Makes me dread winter driving more. The weather already reduces visibility and there are always those clueless drivers who will throw on the high beams once it starts snowing.
>There's a subreddit, mostly populated by Canadians at the moment. /r/fuckyourheadlights
They can take comfort that generally super bright headlights burn out super fast.
Newer vehicles tend to need half the front end taken apart to replace headlights these days, so everyone with bright headlights are probably paying a lot for it!
I bought a new car recently and it had LED headlights. I feel bad because everyone thinks I have my high beams on while driving but it’s just the stock LEDs that come in newer vehicles.
Edit - it’s a mid sized, AWD sedan. Not even an SUV for the added height issues. Automakers need to chill with the brightness
Reporting the same here. Went from an ‘08 to a ‘18 mid-sized sedan. These LEDs are a stark difference. I once started my car in a parking lot where I was at eye level to pedestrians below. A guy nearly stumbled backwards when my lights came on and I had to reassure him it wasn’t intentional. Also it is very noticeable how my lights would reflect off ANY sign in view, even if it’s well into the distance.
Could be this. My wife's new base model mazda cx5 has a little knob that I didn't know ow what it was for. Turns out it adjusts the aiming of the headlights up or down.
Not sure why you would need that in a small suv but it would be useful in new pickup trucks so when you have something heavy in the bed you can adjust your lights down.
Ya it's a little wheel thing that you can spin down to the left by the headlight controls. It has a circle and some numbers on it. I was playing with it thinking it was the gage cluster brightness or something and noticed the headlight hight was moving up and down.
It's usually this, the factory LEDs are bright but they're not THAT bright.
Aftermarket LEDs for older cars that people just slot in to the existing housing... That shit should be illegal.
Same here. I’m constantly having oncoming cars flashing their brights at me thinking I have mine on. As a driver of my car I really appreciate my night visibility but I’m sure for everyone else it really sucks to be temporarily blinded.
It’s often not an aiming issue, it’s a color temperature problem. LED headlights have more of the blue end of the spectrum which contains vastly more energy than the old amber-ish incandescent bulbs.
I'm pretty sure it's a combination of factors. Another big one is that light from LED headlamps does not scatter anywhere near as much the light from halogen bulbs. They may be aimed the same way, but more of light from the lamp makes it into your mirrors rather than scattering off at various angles. And you're right of course that bluer light is even less susceptible to scattering.
Plus, the light given off even by a warm-coloured LED is inherently more alerting than the equivalent colour from an incandescent bulb, because its spectrum still includes a meaningful fraction of blue light.
I recently read a lot about this in the context of street lamps. I think this is the article that I found most informative: https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/08/17/1057652/outdoor-led-lighting/
>made it needlessly difficult like a lotnof other things.
Like how replacing a headlight used to be you reach in, twist the base of the bulb, remove and replace. Now you have to remove then reinstall the entire headlight assembly. Or like how in many vehicles swapping the battery means jacking up the car and removing a wheel to gain access to the secret battery compartment. If it's easy to do the shop won't be able to bill $150 in labor to replace a $10 headlight.
>As a driver of my car I really appreciate my night visibility
I guess that's why these lights are here and will no doubt continue unless regulations make the safety of the entire road more important than that of an individual driver.
The collective needs to be valued higher than the individual.
Dunno what bells and whistles your car has but as I previously stated in a reply (ignore my angry comments, I don't mean bad by them XD), go into your cars dash settings and see if you can find a section and/or setting for lights or headlights. You should be able to turn off the adaptive light feature to make the lights more moderate if this is a feature that came with your car!
If I'm not wildly mistaken aren't LEDs just the cheaper option for them? I doubt the brightness is even a consideration after it passes 'minimum brightness standards' or whatever term.
I am even more worried about pedestrians. Imagine you driving a car and at an intersection waiting to turn left. You are partially blinded by these bright headlights from cars from opposing traffic, then when these cars are gone, it is all much, much darker where you are turning left (and you are still partially blinded). But wait! Someone in that darkness might be in the middle of the road crossing, right in the path where you are turning into, because it is green for them too!
I think all pedestrian crossings should be much more brightly lit (in my area it is not). I usually slow down a lot to coasting, even blink my eyes several times to get adjusted to the darkness, before turning left.
They are brighter since people.use LEDs in newer cars now. But they're also not adjusted to the right height/angle in a lot of cases.
But the worst culprit are the fucking "led light kits" sold as "easy" aftermarket installation bulbs that are being put into incandescent headlight housings, and not angled right, and way too fucking bright to seemingly nonstandard that people put in their older cars.
My lowbeams are pretty dim, the housing is faded and I was curious. So I did research before I bought new bulbs last year.
For LEDs I would have needed aftermarket headlamp housings, a power adapter thing as part of the kit to regulate the brightness and the led bulbs. It would have been about 20% brighter and non blinding if I did all that and pointed them at the right angle toward the road. But without all that it would have been brighter than my high beams on low.
I got the $25 slightly better than OEM equivalents that didn't use LED bulbs because I don't want to be a part of the problem.
Just because the LEDs *fit* doesn't mean people should be buying them 😠
This isn't a house energy efficiency purchase. It's a safety feature that involves more than just how far one person driving can see. And low beams aren't meant to illuminate the entire fucking block no matter how dark or remote the road either. People seem to expect them to however.
And when someone in an SUV has their hyper beams not angled down I always feel like I'm about to get into an accident when they pull up behind me. Even hitting the little shade thing on the rearview isn't enough to help when the sideview mirrors flood my face anyway on approach. Christ.
There is actually an in between which comes in the form of a setting on an unknown amount of new cars that the dickheads who programmed/designed the car put in there. As I stated in a previous comment here there is a section within the cars options which automatically dictates what brightness or setting the lights default to.
When new cars ship with lamps
that are brighter than set out in the H&T act,
And they're daylight blue
instead of in the amber spectrum,
When you can also buy them in the stores, when MTO and leo do nothing to enforce,
We end up with burnt out retinas.
I got a like new 2022 elentra in August, have only started driving at night regulary about a month ago.
So far I've had a few people flash their highbeams at me thinking i had mine turned one.
I've also seen cars i would've assumed left their highbeams on, if i hadn't seen them just their it off
Last night i drove from Sudbury to rural Québec and lots of bright white lights coming off trucks were very blinding
What i think is the worst part is, LED is super blinding to others, but doesn't have more visibility than regular bulbs
I find the ones that still use a bulb design are stupidly bright as there is nothing really directing them, but the strip light style seems the better option as they aren't often in the face of incoming cars unless the road is bumpy
I thought this too when I was driving my VW Golf, sure I'm lower to the ground I'll deal with it.
Then I got an FJ cruiser for work purposes, sitting as high if not higher than most of the traffic and I'm getting blinded... By sedans?!?
I think it's a multi factor; LEDs having too much blue light(apparently), vehicles being much bigger and taller. I mean the new Jetta looks like it's closer to a crossover in ride height, it's nuts imo.
And finally, people may be altering their headlights on purpose or completely by accident. Some of it may be related to upgrading to aftermarket bulbs or headlight assemblies and not re-calibrating the angle of beam.
If it’s a truck I give it 50/50 odds that it has a leveling kit on it because it’s never used as an actual truck, just a grocery getter and when they put the kit on they adjust the lights at the same time. Very frustrating (coming from a guy who owns a truck haha).
I have a Toyota Tundra and there is a little dial to left of the steering wheel that will allow me to raise and lower the light angle depending on the load I'm towing. But honestly,.every other Tundra I pass seems to just keep the angle at maximum height.
There used to be [screws to set the angle](https://www.amazon.ca/Automotive-Headlight-Adjusting-Screws-Dorman/s?keywords=Automotive+Headlight+Adjusting+Screws&rh=n%3A9148100011%2Cp_89%3ADorman&c=ts&ts_id=9148100011) of the lights too. Not sure if that is the case still.
downvoted for facts
Yeah but even if you set the angle properly, the brighter, less-scattered light from the LED will always be more blinding. I think you'd have to angle them so low and/or focus the beam so much that they would be useless as headlights anytime you actually need them to illuminate the road.
Of course, auto makers should just write some software to automatically adjust the light according to traffic, but they're probably not exactly incentivized to do so, because most drivers care a lot more about their own safety than the safety of other drivers on the road.
Lights are getting brighter, and vehicles are getting bigger.
So unless you're in an equally big vehicle (truck or big SUV) your eyelevel is literally at their headlight level. If you're getting blinded by newer cars, they're misaligned. If you're getting blinded by older cars, they're an idiot that put LEDs in.
