Damn that is some fine tape lettering. Great effort.
My newish car has LED headlights, but it’s a CAR, and is low to the ground. I hope it doesn’t blind oncoming cars like these fucking trucks that are 3,000 feet tall.
LEDs in projection housings that are properly aimed aren’t an issue at all, the issues arise with 1)poorly aimed lights and 2)installing LEDs in reflector housings not meant for them
Riding a motorcycle against LED’s sucks. There is a moment of blindness.
Tip: DO NOT install LEDs if you had halogen previously.
They make LEDs specifically meant for halogen housings that shouldn’t blind you. They also make “off-road use only” LEDs with 10x the lumens that go in the same bulb sockets and guess which ones people will buy
I saw a new truck that had them FACING-BACKWARDS in the wheel well and bumper. We’re fucked.
I don’t blame the individuals, no one is recomending shops to their friends on how to get these adjustments.
The fact that no one believes in regulation, or MAINTAINING regulation depending on our needs, that these things happen.
Wish I could blame the assholes, but I leave that for the people who commute in big fucking truck 1000 because they are too insecure to buy anything else for their commuting machine.
There is a bill before the US congress right now that would mandate a study to gather hard numbers on safe luminosity and proper mounting of vehicle headlamps. I’ve written my rep asking them to support, if not sponsor, the bill:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/7772/text
Why do people feel the need to have headlights so bright they can see to the horizon?
The problem isn’t really the brightness, it’s that they don’t bother aiming them.
First thing I do in a car is set them to the lowest they go. Some recent cars are missing that dial though…
Cars missing that dial are auto-adjusting, you only change the initial setting if they’re wrong. It’s adjustable on the headlight assembly itself. 1% decline is what you’re meant to be aiming for. It may also be adjustable via dealer-level diagnostics.
You might be increasing your risk while night driving doing that by making it substantially easier to overdrive your headlights and reducing visibility.
Im not saying dont properly adjust them, but going to the lowest setting possible is likely not the answer and a very real risk factor.
I use high beams or adjust them in places that require it, most roads around where I live are well lit at night.
They come with most cars. Its not typically a choice.
Good thing I hold up my hand at night to stop from being blinded ensuring I can’t see your oncoming superbright truck.
Add a border of that 3M high reflective silver tape and they’ll notice real quick
I think that’s yellow reflective tape already, though a tasteful border wouldn’t go amiss.
I see the edges now with that hexagonal pattern, thought it was just fluo tape, but you’re right (I just shill for that stuff cause it saved my bacon riding a bike back before every driver became a hazard)
Gotta get some retroreflective mirrors on there
I’m in Japan and I get blinded by lights by a lot of cars these days. It shouldn’t be aiming as we have bi-yearly inspections that check that (both for regular and highbeams). It is possible, though, that people change the lights for inspection and swap them out after (though this is not legal).
SE Asia was brutal when I went there. India had all nice old yellow lights and sometimes light bulbs and sometimes oil lamps or candles to light their way. That was nice, and constantly terrifying.
Don’t blame LEDs, it’s because of the alignment of the headlights. Any type of headlight can be misaligned.
Headlights didn’t use to blind me.
Then came LEDs.
Now headlights blind me.
I blame LEDs.
Lucky I’ve been blinded by lights pre led. It is way more common know.
Halogens blind me just as much as LED and there are LED lights that don’t blind me.
It’s strange though since LED lights are extremely much more powerful, and this is a current and ongoing and big complaint by hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
Maybe you have a rare genetic eye disorder that makes you impervious to being blinded. Good for you. The rest of us get blinded by LEDs.
If your eyesight has gotten bad because of old age, perhaps you shouldn’t be driving.
I see zero correlation between what you said and I said. Yes you are right. If you can’t see, don’t drive.
Also, if you drive, don’t blind people on and off the road.
LEDs are so point source and intense that any misalignment, which is very common, is going to be an issue. Plus they blind you much more when a car’s nose is elevated relative to you. Put HID or LED lights on trucks and they are always in your face, and it feels like 50% of the vehicles are massive trucks.
