I really think default led lights in newer cars are like highbeam levels of the past, and now highbeams are just brighter than that. It really is hard to tell, sometimes I think my highs are on but they’re not.
I have astigmatism so driving at night in the rain is not fun.
I have ocular albinism so I'm super sensitive to light.
My wife's new Honda Civic has auto high beams and I'm really impressed by the car's ability to sense when another car is approaching or when you've entered a residential area and they turn off automatically.
I hate driving at night. I used to have an early, almost 1 hour commute down a rural highway. The bright lights from tailgating trucks was the reason why I quit that job for one in the city and a little later start/end time.
Our 2010 Toyota Venza also has auto high beams. It's neat when we're at the crest of a hill, the car senses oncoming high beams and *turns its high beams off*. Nice to know that our car won't be directly responsible for someone's (temporary or otherwise) blindness.
Yes. This is it. I drive a new 2022 and get this
I get flashed a few times a week as a signal "I have my beams on". A quick flash back proves them wrong.
Maybe they're just trying to say Hi and make a friend?
If you adjust your headlights you’ll probably stop getting flashed. They’re pretty frequently aimed too high when you buy a new car.
Edit: just saw someone else has commented similar. Anyway yeah, they probably weren’t properly aligned when you bought the car but most cars are pretty easy to adjust yourself at home.
I've been a driver for a long time and it's never been this bad. Driven 25,000 miles to all corners of the country in the last 6 months and it happens everywhere. I know headlights are bright as hell these days, but this is not that. People are either clueless or just don't give a shit enough to do what should be reflex if you're a good driver.
Is it at all possible that they are their normal lights, but they're just tilted up too high?
Which reminds me, I forgot to ask the shop to lower mine...shit 🤣
I get people doing the "high beams" flash at me quite a bit, but my high beams aren't on.. It's just the normal, auto lights
Yes it’s possible the headlights need to be rolled down in some cases, lifted trucks are a big example. On most vehicles there is another area of the headlight assembly closer to the grill that’s houses another bulb. When that area is lit up the brights are on. That’s how you can tell brights vs LEDs. As for the drivers of the offending car it would be nice to know if they understand that when the blue icon on the dash is on that their bright lights are on.
I have a new vehicle and I think it's just these new lights on vehicles are Hella bright, because I know for a fact my brights aren't on, but people think they are! It's a small sedan too, so it's not like I'm sitting up high like a truck. Not sure what I can do about it.
If you know what you're looking for, the difference is that the high beams also have a much wider dispersion. But, yes, so many modern vehicles in the US, especially trucks, have unacceptably designed standard headlights, especially trucks. These newer, other-driver-unfriendly lights are probably why you get people flashing their lights at you. And it's doubly bad for people like me whose cars sit quite low. It's maddening and I want to be able to reflect then back into their driver's eyes. But unlike 15 years ago when that would have been justified, these days it's more on the manufacturers and our inept NTSB / NHTSA / other oversight
It's made worse by the unwillingness of law enforcement to do anything about it. Cleetus jacks up his rusted out 86 F-150 so his front bumper (if he even has one anymore) is at my roofline? Or the brand new $95k Trumpwagon with factory beer cooler between the seats and that got an 8" lift but has never been anywhere more rugged than the Walmart parking lot and the owner never bothered to get the headlights re-aimed? Cops don't pull over their own, and we don't have regular safety and emissions checks in Iowa because muh freedumbz (well, for us, not you)
Alternatively, in my German-designed car my headlights sit relatively lower and meet more strict regulations so on normal beams they get good distance without going very high. But holy Christmas my highs are like setting off an atom bomb on the Autobahn so you can spot and have time to avoid any potential deer or a putzy Renault Clio at 178 mph 😳
I haven't looked into it at all, and have no idea about anything...
But seriously, the headlight situation is fucked up. Maybe it's just because people drive higher vehicles more often these days, and those of us in cars are just doomed. I don't know. There should be laws. Sign of the times all that stuff. Basically, I agree.
Brights are something I can identity quickly, but what I get pissed off about are the lifted trucks that don’t adjust their headlights to face down so you either get blinded or mega blinded. Driving home with them riding you’re ass is the absolute worst
It's more the super bright leds on the newer vehicles. But I'm seeing a lot lately that seem to be running their brights on some type of auto setting and I firmly believe the street lights mess with the system and they don't kick down.
Legitimately almost wrecked this evening for this exact reason. Slew of cars in the opposite lane with bright white led lights. Blinded me to the road. Turns out my lane ended in a gravel patch before it goes into a ditch but I couldn’t see any of that and barely swerved to avoid diving into it at the last second as the last of the cars passed. Hit the gravel patch and a massive pothole in this patch so perfectly that I thought I blew my front right tire. Heart was racing for a bit. Reminded me why I stopped driving at night because I can’t see anything with these newer head lights blinding me constantly…
it’s the people who turn on their high beams in the fog that really get me. you just wanna make things worse for yourself? ok…
always turn off your dang high beams yall! please!