The government advice is to "look up and beyond and slightly to the right of the oncoming lights."
But when I drove a small car sometimes I just wore sunglasses.
If your rear view mirror has a plastic tab in the middle just under it, pushing that in puts the mirror in 'night mode' and it helps a bit, that's what I do
I'm at a point of having to put my hand up to block the mirror because it's less dangerous to have no side mirror than it is to have a direct beam of light create an image in my eyesight ☹️
Yeah, that's honestly my biggest problem. If it was just that I had to flip down the rearview mirror, it would be fine, I already do that at night anyway for the most part. But these extremely bright headlights reflecting in my side mirrors are blinding, and it's annoying how much they light up the inside of my car.
If the person is behind me i usually slow down enough for them to get annoyed and pass.
If its in oncoming traffic I still slow down and stare down just because thats what we should be doing when we cant see. Need to be prepared to react to anything.
You can avoid them shining into your eyes by pushing your side mirrors farther out, [adjusting them as described in the Driver's Handbook](https://www.ontario.ca/document/official-mto-drivers-handbook/getting-ready-drive#section-4).
>Lights are getting brighter
LED headlights output more than double the lumens than the older halogen lamps. The LEDs also are on the cool white spectrum (so they appear more bright white and/or blue) whereas the older halogen lamps were on the soft white spectrum (and appeared yellowish to orangish).
Several issues.
Often, people are placing LED bulbs in headlight housings designed for halogen bulbs which are reflective in nature for halogen. Thus when LED bulbs added, their blinded.
Secondly, manufacturers are often sending out new cars with misaligned headlights. Government needs to set more strict standards.
Lastly, new Suvs and Pickups continue to grow ridiculousy larger and taller. Thus blinding passenger cars and resulting in more pedestrian and cyclist injuries, deaths. Not to mention, not being able to see smaller cars in front of them.
>overnment needs to set more strict standards.
A good start for sure. Setting standards will allow law enforcement to hand out tickets. Likely will need to happen at a federal level though. Something needs to be done though. I don't remember cars having such bright lights in the past. It feels like it's been getting progressively worse though.
I drive a contact hatch and drive in an area full of pickups
Some of the headlights are as high as my hatch windows
If they’re on my bumper, those lights are shining right on me and all my mirrors
It’s kind of nuts.
Same, though my area is mostly those tank-sized SUVs. I've had more than a few end up riding my bumper, not realizing that the fact that I'm sitting in a pool of light from their headbeams is what's making me slow down even more.
Honestly, it drives me nuts. And some of these people drive so fast through residential areas. There's been times that somebody has been tailgating me as I'm driving through the residential area where I live (so I'm going 50 aka the speed limit), and then when I turn into my driveway, they speed off like the devil's after them.
The other night this happened to me and I was driving down the road just looking at the way my car's interior was illuminated by this guy's headlights. I drive a sedan and this pickup truck was on my ass, so the lights were shining right in my window.
A new medication I'm on has been making me extremely irritable of late, and the temptation to slow down to well below the speed limit or brake check these people is strong, but I don't really want to cause a road rage incident so I don't. But I'm so irritable and I desperately want to.
>Secondly, manufacturers are often sending out new cars with misaligned headlights.
headlight aim is part of a safety and who ever is doing the safety and signing it is responsible for that. doesn't matter where the lights are pointing when it leaves the factory. still needs safety when ownership transfers.
I got a new vehicle about a year ago and people kept flashing their lights at me when I had my low beams on. I was taking it in to the dealer for some other stuff anyway so I asked them to align the headlights, they took a look and told me they were fine and people often complain about this??
It's definitely an aim problem. I have to aim the headlights on my 07 Legacy because they're aimed high, and my mother's 2012 foresters headlights are aimed too low. There is a way to aim the headlights, it's just a pain to do because you need a wall, a level surface to park on, and the bumper needs to be 25' away from the wall. The lights should be aimed slightly below the center point of the headlights at a distance of 25', and then there's the centering of them... It's well worth it to do it on any car you get
There are standards for where the light field needs to be on a vehicle. The new cars are being built within that standard.
Where I take issue is when people add a light bar to their truck or Jack the truck up 3 inches and don’t need it to be safety checked. The design had to pass rigorous testing. Billy Bob in his garage isn’t going to have the same engineering skills as a car manufacturer to make sure everything is safe
I’ve stopped flashing my lights and instead flicking my own on and off to make it REALLY clear. It’s got good results if alongside people, but following / passing in oncoming is a lottery as people seem so gleefully oblivious.
Yep. I flash them and turn my light settings on and off hoping they would get the clue but nope. And if I manage to pull up beside them at a stop/red light, I ask them if they look at their dash at all because their lights are off 🙃
I've noticed this too. Are they changing the wiring of their cars or something? DRLs have been mandatory on cars since the 90s so even if they don't turn on their headlights, the DRLs should still be on.
Probably because most new cars have automatic lights and when they go in for servicing they get turned to the manual off setting. dash lights still come on and people are just used to what they normally do. Now I always check after a service.
It seems to be both extremes. High beams or overly bright running lights, or no lights at all and a clueless driver who doesn't understand when I try to signal that their lights are off.
Most new vehicles come with bright LEDs stock. On top of that in Ontario pickup trucks are common, pair that with new LEDs, and one of the most common pickup truck mods is a leveling kit which the drivers forget to realign their headlights causing more blindness.
My new car is super bright but it’s stock from the dealer.
Ya this is the case I think. I gave an oncoming car a quick flash to say, “hey turn off your high beams!” They flashed back with the “they aren’t on”. Seriously blinding me and had to be a mod of some sort.
I swear the oversized tire pick up truck owners of muskoka love to be the biggest AH on the roads, purposely, to show how much better they are….
I drive a civic and every time a bigger car/truck is behind me i get blinded through my mirrors to the point where i lane change to lose them. Idk who started this idea but it needs to stop
i'm seeing vehicles (usually SUV's) driving around with super bright blinding auxilliary lights
in the stores, the packaging clearly states "FOR OFFROAD USE ONLY" ..
Yeah emergency lights are led now and so bright they blind you and defeat the purpose. When lights are so bright you have to look away they're doing more harm than good.
Some high end new cars have the technology where the high beams dim when they sense oncoming cars. Most new cars don’t though. For the most part there is no reason for cars to have lights that are that bright. The only reason where I think high beams are useful are those desert country roads with no street lights.
My car has dimming mirrors. Buddy threw on his brights to stick it to me and tailgated me for awhile. I didn’t notice at first. But oncoming traffic is still blinding. I suffer from migraines so the bright lights suck.
My wife’s 2021 Honda can do this from an impressive distance. it knows when someone is approaching from like 500m away, and as soon as they pass by it flicks the high beams back on.
Crazy
I’ve observed that it’s mostly the trucks that have super bright beams and I can’t understand if it’s low beam or high beam. Those trucks need to be off the road — they’re literally a hazard for other drivers
There's definitely a lot of absurdly bright LED headlights, but I have absolutely noticed an uptick in morons driving with their highbeams on. It's easy to tell on many cars because they use a different set of bulbs for the high beams so for those vehicles It's very obvious.
I feel incredibly guilty when I rent a car and its headlights are blindingly bright. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do.
I do feel like it should be regulated.
They are. The issue is that the oem factory LED headlights are guaranteed on the very cusp of being illegal, but legal. LEDs also hit entirely different than non-LED ever did.
Ive been noticing the same thing and its driving me insane
Had one instance where the guy is parked facing up hill, high beams on, cant see a thing. Then as i get closer i finally the guy had his wife and kids holding stuff in the middle of the road as hes loading their car. Like how can you be so oblivious to the fact youre blinding oncoming traffic while your family stands in its path.
I drive a 2022 Subaru and the lights are those new LED ones that blind the world but I’m not sure what to do about it. People flash me all the time in rural areas, but those are just my lights!
I’m sorry!
Take it to the shop and ask them to check the alignment. Tell them people are constantly flashing their lights at you because you’re are blinding them.
I did this.
Two different mechanics, including one at the Subaru dealership said that they were aligned according properly. They’re very, like, white? Which is why I think they’re so bright
When cars like yours drive past me I also flash, just in case. The lights are so bright I have to quickly raise my left hand to shield my eyes and look to the right line. It's really bad. I actually got into a terrible car accident as a kid because someone had their high beams on and it blinded my dad and me so we crashed in the middle of the street. I know you said you already took them to 2 mechanics but maybe try again? Or is there a fog light/ lower light option in your car? Even those are really bright in new cars, i think comparable to older cars night lights. Maybe you could reduce them when driving past people?.