Or if they’re loose and the car’s engine vibration shakes them at you.
Also the increasing height of lights, even low beams travel fucking long
Yeah, but the LEDs really… highlight the situation.
To be fair, depending on the housing, alignment is nearly impossible. Many housings are simply not designed to have a sharp cut off. As far as I’m concerned, LEDs should only be allowed in projector housings with projector lenses. Those are the ones that have a damn near razor blade level of light cutoff, so when you aim them to just below the windshield level of most vehicles, it’s not going to blind them at all.
That is what I have done with my car, I have LEDs brighter than the sun, but I have them in projector housings with projector lenses, and I have them aimed to be below the windshield level of a typical sedan, not a stupid SUV or truck. So nobody ever flashes me or gets annoyed and I have tested by having a friend Drive towards me on a road in the car while I am in a different car
It has the added benefit of my high beams are still mostly road level rather than up in the trees like many peoples so for like a mile in front of me it is just daytime which is very helpful out where I live in the middle of absolute nowhere rural where streetlights are just a myth and the deer are plentiful.
To be fair, depending on the housing, alignment is nearly impossible. Many housings are simply not designed to have a sharp cut off.
Yes, halogen housings. Which is why halogen headlights CAN in fact blind you more than proper factory LEDs, but people here usually won’t listen to that.
I have yet to see HID or LED headlights installed from the factory that don’t have sharp cutoffs.
That is what I have done with my car, I have LEDs brighter than the sun, but I have them in projector housings with projector lenses
If you retrofitted those, that’s most likely still illegal in the EU. The LEDs that you’re allowed to retrofit to halogen projectors are pretty dim actually. And headlights above a certain lumen count have to be auto-adjusting for when you’ve got a load and the rear end is sagging for example. Which is why it’s difficult for me to share in LED hate. HIDs and LEDs literally legally require proper aiming and cutoffs, whereas halogens are “do whatever the fuck you want” outside of having to make sure the aim is right for the annual inspection (which sometimes they’ll just adjust for you anyway and nobody’s stopping you from aiming it wrong again after you leave).
Not in the EU but no the car came with projectors already i just changed the bulbs
They should be behind diffusers to break up the laser like focus of them.
Oh man I had never thought about a laser array for headlights. New goal unlocked.
I really appreciate your attention to properly aligning your lights… but doesn’t that only help with very level roadways? Where I drive with lots of gentle hills, a car with a razor thin cut-off looks like its constantly flashing its high-beams at me. I feel like a headlight with a gradual transition would be less blinding for other drivers.
Yep every little hill and it is blinding.
Mild unlevelness is taken into account with my aiming, obviously I can’t do anything about us going opposing directions on a steep incline, but that’s true of any headlight type.
…which is exactly why you shouldn’t be allowed to have the intense, blinding lights on your vehicle.
“It’s unavoidable but fuck y’all, i like the bright lights” is a wild stance to take.
As I mentioned, that’s true regardless of light type. I am just as blinded by the people with standard lights on an incline as they are by my LEDs. That’s just part of driving on an incline at night. People that have driven at night more than once in their life just learn to hold up one of their hands on a steep incline.
It’s less I like the bright lights and more the whole there is no other source of light anywhere near me. I’m on a rural highway and I would like to be able to see the deer before I’m on top of them.
Incandescant headlights are not dim, the tyranny of the inverse square law is unavoidable. If you stare into them head on, say, as a product of a hill, you will be unsighted regardless.
And this is ignoring the fact that just because LEDs can be brighter doesn’t mean they have to be. Trying to attribute this issue to technology instead of insufficent regulation is harmful.
Prevailing thought on social media seems to prefer demonizing technology over discussing how to use it better.
A lot is getting pushed on us strictly out of profit motives, you shouldn’t just blindly accept “new and improved” just because capitalism says so.
Yeah, being able to see animals about to jump into the road is suuuuuch a bad thing, only because of capitalism do people want it.
We were already able to do that. So what is the improvement besides blinding people?