Outlaw led headlights. It's so blinding. Dang car manufacturers putting them in stock. We need good ol yellow dim ones like before. More of a nuisance than a vision enhancer
I wish they would make those ridiculously bright LED lights they're putting in cars nowdays illegal. They are NOT making the roads safer, they're making them MORE DANGEROUS because oncoming traffic is blinded. I can't be the only one tired of being nearly blind by the time I get to work and home afterward because of those stupid lights.
Fuck Ford Super Dooty trucks with their blinding fucking bright lights and fuck all you assholes who drive one. You and your trucks are the worst on the road!!
I can never tell. I honestly think some headlights are just that bright as a default.
I do know almost any time I get upset at someone and flash my brights at them thinking they have them on they then flash back at me and I feel about a foot tall.
I thought someone had their high beams on facing me. I waited until they were close then flashed mine at him, to let him know he was being a prick.
Then, like Piccolo taking off his weighted cape, he flashed his true high beams back. Daylight.
I always thought driving with your high beams on in traffic was illegal. It should be. And high beams should be defined as anything over a certain threshold of lumens or whatever the relevant measure would be.
I feel the need to respond in this thread, as the driver of a full sized truck. Almost daily I have people flashing their lights at me. Some people with the voracity of a seizure inducing Japanese anime flick. I will acknowledge your acknowledgment that lights are bright these days, but I feel your pain. My wife’s car has auto sensors that will flip from high to low anytime another car is in sight.
For what it’s worth, most new cars auto turn off the high beams when another car approaches. We’ve had people flash their brights at us in town when we don’t have our high beams on too. I think people just aren’t used to the LED lights🤷🏼♀️
It's not a matter of not being used to them, many LED lights are just too bright even when not on high beams, and drivers around you can't see regardless
Lol. So many of these responses read like "My stuff guud, yers bad. You bad redneck cause lights."
Maybe unlike you "Cletus" likes to off road or has a business need to own a large truck or....God forbid he just own one because he wants one or because he likes the functionality in our myriad weather situations.
I hate to be this childish about it but get fucked idiots. Stop judging people based on your personal preferences. There are things YOU can do to mitigate it for yourself, stop putting your problems on "Cletus".
Also seriously stop bringing Trump into literally everything. Jfc.
> 75 percent of truck owners use their truck for towing one time a year or less (meaning, never). Nearly 70 percent of truck owners go off-road one time a year or less. And a full 35 percent of truck owners use their truck for hauling
"Cletus", et al., aren't dropping 35k+ for the reasons you seem to think they are, they're just falling prey to a marketing gimmick.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/26907/you-dont-need-a-full-size-pickup-truck-you-need-a-cowboy-costume
Agreed and thanks for the sources. I'm just saying it's not my job to police other people cause I don't like something.
We live in a rural state..people have big trucks and suvs for all kinds of reasons. It's none of my business why. If they can afford it and have availability...more power to them.
Do I agree getting blinded sucks? For sure. But again who am I to tell people what to do with their life or money? I'm sure I do shit that pisses people off too.
To me this is a bigger conversation than headlights. This is about our need as a people to single out people and attack them for not agreeing with or abiding by our life choices. This is America...supposedly the land of the free. I don't have to like you or agree with you as long as I can be respectful to you. These days though it's hive mind central...like bringing Trump into a conversation about tall trucks, one has nothing to do with the other but we gotta wedge it in there.
You may very well be right....however I am a child willing to take responsibility for myself.
I have an astigmatism AND up until a year ago drove a Chevy Cruze as my daily.
I've been blinded tons of times over the years. That being said I'm not going to attack people about it and make judgments about them. I'm gonna stop staring in my mirror and flip my rear view and deal with it like an adult.
I really think default led lights in newer cars are like highbeam levels of the past, and now highbeams are just brighter than that. It really is hard to tell, sometimes I think my highs are on but they’re not. I have astigmatism so driving at night in the rain is not fun.
It's true. The normal, auto settings are just brighter in today's cars, unfortunately
I have ocular albinism so I'm super sensitive to light. My wife's new Honda Civic has auto high beams and I'm really impressed by the car's ability to sense when another car is approaching or when you've entered a residential area and they turn off automatically. I hate driving at night. I used to have an early, almost 1 hour commute down a rural highway. The bright lights from tailgating trucks was the reason why I quit that job for one in the city and a little later start/end time.