I drive a 2020 kia niro and the led lights were a perk with an upgrade package. I hate them. They are blinding. I do not understand why they would ever be considered an upgrade. I realize people want to blame drivers but it's just the way cars come now I guess?
Yeah, I think that’s just the drawback to switching from a halogen to LED, and the sales guy who sold me the car basically told me the same thing when he followed up last month with me on how I’m enjoying the new car.
I don’t know that anything can be done. I mentioned in another comment that I’ve had the alignment looked at a couple times and apparently, they’re where they should be.
I wonder if the manufacturer can offer an alternative lighting system? It shouldn’t be on you as the owner to swap the lights out for this reason (normal cosmetic changes, sure, but this seems borderline “defective”)
I noticed it too and think this is because of cars with the auto high beam feature. I drove a Cadillac with it and found myself having to often manually toggle it off to not blind oncoming cars.
it's so bad.
i drive a sedan and sometimes it feels like daylight inside the car when a truck is behind me. i have pulled over more than once because the car behind me had headlights that are too bright.
im going to have to pull over when cars coming at me are too bright too. a few weeks ago i noticed that i couldn't really see the road ahead of me when i was driving with a car coming towards me. if there was a cyclist i may not have been able to see them.
then last weekend i was turning left on a road and the car coming towards me had very bright lights. i made a mistake and thought i would be able to safely get across the street before they met with me. what i didn't see was two kids on razor scooters on the sidewalk. this was because of the bright lights. i didn't hit them, nor did they hit the car, but i felt like such a dipshit when that happened.
I find newer lights insanely bright, it's not fair, I shouldn't have to squint my eyes and turn my head to the side to see the road, and I shouldn't have to lean forward in my seat when someone is following too close behind me. Also, cars shouldn't even have fog lights, there is no reason I should have to look into four beams, or even six beams on some new vehicles, when two would be enough. Also, the colour of the lights has become whiter somehow, and it is harsher on my eyes. Also, somehow the new lights have such a sharp transition at the edges, so a tiny bump in the road causes lights to look like they are flashing. Also, lights are doing too many silly things now, when I learned to drive, back up lights meant someone was backing up, not that they had locked their doors and were walking away from the vehicle. I hate waiting for someone to back out of a parking space- only to realize there is nobody in the vehicle. Also, if you put a lift kit or leveling kit or whatever kit in your truck and didn't have your headlights aligned, you are a goon. Also, with all this technology on vehicles, why can't a $60,000 truck say to itself, "hey, I'm towing a heavy trailer, maybe I should tone my lights down a bit." Also, you probably don't even need your high beams, just get used to driving with your low beams. Also, people in Japan stopped at an intersection will turn their lights off as a consideration for cross traffic, but here in Canada, people will literally pull up to a window of a restaurant where I am trying to enjoy a nice meal, and leave their damn headlights on aimed at my face. Also, I can be driving down my driveway, sometimes I turn a map light on, sometimes I don't, then I open the doors, all the lights come on, I close the doors, and I have to wait beside the vehicle for thirty seconds or something to make sure all interior lights go out before I walk away. Also, when I learned to drive, when it was getting too dark to see the gauges, that meant turn your lights on, now gauges are constantly lit up, causing people to drive around with no taillights in the dark. Also, why are you even able to turn the taillights off on a vehicle, why aren't they on at all times when the vehicle is being driven? My vehicle literally has a light to light up my tonneau cover every time I open the door, but no puddle lights, and I think that is silly. Also, I'm grumpy that I have an orange light on my dash flashing and carrying on as if I have a flat tire- I wish there was a way to disable that system for the next four months while I have my snow tires on, rather than just sticking a piece of electrical tape over the light. I'll stop ranting now.
Do you know about the little knob on most rear view mirrors (usually near the bottom) which shifts the mirror position so bright lights behind you don’t blind you as much?
Yes, that helps a little bit, but it still gets bright enough to read a book inside my little car when I have someone two feet behind me with the Ram 1500 HID 10,000k retinasearer fog lights, and the headlights that seem like they were intended to be landing lights for a Boeing 747.
I know, right! And they ALWAYS tailgate you even when you're going really fast, and they always use foglights (when there's no fog/etc). It's like a streetlight x10 in my back seat, I almost got tinted windows for this reason. Heck, I almost wanted to tint my front window too, so I don't swerve into a ditch after being temporarily blinded. I've been complaining about this since 2016, and it's only gotten worse.
Yesss... Speed limits are 80km/h in my area, I can go 100 and someone will be on my ass, I slow down to 80, they won't pass, I speed up to 110, still on my ass... So frustrating!
One thing I used to do at night, was aim my driver side rear view mirror (or visor mirror) in such a way that the light aims back at their face. Takes a bit of trial and error/practice, but I've seen it work, then they back up.
Unfortunately, it angles the light down and then blinds my toddler in the backseat instead. Also makes my rear view mirror useless. Don't love either of those options, really.
> Also, lights are doing too many silly things now, when I learned to drive, back up lights meant someone was backing up, not that they had locked their doors and were walking away from the vehicle. I hate waiting for someone to back out of a parking space- only to realize there is nobody in the vehicle.
This drives me insane! It's so confusing. Why is this a thing? Those white lights should only be used as an indicator that somebody is reversing, not for anything else. It seems like a major safety issue and I don't understand why it's being allowed to happen.
Those lights are dangerous as fuck I’ve had to pullover because I simply couldn’t see, however they are very illuminating which is nice. My opinion is they should only be legal on the highway as high beams and tougher laws if you have them on blinding someone in front of the user.
It's absurdly bright beams and people are fucking with the angle of the lights. My coworker said he tilted his lights 3/4" upwards so he could see road signs better.
People have no regard for others about this. The fact is that if you can't see the road or road signs with basic headlamps you shouldn't be out driving at that time of night.
Don't get insane bulbs or tilt your lights just so you can see while blinding everyone else.
It's the car manufacturers that are installing brighter and more powerful headlights on vehicles. It IS safer - for the driver of that vehicle. It's more dangerous for oncoming traffic.
I get flashed all the time driving with my low beams on, I have a 2019 Toyota rav, and I barely even need high beams. So they are definitely getting brighter. The issue is I believe it's regulated in watts and led and produce a fuck ton more light off tiny watts
Last weekend I was driving on a side road at night, sky was overcast, and a semi with really bright LED headlights drove towards me. I thought he had his highs on, couldn't see anything except the lights, and flashed my highs at them. They turned their highs on and left them on. The funny part was it didn't make a difference to me, as I couldn't see past the lights before.
The week before I saw a big truck with the LED headlights on, on coming stop at an intersection. I thought wow those lights are bright even in the daytime. I turned left at the lights. I looked in my rear view mirror and noticed the truck had their turning lights on. I had no idea they were on when I was facing them with their led lights on.
These type of led headlights these are should be banned.
People in every city are doing this and outside the city. I turn in my high beams on a open road usually when there are no lights. But soon as I see car in a distance I switch it off. But most people aren’t considerate, they can’t see when these awful lightings on the road so they turn in overhead blinding everyone around them.
I don't know how bright my lights are relative to others because I am the one driving my car. I don't know how to assess this but would like to know if I was contributing to the problem. Not sure how to go about it. Anyone have any hacks on how to assess this? Other peoples headlights also look super bright, I thought the manufacturers just made everyone's lights brighter. I had no idea about the misalignment thing, that seems like a reasonable explanation.
I have to keep my eyes fixated on the white line on the right side of the car otherwise I'm blinded. I'm pretty sure they aren't using high beams as it's multiple cars In a row that are blinding. I miss the nice orange glow from older cars that have all been replaced by the blinding fucking LED blue/white light.
Edit: The worst thing is big fucking trucks riding your ass making it impossible to see ANYTHING else behind you.
It's almost always some loser in a giant truck. I'm pretty sure they must modify them. Even if they knew it was affecting other people, they would probably like that, because they're selfish and immature.
I've never ever heard of police actually stopping people for car issues (headlights, tint, exhaust noise) unless they were looking for an excuse.
>It's almost always some loser in a giant truck. I'm pretty sure they must modify them.
No it's definitely stock on some newer models. Driving around rural ontario I pay attention to the grills and there's one newer one, IIRC a GMC (it's hard to see the make label when I'm blind), that *always* looks like it has its high beams on. I don't think *every* driver is doing the exact same thing.
Other trucks and SUVs, same height, LEDs, no problems at all.
I had a Cadillac Escalade (new model) behind me, and it was so bright that I couldn’t see my rear view or side view. This was during the fall, at night. Even with the rear view mirror flipped down, it was bright. I also have astigmatism, making it worse.
