Modern Car Lights - Far too bright

theguzman

Only returned home driving a short while ago and was absolutely blinded several times, the worst offender was a Tesla. These super bright white HID and LED lights on new cars and aftermarket bulbs I would say are the number 1 hazard on the road now. SUV and Trucks literally scorching the retina's off you and Automatic dimming which dims too late to ensure you are seeing stars. Bloody ridiculous and they should be banned.

Padre_Pio

Add in the extra height of crossovers and SUVs and you're more susceptible to getting blinded by dimmed bulbs.

Yellow light is much better for car lights as it's easier for our eyes to adjust back and forth between darkness and an oncoming vehicle.

Interior controls lighting should be orange for the same reason, and it was for decades, but now everything is white and blue because it looks futuristic or kewl.

Atlantic Dawn

The aftermarket bulbs are a big one.

kirk.

Driving on hilly roads is a nightmare

Photobox

Totally agree. Did a 4 hour round trip last night and was nearly blinded several times by the time I returned home. Thought it was just me.

ejmaztec

It's so bad you can't even tell if someone's lights are dipped or not.

It's also a pain in the eyeballs following dicks with their rear fog lamps on when there isn't even a hint of fog.

Senature

I think this should be addressed as a safety issue by government. It's only different bulbs that are needed, an easy fix. Standardise the bulbs that are allowed, that are effective and don't blind other drivers. Other bulbs, not allowed to be sold, fitted or used.

Banjo Carney

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121493152#Comment_121493152

Agree the rear fog lights are a killer on the eyes drives me nuts

Baba Yaga

those new type headlamps are like looking straight into the sun,totally blinding,while im absofcukinlutely delighted that the blind-er can see the road 78miles ahead on dipped beam,myself being the blind-ee have to stop until i can see more then bright blue spots in my eyes!!

micks_address

It's interesting for sure. I've a car with automatic lights which dim with oncoming traffic but I'll often get flashed. They are matrix lights so don't fully dim. To be honest I'd rather they did. They seem to shape the lights away from oncoming traffic rather than dim down.

TheValeyard

It's an absolute pain. Grand the other driver can see five years into the future, but the drivers on the other side of the road are forced to slow down and cannot see what's in front of them.

bloopy

It seems to be especially common this winter. I don't remember being blinded this often in previous years.

Personally, I don't have a problem with them

MoodeRator

This is a major concern for me also, as I drive country roads, 2 hours each day in the dark. These excessively bright lights not only blind you on occasions, but but they also make it impossible to see if the vehicle has a wide load behind them.

On one occasion I was nearly in a ditch due to a wide trailer being towed only being visible once the car towing was beside me

Clo-Clo

I have the standard lights on car but get flashed every days by other cars who seem to think I have full headlights on. The car is a hatchback so not sure why they get so confused. I resist flashing them with the actual full headlight because if they can't see with the dims they are likely to crash if I did.

We live in an area outside a city which has no street lights. Honestly I think it is just people who are used to street lights and once they hit the back roads they struggle to see. It is very bad when raining because most of the people flashing seem to think they are driving on a motorway and not a small country road, they will flash but not slow down.

Furze99

It's been a creeping phenomenon for a few years now as the car market moves along and older vehicles retired. I agree, the LED lights are often blinding. The gas thing is you have the RSA banging on about legislation all the time to control drivers behaviour and then they ignore substantial hazards like this which they could easily address with car importers and dealers.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121493915#Comment_121493915

I have no problem with lights on cars, you can spot the odd one which clearly has non standard lights put into them but they are few and far between. I do remember a mate of mine years ago who denied they had terrible eye sight and was complaining about driving in dark. Instead of getting glasses like he should of went ot a garage and got new bulbs in so he could see, God love the people coming towards him. A few years later he bit the bullet and got glasses. But that is what you are dealing with.

The NCT checks if the lights are level etc, they don't check the brightness.

ongarite

Clean the inside of your windscreen properly, not just a quick wipe on damp morning.

A build up of grime on the glass causes a white like haze which causes glare & astigmatism like effects.