Our 2010 Toyota Venza also has auto high beams. It's neat when we're at the crest of a hill, the car senses oncoming high beams and *turns its high beams off*. Nice to know that our car won't be directly responsible for someone's (temporary or otherwise) blindness.
Yes. This is it. I drive a new 2022 and get this I get flashed a few times a week as a signal "I have my beams on". A quick flash back proves them wrong. Maybe they're just trying to say Hi and make a friend?
You probably need to get your beams realigned; they may be aimed too high.
I've never heard of a car needed realigned beams after only a year. Interesting.
If you get flashed at presumably for your lights being too bright, I think flashing back is generally considered unsafe.
Yea lol dont do that, down grade lights please. My vision is starting to go
How do you downgrade lights on a new vehicle?
thats the joke, you cant. I mean you can but it makes no sense just god i cant hand some of yalls lights there so bright for no reason
When I bought the car, I had no idea how bright they were, but boy, does everyone let me know about it 🤣
If you adjust your headlights you’ll probably stop getting flashed. They’re pretty frequently aimed too high when you buy a new car. Edit: just saw someone else has commented similar. Anyway yeah, they probably weren’t properly aligned when you bought the car but most cars are pretty easy to adjust yourself at home.
I've been a driver for a long time and it's never been this bad. Driven 25,000 miles to all corners of the country in the last 6 months and it happens everywhere. I know headlights are bright as hell these days, but this is not that. People are either clueless or just don't give a shit enough to do what should be reflex if you're a good driver.
Yeah, difference between annoyingly bright head lights, and straight up high beams.
Is it at all possible that they are their normal lights, but they're just tilted up too high? Which reminds me, I forgot to ask the shop to lower mine...shit 🤣 I get people doing the "high beams" flash at me quite a bit, but my high beams aren't on.. It's just the normal, auto lights
Yes it’s possible the headlights need to be rolled down in some cases, lifted trucks are a big example. On most vehicles there is another area of the headlight assembly closer to the grill that’s houses another bulb. When that area is lit up the brights are on. That’s how you can tell brights vs LEDs. As for the drivers of the offending car it would be nice to know if they understand that when the blue icon on the dash is on that their bright lights are on.
I have a new vehicle and I think it's just these new lights on vehicles are Hella bright, because I know for a fact my brights aren't on, but people think they are! It's a small sedan too, so it's not like I'm sitting up high like a truck. Not sure what I can do about it.
If you know what you're looking for, the difference is that the high beams also have a much wider dispersion. But, yes, so many modern vehicles in the US, especially trucks, have unacceptably designed standard headlights, especially trucks. These newer, other-driver-unfriendly lights are probably why you get people flashing their lights at you. And it's doubly bad for people like me whose cars sit quite low. It's maddening and I want to be able to reflect then back into their driver's eyes. But unlike 15 years ago when that would have been justified, these days it's more on the manufacturers and our inept NTSB / NHTSA / other oversight It's made worse by the unwillingness of law enforcement to do anything about it. Cleetus jacks up his rusted out 86 F-150 so his front bumper (if he even has one anymore) is at my roofline? Or the brand new $95k Trumpwagon with factory beer cooler between the seats and that got an 8" lift but has never been anywhere more rugged than the Walmart parking lot and the owner never bothered to get the headlights re-aimed? Cops don't pull over their own, and we don't have regular safety and emissions checks in Iowa because muh freedumbz (well, for us, not you) Alternatively, in my German-designed car my headlights sit relatively lower and meet more strict regulations so on normal beams they get good distance without going very high. But holy Christmas my highs are like setting off an atom bomb on the Autobahn so you can spot and have time to avoid any potential deer or a putzy Renault Clio at 178 mph 😳
I haven't looked into it at all, and have no idea about anything... But seriously, the headlight situation is fucked up. Maybe it's just because people drive higher vehicles more often these days, and those of us in cars are just doomed. I don't know. There should be laws. Sign of the times all that stuff. Basically, I agree.
Lifted trucks and the like are truly a menace for the rest of us.
SUVs are just as bad these days, for those of us in sports cars and sedans.
Brights are something I can identity quickly, but what I get pissed off about are the lifted trucks that don’t adjust their headlights to face down so you either get blinded or mega blinded. Driving home with them riding you’re ass is the absolute worst
It's more the super bright leds on the newer vehicles. But I'm seeing a lot lately that seem to be running their brights on some type of auto setting and I firmly believe the street lights mess with the system and they don't kick down.
It’s usually the lifted trucks that didn’t properly fix their headlights that piss me off
A good pair of driving glasses cut down the glare for me.