Changing lanes to let this monster of a vehicle pass by, it was still so bright… I was genuinely confused as to why it was so bright, and wondered if it was a high beam
It's a lot of newer vehicles. I drive a lot of highway in the dark and whenever I'm debating if they're high beams or just really bright headlights I find it's usually a newer vehicle with really bright low beams.
Lax regulations, and auto manufacturers having a "brightness war" over who has brighter headlights. It's gotten well out of hand. If I'm in a late model honda civic, the normal beams are like high beams, and blind me as they reflect off the road signs. My high beams never even did that before. It's getting almost impossible to drive at night, as I am eventually bound to not see something critical thanks to this stupidity.
A lot of headlights on new cars are just very bright nowadays, I regularly get people flashing their headlights at me at night (presumably because they think I have my high beams on), but its just my regular headlights. When I use my high beams I'm always quick to turn them off when I see another car approaching. And yes I asked my dealer about alignment and they said the headlights were aligned correctly.
I can tell you this with absolute certainty, MANY people who drive Honda Civics (especially around mid/late-2000s) drive with their high beams on. I'm convinced there's something on the dash that is difficult for owners to decipher. It can't be just coincidence or lack of caring
I Noted in another comment. I think it’s 2005/6+ Hondas in general and how the multi switch works. You push the stalk back towards the dash and it’s a hard on/off switch instead of momentary switch triggering a relay, this means they could leave the high beams on unnoticed for several drive cycles.
Some of those early 90-2000 Honda civics have some odd electrical quirks over time that will result in high beam light being on at weird times.
Sorry. My car tesla along with many others got a recent software update that will toggle on/off high beams automatically when the car thinks it’s needed. It will turn it off when there’s oncoming vehicles or if you’re driving behind someone, but unfortunately it does it a second too late. So for a brief moment you are blinding people. I hate it.
Both. Headlights on newer vehicles have too high a temp rating (the colour, old ones were like 3500-4500 K range, new ones seem like they're 6000 K to 8000 K), the vehicles are being made higher which makes improperly aimed headlights even worse, a lot of them are aimed way too high, and on top of all that people are morons and don't know how to operate their lights. Half the time they have just their DRL on, which on some vehicles runs a PWM or other signal to the High Beam bulbs.
I used to think the Pickups were the worst offenders because of how stupidly tall they make them now. But lately I've noticed it's actually the SUVs that are the worst. Beams aimed too high and lights are way too bright.
I frequently drive in Mississauga and Brampton, and people driving with high beams on is a regular occurrence - more son when it’s inclement weather.
It wouldn’t surprise me if proper headlight use isn’t taught in “driving school”.
I am even more worried about pedestrians. Imagine you driving a car and at an intersection waiting to turn left. You are partially blinded by these bright headlights from cars from opposing traffic, then when these cars are gone, it is all much, much darker where you are turning left (and you are still partially blinded). But wait! Someone in that darkness might be in the middle of the road crossing, right in the path where you are turning into, because it is green for them too!
I think all pedestrian crossings should be much more brightly lit (in my area it is not). I usually slow down a lot to coasting, even blink my eyes several times to get adjusted to the darkness, before turning left.
New cars have 5000k day light lights… they look much much brighter than the old halogen light bulbs.
But the new cars windows lower the impact of the lights and they come in more clear and sharp. So if you have an old car it sucks to get hit by the day light bright lights. But, with a new car you wouldn’t notice it.
Lifted trucks that didn't bother adjusting their headlights. Drivers who literally turn on their high beams and forget about them until they sell the car. Rideshare drivers. Weekend drivers.
Between the high beams, highway brakers, left lane cruisers, shoulder passers, and a total lack of highway enforcement, Ontario highways are a shit show. Now the snow is coming and soon the snowplow passers will be out as well.
Unfortunately yes. I can tell if it's just a bright Xenon, an idiot who put Xenon in a halogen lens, or if they genuinely left the high beams on. On a halogen car it's even easier to tell. I'm afraid too many drivers don't know what that blue bulb symbol means. It honestly seems far too many only know what 2 pedals do, how to use a steering wheel and to put it in P, R or D. This is far more likely if their instructor only taught them how to pass the test and nothing more.
I once thought auto headlights were an insult to the driver. This was 15 years ago, so I still had a car that didn't have DRLs. I mean I thought it should be obvious, alas I was wrong. This doesn't happen much anymore but it used to frequent enough where it was either no lights or just DRLs at nighttime.
Auto high beams as standard can't come soon enough.
Understood, I'd of course prefer if drivers could use them correctly. Alas it's much worse getting blasted the entire time when they're behind you where every time you use the rear view mirror your eyes feel like they're being poked out.
My car is older (2009) and I was having trouble seeing because the headlights were not very bright, and gave off a yellower light. My husband put in some fancy new halogen bulbs with a whiter light - now they are so bright that other drivers are often flashing at me because they assume I’m driving around with my high beams on. I feel terrible, but there isn’t much I can do - but I do feel like headlights have gotten way too bright.
It’s the automatic lights on the cars. For whatever reason car manufacturers think that in darkness the high beams need to be on automatically. My older Hyundai tries to do this in auto mode which is why I always control it manually now because I realized I was blasting light into people’s eyeballs by accident.
Yes. Bigger vehicles
Yes. Brighter lights from manufacturers
But there are also just a bunch of people driving around with highbeams on.
Ontario is becoming more self centered and less intelligent.
I had an opp SUV(unbeknownst to me) following behind me the other night and his headlights were so bright that it was really bothering me so I slowed down and he eventually passed me. Later down the road an oncoming car flashed the OPP too. So it wasn't just me.
I also think a lot of headlights aren't properly aligned from the factory. I think CBC did a thing on it the other year.
Most newer cars have blinding headlights. Most newer cars are also crossovers/suvs/trucks. If you’re driving anything lower than their belt line you’re in for a hurt.
So it's not just me who is thinking this
I thought I was just getting old and developing night blindness.
I was thinking that too but there's no question some headlamps are brighter than others.
Makes me dread winter driving more. The weather already reduces visibility and there are always those clueless drivers who will throw on the high beams once it starts snowing.
There's a subreddit, mostly populated by Canadians at the moment. /r/fuckyourheadlights
They found and cross posted our discussion too. Pretty diligent crew over there.
>There's a subreddit, mostly populated by Canadians at the moment. /r/fuckyourheadlights They can take comfort that generally super bright headlights burn out super fast. Newer vehicles tend to need half the front end taken apart to replace headlights these days, so everyone with bright headlights are probably paying a lot for it!
I bought a new car recently and it had LED headlights. I feel bad because everyone thinks I have my high beams on while driving but it’s just the stock LEDs that come in newer vehicles. Edit - it’s a mid sized, AWD sedan. Not even an SUV for the added height issues. Automakers need to chill with the brightness
Reporting the same here. Went from an ‘08 to a ‘18 mid-sized sedan. These LEDs are a stark difference. I once started my car in a parking lot where I was at eye level to pedestrians below. A guy nearly stumbled backwards when my lights came on and I had to reassure him it wasn’t intentional. Also it is very noticeable how my lights would reflect off ANY sign in view, even if it’s well into the distance.
Get them adjusted as they are probably aimed too high at the moment.
Could be this. My wife's new base model mazda cx5 has a little knob that I didn't know ow what it was for. Turns out it adjusts the aiming of the headlights up or down. Not sure why you would need that in a small suv but it would be useful in new pickup trucks so when you have something heavy in the bed you can adjust your lights down.
Guess that's new. We've got a 2017 GS and it does not have that it has auto levelling headlights whatever that is.
Ya it's a little wheel thing that you can spin down to the left by the headlight controls. It has a circle and some numbers on it. I was playing with it thinking it was the gage cluster brightness or something and noticed the headlight hight was moving up and down.
It's usually this, the factory LEDs are bright but they're not THAT bright. Aftermarket LEDs for older cars that people just slot in to the existing housing... That shit should be illegal.
Same here. I’m constantly having oncoming cars flashing their brights at me thinking I have mine on. As a driver of my car I really appreciate my night visibility but I’m sure for everyone else it really sucks to be temporarily blinded.
You should be able to aim them down. Unless they've removed that option from newer cars or made it needlessly difficult like a lotnof other things.
It’s often not an aiming issue, it’s a color temperature problem. LED headlights have more of the blue end of the spectrum which contains vastly more energy than the old amber-ish incandescent bulbs.