Almost everything we buy is “pushed” on us out of profit motives, not as a public service. And yes, we shouldn’t buy things just because they’re “new and improved”, but I’m not sure how that’s relevant to aiming headlights too high - a problem as old as cars.
Food, energy, drinking water, health care, fire and police, none of those are pushed out of profit motives. They are things we need to survive and have a society. The problem is when the system itself stops being just the set of rules regulating trade to being an active participant and incentive in and of itself.
Capitalism has its own prejudice- profit, over and at any and all costs.
Humans need food, energy, water, health care and so on, and we will need that regardless of what capitalism has to say about how to provide it. And there is a lot to say about what capitalism has to say about how to provide it.
I fucking hate those things. I saw somewhere that it’s almost always an alignment issue, but I feel like with today’s technology it should be self-correcting if it’s going to otherwise blind people. We have phones that can photograph an ant’s asshole at 300 meters. they could fix this shit if they cared. They’ll only care if they lose billions in a class action lawsuit.
Don’t we finally get the headlifhts ike EU that then off some when a car is coming.
That feels like a bullshit handwaving excuse “well it’s really the user’s fault!”. No, manufacturers are responsible.
It’s super easy to adjust in most cars that don’t do it automatically. There is usually a slot near the lights and you use a philips or flat screw driver and turn the adjustment nut either up or down depending on need. Instructions are in the manual or you can look it up online for every vehicle I’ve owned.
There is an exact method but generally line the car up facing and super close to a wall, turn the lights on, the center of the beam should be about 2-3 inches below the height of your headlights. If you have space the beam should hit the ground 7.5m or about 25 ft from where your car is parked.
A common issue in my hick town is people lifting vehicles and never adjusting the light angle. Any time you put bigger tires on a car or lift the body you should adjust the lights.
Edit: I just wanted to add, if you get brights flashed at you a lot it’s time to adjust your lights.
You’re not going to tell me that some of them aren’t adjusting them to be blinding on purpose. In certain segments of car culture, obnoxiousness is a virtue.
So this is why I feel like I’m being attacked whenever I go up a slight incline with incoming traffic?
States are reducing inspections so I see this getting worse.
The worst part is when the other headlights are so bright you have to make yours brighter to compensate. I have astigmatism and am literally blinded by these headlights while driving at night. I had to upgrade my own headlights to LED (still dimmer than these others) just so that I could still make out the road when they drive by. Because the way my eyes work the more my eyes adjust for darkness the more blinding a light is.
Adding a yellow tint to your glasses massively helps with cutting the glare out, makes computer screens less headachey as well.
Sadly I have a big ass head and everytime I try to wear glasses it makes me get a migraine.
Tried having a look at prescription safety glasses?
They’re usually built for people that are built bigger, and are mostly cheaper than buying off the shelf.
My cars are older with not LEDs and I just drive with my brights on all the time. Still dimmer than everyone else’s lights and helps my eyes
you shouldnt do that.
I was driving my friend’s car at night yesterday, first time in years, and it seemed like over half the people just don’t flick off their brights when approaching these days?? I understand it’s kind of impossible to see the road without them now, but I was still shocked at how g much shittier a drive in the dark was than I remembered. It’s intolerable!
Yeah mine is 30 years old, but I got LED replacements for it online.
The technology for adaptive headlights absolutely has existed… in super high-end cars because that’s a complex optical control and microelectronics system. it requires advanced engineering, complex optical assemblies, and complicated control systems. Your Honda will never have that because most of us simply don’t want to pay. Cars are complicated enough. Do want more things that can break? Do you want your replacement headlights to cost $5,000? LED technology is so far superior to any other light source for headlights. That there are idiots all over the place with poorly maintained cars is not the LEDs fault.
Luckily nobody outside of a car has eyes or this would be pretty terrible.
If they are wearing reflecting clothing (which they should if they are on a road after dark) , they will be detected.
If they are not, they have much bigger problems to worry about than leds.
It’s mostly limited to expensive cars because until recently the regulations around them were super complicated. Things are finally simplified a bit and North America has finally started allowing them as well.
