to me is they were blasting them while in heavy traffic, clustered in a group of cars less than 10 feet apart from one another...So it wasn't to light the way, just being asinine.