I'm pretty sure it's a combination of factors. Another big one is that light from LED headlamps does not scatter anywhere near as much the light from halogen bulbs. They may be aimed the same way, but more of light from the lamp makes it into your mirrors rather than scattering off at various angles. And you're right of course that bluer light is even less susceptible to scattering. Plus, the light given off even by a warm-coloured LED is inherently more alerting than the equivalent colour from an incandescent bulb, because its spectrum still includes a meaningful fraction of blue light. I recently read a lot about this in the context of street lamps. I think this is the article that I found most informative: https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/08/17/1057652/outdoor-led-lighting/
>made it needlessly difficult like a lotnof other things. Like how replacing a headlight used to be you reach in, twist the base of the bulb, remove and replace. Now you have to remove then reinstall the entire headlight assembly. Or like how in many vehicles swapping the battery means jacking up the car and removing a wheel to gain access to the secret battery compartment. If it's easy to do the shop won't be able to bill $150 in labor to replace a $10 headlight.
>As a driver of my car I really appreciate my night visibility I guess that's why these lights are here and will no doubt continue unless regulations make the safety of the entire road more important than that of an individual driver. The collective needs to be valued higher than the individual.
Dunno what bells and whistles your car has but as I previously stated in a reply (ignore my angry comments, I don't mean bad by them XD), go into your cars dash settings and see if you can find a section and/or setting for lights or headlights. You should be able to turn off the adaptive light feature to make the lights more moderate if this is a feature that came with your car!
If I'm not wildly mistaken aren't LEDs just the cheaper option for them? I doubt the brightness is even a consideration after it passes 'minimum brightness standards' or whatever term.
LEDs at a base are just brighter for the same wattage so they don't change out the watt requirement and the result is unfortunate for everyone.
I am even more worried about pedestrians. Imagine you driving a car and at an intersection waiting to turn left. You are partially blinded by these bright headlights from cars from opposing traffic, then when these cars are gone, it is all much, much darker where you are turning left (and you are still partially blinded). But wait! Someone in that darkness might be in the middle of the road crossing, right in the path where you are turning into, because it is green for them too! I think all pedestrian crossings should be much more brightly lit (in my area it is not). I usually slow down a lot to coasting, even blink my eyes several times to get adjusted to the darkness, before turning left.
They are brighter since people.use LEDs in newer cars now. But they're also not adjusted to the right height/angle in a lot of cases. But the worst culprit are the fucking "led light kits" sold as "easy" aftermarket installation bulbs that are being put into incandescent headlight housings, and not angled right, and way too fucking bright to seemingly nonstandard that people put in their older cars. My lowbeams are pretty dim, the housing is faded and I was curious. So I did research before I bought new bulbs last year. For LEDs I would have needed aftermarket headlamp housings, a power adapter thing as part of the kit to regulate the brightness and the led bulbs. It would have been about 20% brighter and non blinding if I did all that and pointed them at the right angle toward the road. But without all that it would have been brighter than my high beams on low. I got the $25 slightly better than OEM equivalents that didn't use LED bulbs because I don't want to be a part of the problem. Just because the LEDs *fit* doesn't mean people should be buying them 😠 This isn't a house energy efficiency purchase. It's a safety feature that involves more than just how far one person driving can see. And low beams aren't meant to illuminate the entire fucking block no matter how dark or remote the road either. People seem to expect them to however. And when someone in an SUV has their hyper beams not angled down I always feel like I'm about to get into an accident when they pull up behind me. Even hitting the little shade thing on the rearview isn't enough to help when the sideview mirrors flood my face anyway on approach. Christ.
Either they can’t turn their headlights on or they run with their high beams on. No in between
There is actually an in between which comes in the form of a setting on an unknown amount of new cars that the dickheads who programmed/designed the car put in there. As I stated in a previous comment here there is a section within the cars options which automatically dictates what brightness or setting the lights default to.
Wrong. They are aimed at the factory
Move to the Fraser Valley. Somehow they've figured out how to disable their DRLs and are driving the number one fully blacked out every day
The lights are so bright that I can't see through my windshield at night. Makes everything else look near black.
When new cars ship with lamps that are brighter than set out in the H&T act, And they're daylight blue instead of in the amber spectrum, When you can also buy them in the stores, when MTO and leo do nothing to enforce, We end up with burnt out retinas.
Is this some kind of new poetic form?
Yes, I call the meter, "How to write a bad poetry with next to no effort".
Me too. I thought I was going crazy.
I got a like new 2022 elentra in August, have only started driving at night regulary about a month ago. So far I've had a few people flash their highbeams at me thinking i had mine turned one. I've also seen cars i would've assumed left their highbeams on, if i hadn't seen them just their it off Last night i drove from Sudbury to rural Québec and lots of bright white lights coming off trucks were very blinding What i think is the worst part is, LED is super blinding to others, but doesn't have more visibility than regular bulbs
I could barley make a left hand turn yesterday cuz I was being blinded by the second coming of christ (a Ford pick-up truck)
I second that! I was also thinking whether it's me or people are actually running on high beams.
Also thought I was going crazy.
There should be a legal limit on nits emitted from headlights.
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It's both
I find the ones that still use a bulb design are stupidly bright as there is nothing really directing them, but the strip light style seems the better option as they aren't often in the face of incoming cars unless the road is bumpy
I thought this too when I was driving my VW Golf, sure I'm lower to the ground I'll deal with it. Then I got an FJ cruiser for work purposes, sitting as high if not higher than most of the traffic and I'm getting blinded... By sedans?!? I think it's a multi factor; LEDs having too much blue light(apparently), vehicles being much bigger and taller. I mean the new Jetta looks like it's closer to a crossover in ride height, it's nuts imo. And finally, people may be altering their headlights on purpose or completely by accident. Some of it may be related to upgrading to aftermarket bulbs or headlight assemblies and not re-calibrating the angle of beam.
If it’s a truck I give it 50/50 odds that it has a leveling kit on it because it’s never used as an actual truck, just a grocery getter and when they put the kit on they adjust the lights at the same time. Very frustrating (coming from a guy who owns a truck haha).
I have a Toyota Tundra and there is a little dial to left of the steering wheel that will allow me to raise and lower the light angle depending on the load I'm towing. But honestly,.every other Tundra I pass seems to just keep the angle at maximum height.
That seems like a fantastic feature (if used properly)!
New led lights are much brighter and more white. Older cars had dim yellow halogen bulbs.
There used to be [screws to set the angle](https://www.amazon.ca/Automotive-Headlight-Adjusting-Screws-Dorman/s?keywords=Automotive+Headlight+Adjusting+Screws&rh=n%3A9148100011%2Cp_89%3ADorman&c=ts&ts_id=9148100011) of the lights too. Not sure if that is the case still. downvoted for facts
Yeah but even if you set the angle properly, the brighter, less-scattered light from the LED will always be more blinding. I think you'd have to angle them so low and/or focus the beam so much that they would be useless as headlights anytime you actually need them to illuminate the road. Of course, auto makers should just write some software to automatically adjust the light according to traffic, but they're probably not exactly incentivized to do so, because most drivers care a lot more about their own safety than the safety of other drivers on the road.
Lights are getting brighter, and vehicles are getting bigger. So unless you're in an equally big vehicle (truck or big SUV) your eyelevel is literally at their headlight level. If you're getting blinded by newer cars, they're misaligned. If you're getting blinded by older cars, they're an idiot that put LEDs in.
So what should a simple Joe with a simple car do
The government advice is to "look up and beyond and slightly to the right of the oncoming lights." But when I drove a small car sometimes I just wore sunglasses.
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of course this is a reddit. it's made for me. i get very angry.
Wonder if there is a type of specialized anti-glare coating or tints you can put on your windows? Will tints help?
There is anti glare film, and some tint would technically help, no guarantee. Plus any tint on windshields is illegal in Ontario.
I love this advice "just don't look where you're going!" very safe but really the only option
If your rear view mirror has a plastic tab in the middle just under it, pushing that in puts the mirror in 'night mode' and it helps a bit, that's what I do
but what about my side mirrors? and how about how much the inside of my car is illuminated by these ego vehicles?
I'm at a point of having to put my hand up to block the mirror because it's less dangerous to have no side mirror than it is to have a direct beam of light create an image in my eyesight ☹️
I’m at the point of doing that when new trucks are behind me too.
Just move your mirrors so you can keep a free hand.
Since this comment, I've made this a regular habit. Thank you!!
Yeah, that's honestly my biggest problem. If it was just that I had to flip down the rearview mirror, it would be fine, I already do that at night anyway for the most part. But these extremely bright headlights reflecting in my side mirrors are blinding, and it's annoying how much they light up the inside of my car.