Isn’t there simpler self-calibrating? Like just the level?
in super high-end cars
I’m looking at the specs of a VW Polo here and it has matrix led headlights. Not the base model, but one above it, at 23k eur. I know Polo’s aren’t available in the states, but if a small entry level hatchback suited for first car owners can have them, I struggle to find the reason why others can’t have them too. Unless its proprietary technology?
They were saying lots of words to make their point seem a lot more salient than your actual lived experience proves
You’re right.
You know, I’ve thought about getting one of those obnoxiously bright, completely unfocused LED lights bars.
And mounting it on the back.
You will be the one pulled over and ticketed, even if you aren’t actually using it.
I got pulled over and the cop didn’t give a single shit about the light, even though I blasted him with it (I thought they were a tailgater). I only got a ticket for speeding.
So it really depends. Thankfully (or unfortunately) most cops aren’t familiar with the law.
Wow, that’s wild! Glad you got off though.
I don’t know about the second part, but yeah, using it is definitely illegal on the road.
Really depends on the cop, since they can pull you over and/or ticket you for any or no reason. Whether it stands in court is another story, but you gotta take it to court for that to matter. And if they just say it was on when it wasn’t, it would be difficult to prove.
Having them installed is legal as far as I know because they’re legal for off road use.
Yeah. That’s what I meant. As long as you don’t use them to blind other drivers. Even if it is just for the lulz.
Do it. I did and it’s fucking hilarious getting revenge on these people. They get so mad lol
Just don’t make the mistake I did and do it to a cop (it was at night so I couldn’t see what kind of car it was; all I saw was tailgating headlights). Thankfully he had a sense of humor about it.
Also, don’t forget to turn them off. I was on the road at about 3:30am this morning and initially thought there was a wrong way driver. It took about 20 seconds to realize it wasn’t getting any closer and figure out what it actually was: a guy in a jeep had them installed on a roof rack.
I had mine installed in the rear window, so if I left it on it would be very obvious. Installing a rear-facing light on a light bar where you can’t see it is a really bad idea.
Yeah I’d end up eating a curb with my self-control around cops.
Hit em with the uno reverse!
My buddy had an Audi A4, probably a 2003, and one of the features was just this bright ass light that you could turn on that pointed backwards. He had another Audi after that didn’t have it, never really seen one with it, other than that. It was great for dealing with tailgaters.
Rear fog light? Ive had a few with that. Makes me feel betterhaving that on in blizzards.
I hope thats reflective tape.
Kinda obvious that it is reflective tape, thus the message.
I didn’t think it was reflective tape at first. I think I thought it was just a little pixelated.
it is
I am enthused by the anti-led headlight comments in this thread
it’s nice to see people recognizing the danger for what it is and not just making false claims about how it’s only illegal headlights that are dangerous and stock LEDs are fine
I’m proud of all you people shitting on LED headlights. keep up the good work
edit: to the guy who respectably tried to find alternatives for their blinding headlights and couldn’t and wrote their MP about it - good work. but that’s not enough. it’s your vehicle, and you as the owner and operator are responsible for its safety. you chose that vehicle. you were aware of the headlights. you made that trade off of blinding headlights for the rest of the package. that was YOUR decision. don’t fuck my life up as a result and say “whoopsie, nothing I can do, not my fault”. that’s disgusting. have some responsibility for your actions. yes the manufacturers fucked you. don’t use that as an excuse to fuck the rest of us.
Blinder-lovers tend to lean conservative (comes with the “Doesn’t hurt me = Not a problem”), and Lemmy is definitely not very.
There is a lot of “my freedom!” bullshit when it comes to cars.
there are still enough people who aren’t very conservative and still just shrug and say “nothing I can do about it”, instead of y’know owning up to their shit
If you squint a bit, I guess that accusation could apply to me? Hard to say when you’re being this vague.
the edit to my top level comment should make my opinions clear
I wasn’t directing this at you, just adding that plenty of left-leaning people wash their hands of it and say “it came like this” like that absolves them of all responsibility for something they chose to buy