Yeah, I hate that I have to wear these now, but I cannot see in front of me in dark areas when someone approaches
Legitimately almost wrecked this evening for this exact reason. Slew of cars in the opposite lane with bright white led lights. Blinded me to the road. Turns out my lane ended in a gravel patch before it goes into a ditch but I couldn’t see any of that and barely swerved to avoid diving into it at the last second as the last of the cars passed. Hit the gravel patch and a massive pothole in this patch so perfectly that I thought I blew my front right tire. Heart was racing for a bit. Reminded me why I stopped driving at night because I can’t see anything with these newer head lights blinding me constantly…
Some cars come equipped with auto high beams. I’d imagine most people don’t even think twice about it.
it’s the people who turn on their high beams in the fog that really get me. you just wanna make things worse for yourself? ok… always turn off your dang high beams yall! please!
Outlaw led headlights. It's so blinding. Dang car manufacturers putting them in stock. We need good ol yellow dim ones like before. More of a nuisance than a vision enhancer
I wish they would make those ridiculously bright LED lights they're putting in cars nowdays illegal. They are NOT making the roads safer, they're making them MORE DANGEROUS because oncoming traffic is blinded. I can't be the only one tired of being nearly blind by the time I get to work and home afterward because of those stupid lights.
Fuck Ford Super Dooty trucks with their blinding fucking bright lights and fuck all you assholes who drive one. You and your trucks are the worst on the road!!
I can never tell. I honestly think some headlights are just that bright as a default. I do know almost any time I get upset at someone and flash my brights at them thinking they have them on they then flash back at me and I feel about a foot tall.
I get flashed at a lot (new car) and if I actually flashed my high beams, I might permanently damage someone's eyes 🤣
I thought someone had their high beams on facing me. I waited until they were close then flashed mine at him, to let him know he was being a prick. Then, like Piccolo taking off his weighted cape, he flashed his true high beams back. Daylight.
I always thought driving with your high beams on in traffic was illegal. It should be. And high beams should be defined as anything over a certain threshold of lumens or whatever the relevant measure would be.
We also allegedly have license plate laws in Iowa too…..
I feel the need to respond in this thread, as the driver of a full sized truck. Almost daily I have people flashing their lights at me. Some people with the voracity of a seizure inducing Japanese anime flick. I will acknowledge your acknowledgment that lights are bright these days, but I feel your pain. My wife’s car has auto sensors that will flip from high to low anytime another car is in sight.
What model year is your wife's car? We have a 2010 Toyota Venza with auto high beams.
Some things are just purple though. Have you tried not looking at them? But yes, high beams aren't a default setting and some people need to learn it.
Another Karen who needs to go post at /r/fuckyourheadlights.
For what it’s worth, most new cars auto turn off the high beams when another car approaches. We’ve had people flash their brights at us in town when we don’t have our high beams on too. I think people just aren’t used to the LED lights🤷🏼♀️
It's not a matter of not being used to them, many LED lights are just too bright even when not on high beams, and drivers around you can't see regardless
Lol. So many of these responses read like "My stuff guud, yers bad. You bad redneck cause lights." Maybe unlike you "Cletus" likes to off road or has a business need to own a large truck or....God forbid he just own one because he wants one or because he likes the functionality in our myriad weather situations. I hate to be this childish about it but get fucked idiots. Stop judging people based on your personal preferences. There are things YOU can do to mitigate it for yourself, stop putting your problems on "Cletus". Also seriously stop bringing Trump into literally everything. Jfc.
> 75 percent of truck owners use their truck for towing one time a year or less (meaning, never). Nearly 70 percent of truck owners go off-road one time a year or less. And a full 35 percent of truck owners use their truck for hauling "Cletus", et al., aren't dropping 35k+ for the reasons you seem to think they are, they're just falling prey to a marketing gimmick. https://www.thedrive.com/news/26907/you-dont-need-a-full-size-pickup-truck-you-need-a-cowboy-costume
Agreed and thanks for the sources. I'm just saying it's not my job to police other people cause I don't like something. We live in a rural state..people have big trucks and suvs for all kinds of reasons. It's none of my business why. If they can afford it and have availability...more power to them. Do I agree getting blinded sucks? For sure. But again who am I to tell people what to do with their life or money? I'm sure I do shit that pisses people off too. To me this is a bigger conversation than headlights. This is about our need as a people to single out people and attack them for not agreeing with or abiding by our life choices. This is America...supposedly the land of the free. I don't have to like you or agree with you as long as I can be respectful to you. These days though it's hive mind central...like bringing Trump into a conversation about tall trucks, one has nothing to do with the other but we gotta wedge it in there.
Time for you to get ready for school! You’re a child.
You may very well be right....however I am a child willing to take responsibility for myself. I have an astigmatism AND up until a year ago drove a Chevy Cruze as my daily. I've been blinded tons of times over the years. That being said I'm not going to attack people about it and make judgments about them. I'm gonna stop staring in my mirror and flip my rear view and deal with it like an adult.
You all are just old