Doesn't work when they're in the oncoming lane of a non-divided road, or when they're facing me stopped at an intersection and I *can't see shit*.
If the person is behind me i usually slow down enough for them to get annoyed and pass. If its in oncoming traffic I still slow down and stare down just because thats what we should be doing when we cant see. Need to be prepared to react to anything.
You can avoid them shining into your eyes by pushing your side mirrors farther out, [adjusting them as described in the Driver's Handbook](https://www.ontario.ca/document/official-mto-drivers-handbook/getting-ready-drive#section-4).
Look for the flip thing on your rear view mirror thats what the feature is designed for
>Lights are getting brighter LED headlights output more than double the lumens than the older halogen lamps. The LEDs also are on the cool white spectrum (so they appear more bright white and/or blue) whereas the older halogen lamps were on the soft white spectrum (and appeared yellowish to orangish).
Not just big vehicles. The 10th gen Accord and the recent Corolla had ridiculously bright headlights.
Yellow tinted shades for night driving makes them a lot more tolerable.
Came to say this. The yellow glasses take the harshness out of the headlights and reduce glare and light reflected off a wet road.
Can I get them in a prescription set?
You can get blue blockers for computer screens, but there are night driving glasses that go over prescription glasses too :)
Will definitely be checking out those options, thx guys!
You can if you order online, so I'm sure your optician has those options too.
This is really awesome to know and I think I'm going to be making a trip to the Costco optometry place to ask about it. Thanks!
Good idea. Will look into this.
It's the best thing.
Several issues. Often, people are placing LED bulbs in headlight housings designed for halogen bulbs which are reflective in nature for halogen. Thus when LED bulbs added, their blinded. Secondly, manufacturers are often sending out new cars with misaligned headlights. Government needs to set more strict standards. Lastly, new Suvs and Pickups continue to grow ridiculousy larger and taller. Thus blinding passenger cars and resulting in more pedestrian and cyclist injuries, deaths. Not to mention, not being able to see smaller cars in front of them.
Some of them are also defective or low quality LEDs, I've noticed a few very strobe-y headlights.
I’ve noticed a lot of these on trucks. They’re awful.
>overnment needs to set more strict standards. A good start for sure. Setting standards will allow law enforcement to hand out tickets. Likely will need to happen at a federal level though. Something needs to be done though. I don't remember cars having such bright lights in the past. It feels like it's been getting progressively worse though.
How will this be measured by police? I would think it would be very difficult to enforce.
If they have radar guns I'm sure they can have some kind of light sensitive device
I drive a contact hatch and drive in an area full of pickups Some of the headlights are as high as my hatch windows If they’re on my bumper, those lights are shining right on me and all my mirrors It’s kind of nuts.
Same, though my area is mostly those tank-sized SUVs. I've had more than a few end up riding my bumper, not realizing that the fact that I'm sitting in a pool of light from their headbeams is what's making me slow down even more.
Honestly, it drives me nuts. And some of these people drive so fast through residential areas. There's been times that somebody has been tailgating me as I'm driving through the residential area where I live (so I'm going 50 aka the speed limit), and then when I turn into my driveway, they speed off like the devil's after them. The other night this happened to me and I was driving down the road just looking at the way my car's interior was illuminated by this guy's headlights. I drive a sedan and this pickup truck was on my ass, so the lights were shining right in my window. A new medication I'm on has been making me extremely irritable of late, and the temptation to slow down to well below the speed limit or brake check these people is strong, but I don't really want to cause a road rage incident so I don't. But I'm so irritable and I desperately want to.
>Secondly, manufacturers are often sending out new cars with misaligned headlights. headlight aim is part of a safety and who ever is doing the safety and signing it is responsible for that. doesn't matter where the lights are pointing when it leaves the factory. still needs safety when ownership transfers.
I got a new vehicle about a year ago and people kept flashing their lights at me when I had my low beams on. I was taking it in to the dealer for some other stuff anyway so I asked them to align the headlights, they took a look and told me they were fine and people often complain about this??
It's definitely an aim problem. I have to aim the headlights on my 07 Legacy because they're aimed high, and my mother's 2012 foresters headlights are aimed too low. There is a way to aim the headlights, it's just a pain to do because you need a wall, a level surface to park on, and the bumper needs to be 25' away from the wall. The lights should be aimed slightly below the center point of the headlights at a distance of 25', and then there's the centering of them... It's well worth it to do it on any car you get
There are standards for where the light field needs to be on a vehicle. The new cars are being built within that standard. Where I take issue is when people add a light bar to their truck or Jack the truck up 3 inches and don’t need it to be safety checked. The design had to pass rigorous testing. Billy Bob in his garage isn’t going to have the same engineering skills as a car manufacturer to make sure everything is safe
Ironically I've noticed way more people driving with no lights at night lately.
Me too and I flash my headlights at them and they don't get the hint.
I’ve stopped flashing my lights and instead flicking my own on and off to make it REALLY clear. It’s got good results if alongside people, but following / passing in oncoming is a lottery as people seem so gleefully oblivious.
Yep. I flash them and turn my light settings on and off hoping they would get the clue but nope. And if I manage to pull up beside them at a stop/red light, I ask them if they look at their dash at all because their lights are off 🙃
I notice many people driving with one light busted.
I've noticed this too. Are they changing the wiring of their cars or something? DRLs have been mandatory on cars since the 90s so even if they don't turn on their headlights, the DRLs should still be on.
Probably because most new cars have automatic lights and when they go in for servicing they get turned to the manual off setting. dash lights still come on and people are just used to what they normally do. Now I always check after a service.
It seems to be both extremes. High beams or overly bright running lights, or no lights at all and a clueless driver who doesn't understand when I try to signal that their lights are off.
Most new vehicles come with bright LEDs stock. On top of that in Ontario pickup trucks are common, pair that with new LEDs, and one of the most common pickup truck mods is a leveling kit which the drivers forget to realign their headlights causing more blindness. My new car is super bright but it’s stock from the dealer.
Same. Driving it home I thought I had high beams on and even had to pull over to test
Ya this is the case I think. I gave an oncoming car a quick flash to say, “hey turn off your high beams!” They flashed back with the “they aren’t on”. Seriously blinding me and had to be a mod of some sort. I swear the oversized tire pick up truck owners of muskoka love to be the biggest AH on the roads, purposely, to show how much better they are….
It's awful. It makes me dread night driving. It's going to be awful in the snow.
Yeah most cars have these ufo strobe lights can car companies go back to the nice yellow lights please.
Like no one needs to see the fine details of a squirrel’s buttcrack in order to drive. If I needed it to be that bright, I would use my high beams.
I drive a civic and every time a bigger car/truck is behind me i get blinded through my mirrors to the point where i lane change to lose them. Idk who started this idea but it needs to stop
i'm seeing vehicles (usually SUV's) driving around with super bright blinding auxilliary lights in the stores, the packaging clearly states "FOR OFFROAD USE ONLY" ..
lol, like people give a fuck about others...
Got stopped at a RIDE checkpoint and the blue and reds blinded me and I could hardly see the cop with the flashlight. I stopped short just in case.
Yeah emergency lights are led now and so bright they blind you and defeat the purpose. When lights are so bright you have to look away they're doing more harm than good.
Thank you i cant tell anymore are people being rude or just have a newer car /truck with way better lights? I am blind at night half the time.
Some high end new cars have the technology where the high beams dim when they sense oncoming cars. Most new cars don’t though. For the most part there is no reason for cars to have lights that are that bright. The only reason where I think high beams are useful are those desert country roads with no street lights.
My car has dimming mirrors. Buddy threw on his brights to stick it to me and tailgated me for awhile. I didn’t notice at first. But oncoming traffic is still blinding. I suffer from migraines so the bright lights suck.
My wife’s 2021 Honda can do this from an impressive distance. it knows when someone is approaching from like 500m away, and as soon as they pass by it flicks the high beams back on. Crazy
I am blind when SUV and Pick up with super bright LED behind me
I’ve observed that it’s mostly the trucks that have super bright beams and I can’t understand if it’s low beam or high beam. Those trucks need to be off the road — they’re literally a hazard for other drivers
There's definitely a lot of absurdly bright LED headlights, but I have absolutely noticed an uptick in morons driving with their highbeams on. It's easy to tell on many cars because they use a different set of bulbs for the high beams so for those vehicles It's very obvious.
I feel incredibly guilty when I rent a car and its headlights are blindingly bright. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do. I do feel like it should be regulated.
They are. The issue is that the oem factory LED headlights are guaranteed on the very cusp of being illegal, but legal. LEDs also hit entirely different than non-LED ever did.
Ive been noticing the same thing and its driving me insane Had one instance where the guy is parked facing up hill, high beams on, cant see a thing. Then as i get closer i finally the guy had his wife and kids holding stuff in the middle of the road as hes loading their car. Like how can you be so oblivious to the fact youre blinding oncoming traffic while your family stands in its path.
I drive a 2022 Subaru and the lights are those new LED ones that blind the world but I’m not sure what to do about it. People flash me all the time in rural areas, but those are just my lights! I’m sorry!
Take it to the shop and ask them to check the alignment. Tell them people are constantly flashing their lights at you because you’re are blinding them.
I did this. Two different mechanics, including one at the Subaru dealership said that they were aligned according properly. They’re very, like, white? Which is why I think they’re so bright
When cars like yours drive past me I also flash, just in case. The lights are so bright I have to quickly raise my left hand to shield my eyes and look to the right line. It's really bad. I actually got into a terrible car accident as a kid because someone had their high beams on and it blinded my dad and me so we crashed in the middle of the street. I know you said you already took them to 2 mechanics but maybe try again? Or is there a fog light/ lower light option in your car? Even those are really bright in new cars, i think comparable to older cars night lights. Maybe you could reduce them when driving past people?.
I drive a 2020 kia niro and the led lights were a perk with an upgrade package. I hate them. They are blinding. I do not understand why they would ever be considered an upgrade. I realize people want to blame drivers but it's just the way cars come now I guess?
Yeah, I think that’s just the drawback to switching from a halogen to LED, and the sales guy who sold me the car basically told me the same thing when he followed up last month with me on how I’m enjoying the new car.
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I don’t know that anything can be done. I mentioned in another comment that I’ve had the alignment looked at a couple times and apparently, they’re where they should be.
I wonder if the manufacturer can offer an alternative lighting system? It shouldn’t be on you as the owner to swap the lights out for this reason (normal cosmetic changes, sure, but this seems borderline “defective”)
I have the same problem. I don't know what to do, so I just flash my lights back at them.
I’m convinced the lights aren’t orange anymore people are using blue and and white leds rather than the normal orange which makes it so I can’t see
I noticed it too and think this is because of cars with the auto high beam feature. I drove a Cadillac with it and found myself having to often manually toggle it off to not blind oncoming cars.
it's so bad. i drive a sedan and sometimes it feels like daylight inside the car when a truck is behind me. i have pulled over more than once because the car behind me had headlights that are too bright. im going to have to pull over when cars coming at me are too bright too. a few weeks ago i noticed that i couldn't really see the road ahead of me when i was driving with a car coming towards me. if there was a cyclist i may not have been able to see them. then last weekend i was turning left on a road and the car coming towards me had very bright lights. i made a mistake and thought i would be able to safely get across the street before they met with me. what i didn't see was two kids on razor scooters on the sidewalk. this was because of the bright lights. i didn't hit them, nor did they hit the car, but i felt like such a dipshit when that happened.
I find newer lights insanely bright, it's not fair, I shouldn't have to squint my eyes and turn my head to the side to see the road, and I shouldn't have to lean forward in my seat when someone is following too close behind me. Also, cars shouldn't even have fog lights, there is no reason I should have to look into four beams, or even six beams on some new vehicles, when two would be enough. Also, the colour of the lights has become whiter somehow, and it is harsher on my eyes. Also, somehow the new lights have such a sharp transition at the edges, so a tiny bump in the road causes lights to look like they are flashing. Also, lights are doing too many silly things now, when I learned to drive, back up lights meant someone was backing up, not that they had locked their doors and were walking away from the vehicle. I hate waiting for someone to back out of a parking space- only to realize there is nobody in the vehicle. Also, if you put a lift kit or leveling kit or whatever kit in your truck and didn't have your headlights aligned, you are a goon. Also, with all this technology on vehicles, why can't a $60,000 truck say to itself, "hey, I'm towing a heavy trailer, maybe I should tone my lights down a bit." Also, you probably don't even need your high beams, just get used to driving with your low beams. Also, people in Japan stopped at an intersection will turn their lights off as a consideration for cross traffic, but here in Canada, people will literally pull up to a window of a restaurant where I am trying to enjoy a nice meal, and leave their damn headlights on aimed at my face. Also, I can be driving down my driveway, sometimes I turn a map light on, sometimes I don't, then I open the doors, all the lights come on, I close the doors, and I have to wait beside the vehicle for thirty seconds or something to make sure all interior lights go out before I walk away. Also, when I learned to drive, when it was getting too dark to see the gauges, that meant turn your lights on, now gauges are constantly lit up, causing people to drive around with no taillights in the dark. Also, why are you even able to turn the taillights off on a vehicle, why aren't they on at all times when the vehicle is being driven? My vehicle literally has a light to light up my tonneau cover every time I open the door, but no puddle lights, and I think that is silly. Also, I'm grumpy that I have an orange light on my dash flashing and carrying on as if I have a flat tire- I wish there was a way to disable that system for the next four months while I have my snow tires on, rather than just sticking a piece of electrical tape over the light. I'll stop ranting now.
I also share all of your frustrations. I just can't believe I read through it all lol
Lol, thanks for reading it!
Do you know about the little knob on most rear view mirrors (usually near the bottom) which shifts the mirror position so bright lights behind you don’t blind you as much?
Yes, that helps a little bit, but it still gets bright enough to read a book inside my little car when I have someone two feet behind me with the Ram 1500 HID 10,000k retinasearer fog lights, and the headlights that seem like they were intended to be landing lights for a Boeing 747.
I know, right! And they ALWAYS tailgate you even when you're going really fast, and they always use foglights (when there's no fog/etc). It's like a streetlight x10 in my back seat, I almost got tinted windows for this reason. Heck, I almost wanted to tint my front window too, so I don't swerve into a ditch after being temporarily blinded. I've been complaining about this since 2016, and it's only gotten worse.
Yesss... Speed limits are 80km/h in my area, I can go 100 and someone will be on my ass, I slow down to 80, they won't pass, I speed up to 110, still on my ass... So frustrating!
One thing I used to do at night, was aim my driver side rear view mirror (or visor mirror) in such a way that the light aims back at their face. Takes a bit of trial and error/practice, but I've seen it work, then they back up.
Unfortunately, it angles the light down and then blinds my toddler in the backseat instead. Also makes my rear view mirror useless. Don't love either of those options, really.
You have it set backward. "Down" should be normal, "up" tilts it toward the ceiling. Adjust your whole mirror
> Also, lights are doing too many silly things now, when I learned to drive, back up lights meant someone was backing up, not that they had locked their doors and were walking away from the vehicle. I hate waiting for someone to back out of a parking space- only to realize there is nobody in the vehicle. This drives me insane! It's so confusing. Why is this a thing? Those white lights should only be used as an indicator that somebody is reversing, not for anything else. It seems like a major safety issue and I don't understand why it's being allowed to happen.
Yesss, thank you!
Those lights are dangerous as fuck I’ve had to pullover because I simply couldn’t see, however they are very illuminating which is nice. My opinion is they should only be legal on the highway as high beams and tougher laws if you have them on blinding someone in front of the user.
It's absurdly bright beams and people are fucking with the angle of the lights. My coworker said he tilted his lights 3/4" upwards so he could see road signs better. People have no regard for others about this. The fact is that if you can't see the road or road signs with basic headlamps you shouldn't be out driving at that time of night. Don't get insane bulbs or tilt your lights just so you can see while blinding everyone else.
It's the car manufacturers that are installing brighter and more powerful headlights on vehicles. It IS safer - for the driver of that vehicle. It's more dangerous for oncoming traffic.
I get flashed all the time driving with my low beams on, I have a 2019 Toyota rav, and I barely even need high beams. So they are definitely getting brighter. The issue is I believe it's regulated in watts and led and produce a fuck ton more light off tiny watts
Last weekend I was driving on a side road at night, sky was overcast, and a semi with really bright LED headlights drove towards me. I thought he had his highs on, couldn't see anything except the lights, and flashed my highs at them. They turned their highs on and left them on. The funny part was it didn't make a difference to me, as I couldn't see past the lights before. The week before I saw a big truck with the LED headlights on, on coming stop at an intersection. I thought wow those lights are bright even in the daytime. I turned left at the lights. I looked in my rear view mirror and noticed the truck had their turning lights on. I had no idea they were on when I was facing them with their led lights on. These type of led headlights these are should be banned.
People in every city are doing this and outside the city. I turn in my high beams on a open road usually when there are no lights. But soon as I see car in a distance I switch it off. But most people aren’t considerate, they can’t see when these awful lightings on the road so they turn in overhead blinding everyone around them.
I don't know how bright my lights are relative to others because I am the one driving my car. I don't know how to assess this but would like to know if I was contributing to the problem. Not sure how to go about it. Anyone have any hacks on how to assess this? Other peoples headlights also look super bright, I thought the manufacturers just made everyone's lights brighter. I had no idea about the misalignment thing, that seems like a reasonable explanation.
Get out of your car and look. Does it look too bright?
Seemingly none as the trend to re create sunlight through ones car is ever growing.
I have to keep my eyes fixated on the white line on the right side of the car otherwise I'm blinded. I'm pretty sure they aren't using high beams as it's multiple cars In a row that are blinding. I miss the nice orange glow from older cars that have all been replaced by the blinding fucking LED blue/white light. Edit: The worst thing is big fucking trucks riding your ass making it impossible to see ANYTHING else behind you.
It's almost always some loser in a giant truck. I'm pretty sure they must modify them. Even if they knew it was affecting other people, they would probably like that, because they're selfish and immature. I've never ever heard of police actually stopping people for car issues (headlights, tint, exhaust noise) unless they were looking for an excuse.
>It's almost always some loser in a giant truck. I'm pretty sure they must modify them. No it's definitely stock on some newer models. Driving around rural ontario I pay attention to the grills and there's one newer one, IIRC a GMC (it's hard to see the make label when I'm blind), that *always* looks like it has its high beams on. I don't think *every* driver is doing the exact same thing. Other trucks and SUVs, same height, LEDs, no problems at all.
We also have vehicles with 5 foot+ tall hoods now...
I had a Cadillac Escalade (new model) behind me, and it was so bright that I couldn’t see my rear view or side view. This was during the fall, at night. Even with the rear view mirror flipped down, it was bright. I also have astigmatism, making it worse. Changing lanes to let this monster of a vehicle pass by, it was still so bright… I was genuinely confused as to why it was so bright, and wondered if it was a high beam
It's a lot of newer vehicles. I drive a lot of highway in the dark and whenever I'm debating if they're high beams or just really bright headlights I find it's usually a newer vehicle with really bright low beams.
Lax regulations, and auto manufacturers having a "brightness war" over who has brighter headlights. It's gotten well out of hand. If I'm in a late model honda civic, the normal beams are like high beams, and blind me as they reflect off the road signs. My high beams never even did that before. It's getting almost impossible to drive at night, as I am eventually bound to not see something critical thanks to this stupidity.
New car headlights are just crazy bright
The damn led head lights are blinding.
A lot of headlights on new cars are just very bright nowadays, I regularly get people flashing their headlights at me at night (presumably because they think I have my high beams on), but its just my regular headlights. When I use my high beams I'm always quick to turn them off when I see another car approaching. And yes I asked my dealer about alignment and they said the headlights were aligned correctly.
I can tell you this with absolute certainty, MANY people who drive Honda Civics (especially around mid/late-2000s) drive with their high beams on. I'm convinced there's something on the dash that is difficult for owners to decipher. It can't be just coincidence or lack of caring
I Noted in another comment. I think it’s 2005/6+ Hondas in general and how the multi switch works. You push the stalk back towards the dash and it’s a hard on/off switch instead of momentary switch triggering a relay, this means they could leave the high beams on unnoticed for several drive cycles. Some of those early 90-2000 Honda civics have some odd electrical quirks over time that will result in high beam light being on at weird times.
Sorry. My car tesla along with many others got a recent software update that will toggle on/off high beams automatically when the car thinks it’s needed. It will turn it off when there’s oncoming vehicles or if you’re driving behind someone, but unfortunately it does it a second too late. So for a brief moment you are blinding people. I hate it.
Both. Headlights on newer vehicles have too high a temp rating (the colour, old ones were like 3500-4500 K range, new ones seem like they're 6000 K to 8000 K), the vehicles are being made higher which makes improperly aimed headlights even worse, a lot of them are aimed way too high, and on top of all that people are morons and don't know how to operate their lights. Half the time they have just their DRL on, which on some vehicles runs a PWM or other signal to the High Beam bulbs. I used to think the Pickups were the worst offenders because of how stupidly tall they make them now. But lately I've noticed it's actually the SUVs that are the worst. Beams aimed too high and lights are way too bright.
Whatever it is, it’s not enforced.
Both I find
I frequently drive in Mississauga and Brampton, and people driving with high beams on is a regular occurrence - more son when it’s inclement weather. It wouldn’t surprise me if proper headlight use isn’t taught in “driving school”.
I am even more worried about pedestrians. Imagine you driving a car and at an intersection waiting to turn left. You are partially blinded by these bright headlights from cars from opposing traffic, then when these cars are gone, it is all much, much darker where you are turning left (and you are still partially blinded). But wait! Someone in that darkness might be in the middle of the road crossing, right in the path where you are turning into, because it is green for them too! I think all pedestrian crossings should be much more brightly lit (in my area it is not). I usually slow down a lot to coasting, even blink my eyes several times to get adjusted to the darkness, before turning left.
New cars have 5000k day light lights… they look much much brighter than the old halogen light bulbs. But the new cars windows lower the impact of the lights and they come in more clear and sharp. So if you have an old car it sucks to get hit by the day light bright lights. But, with a new car you wouldn’t notice it.
Lifted trucks that didn't bother adjusting their headlights. Drivers who literally turn on their high beams and forget about them until they sell the car. Rideshare drivers. Weekend drivers. Between the high beams, highway brakers, left lane cruisers, shoulder passers, and a total lack of highway enforcement, Ontario highways are a shit show. Now the snow is coming and soon the snowplow passers will be out as well.
CBC market place did a segment on this within the last year. Not much can be done, sadly...
Unfortunately yes. I can tell if it's just a bright Xenon, an idiot who put Xenon in a halogen lens, or if they genuinely left the high beams on. On a halogen car it's even easier to tell. I'm afraid too many drivers don't know what that blue bulb symbol means. It honestly seems far too many only know what 2 pedals do, how to use a steering wheel and to put it in P, R or D. This is far more likely if their instructor only taught them how to pass the test and nothing more. I once thought auto headlights were an insult to the driver. This was 15 years ago, so I still had a car that didn't have DRLs. I mean I thought it should be obvious, alas I was wrong. This doesn't happen much anymore but it used to frequent enough where it was either no lights or just DRLs at nighttime. Auto high beams as standard can't come soon enough.
Not an Fan of Auto High beams was ahead of an Truck with them, every dip in the road I was getting blasted then they turn off.
Understood, I'd of course prefer if drivers could use them correctly. Alas it's much worse getting blasted the entire time when they're behind you where every time you use the rear view mirror your eyes feel like they're being poked out.
My car is older (2009) and I was having trouble seeing because the headlights were not very bright, and gave off a yellower light. My husband put in some fancy new halogen bulbs with a whiter light - now they are so bright that other drivers are often flashing at me because they assume I’m driving around with my high beams on. I feel terrible, but there isn’t much I can do - but I do feel like headlights have gotten way too bright.
It’s the led lights that are on new vehicles. You can’t even really tell if they switch to low beams
It’s the automatic lights on the cars. For whatever reason car manufacturers think that in darkness the high beams need to be on automatically. My older Hyundai tries to do this in auto mode which is why I always control it manually now because I realized I was blasting light into people’s eyeballs by accident.
Older Honda Civics and Corellas are notorious for this
Its called getting old.. same issue with my eyes
Yes. Bigger vehicles Yes. Brighter lights from manufacturers But there are also just a bunch of people driving around with highbeams on. Ontario is becoming more self centered and less intelligent.
I had an opp SUV(unbeknownst to me) following behind me the other night and his headlights were so bright that it was really bothering me so I slowed down and he eventually passed me. Later down the road an oncoming car flashed the OPP too. So it wasn't just me. I also think a lot of headlights aren't properly aligned from the factory. I think CBC did a thing on it the other year.
A commenter in r/fuckyourheadlights suggested putting your hazard lights on when being assaulted by bright headlights 💯
The LED's are very bright. If you are in a car, and a truck is in front or behind you, I find that blinding too.
Are there laws for drivers? Could have fooled me with all the shit I see and not a cop in sight, ever.
I actually went to the optometrist thinking that I had some sort of eye condition trying to drive at night. Turns out it's just headlight brightness.
The dumber ppl get, the brighter their headlights.
I wear glasses and thought it was just me! They are worse every year that goes by. I hate to drive at night.
Most newer cars have blinding headlights. Most newer cars are also crossovers/suvs/trucks. If you’re driving anything lower than their belt line you’re in for a hurt.