Akrasia

In every car I've owned up to now, there has been a headlight level adjustment knob in the cockpit to allow the low beams to be raised or lowered depending on how many passengers there are and if there's a heavy load in the boot

In the Nissan Leaf I'm driving at the moment, there is no adjuster and you need to get a ratchet out and adjust them directly at the mounting I(which nobody will ever do)

I actually think the low beams are set up to be a little but too high on the car, but I'm assured this is the standard set up so i'm going with it

SweetCaliber

Theres a few new cars which the LED headlights are blinding, but I'm mostly blinded by either lads that put LED bulbs into reflector housings and most of all those that didnt bother to get the headlights aligned so they are pointing all over the place (often one is blinding you and the other is pointing at the ground)

Theres also the few people that have a bulb gone and I'm not sure if that gives more power to the other headlight or they just stick on their full beams

Doolittle51

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121493621#Comment_121493621

Maybe one of your bulbs is blown, or misaligned, or you're driving around at night with only DRLs on

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121494284#Comment_121494284

Nah they are perfect, checked, I think it is just they are the LED bulbs or whatever they are called.

looksee

I live rural and I can't say I have had any problems with car headlight, but I was very concerned one evening when I saw a brilliant flashing light coming towards me on a fairly narrow road. I could not figure out what it was and could not see anything beside or beyond it to try and rationalise it. It was totally distracting. At the very last moment I realised it was a cyclist with a flashing headlight which was the brightest thing I have ever had to drive against. Very dangerous, I tried to slow down as I could not figure out what was going on, but I had someone behind me who was presumably as blinded as I was so I felt I had to keep going.

Leg End Reject

It's a nightmare, blinded by low hanging winter sun during the day and LED bulbs at night.

I've often flashed someone thinking they had full beams on only to be greeted by the equivalent of a nuclear explosion when they quickly flash theirs to show they have their dipped beams on.

NIMAN

Guys adding after market lights are a new thing too. Only seen a couple of cases but it's bound to become more popular once they are seen by the easily influenced.

A car approached me the other night with what appeared to be a 3 foot long solid bar of light down at ground level. It was SUPER bright, and very blinding, despite not pointing directly at me. No doubt something bought off TEMU or similar.

It was so bright that I would like to think that as soon as he drove past the guards for the 1st time, they would have pulled him in and taken it off themselves there and then.

GPoint

Subjectively it feels like the number of bright leds on the road has increased But I agree with point mentioned above that it’s down to more people buying newer cars and older cars taken off road. I would be happy to go back to good old halogens even though my current car has led. Halogens were a lot cheaper to replace when losing brightness. LED headlights don’t last forever and lose brightness too but to replace one is not what you could do in few minutes yourself .

TheRiverman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121493152#Comment_121493152

There usually is a hint of fog, the bit between the dicks ears.

Tenzor07

Most new cars with LED lights shouldn't cause any more issues than older cars with traditional bulbs and would be better aligned than old cars too, the only difference is the light is "whiter" more so than the yellow shade of light off older car headlights, unless someone installs those annoying white light headlight bulbs!

I have the Matrix Led headlights which adjust themselves on low and high beams, never been flashed by another car...

Still find it amazing that someone in this thread has a moan at those "pesky cyclists" even though the subject here is bright car lights! 🙄

plodder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121493087#Comment_121493087

I remember reading (a few years back) that HID/ Xenon bulbs were only supposed to be installed in specific types of headlamp, which were self-leveling etc. But, now you can put them in any old jaloppey. So, what changed, I wonder?

For what it's worth, my OH's car has automatic dipping and tbh, the technology in it is not great. It sometimes takes way longer to detect an oncoming car than it should. If you try to intervene you sometimes end up switching at the same time as the automatic system and blinding the other car a second time. While it's still a useful feature, the quality in this instance is fairly rubbish. It looks to me like the safety of this technology is not tested by anyone outside the manufacturers themselves.

Ash.J.Williams

Guilty , after I wash the insignia cars actually pull in to let me pass

pawdee

Annoying as they may be, I wish I had those modern headlights instead of the candle lamps on my 08 Focus.

Scipri0

I agree with you. While it might be great for the driver behind the wheel, it's a nightmare for other road users. I'm surprised the EU hasn't gotten around to dealing with it. I thought i was being abducted one evening!

Duke of Schomberg

My Octavia has dynamic and self-dipping LEDs - the technology fails when one is approaching an oncoming vehicles round a bend, I can see the beam of the oncoming car and am able to dip the headlights but the automatic sensor won't react until it detects the oncoming car, by which time its will have had to emerge from the bend and is already in the beam.

Up here in the UK LEDs and xenons must be fitted with self-leveling equipment so that they don't dazzle oncoming vehicles when there's more weight in the rear. The problem is that this equipment fails and can be left unaddressed until the next MoT examination.

Then you've got the after-market "xtreme bright/white" bulbs, usually fitted into badly-adjusted reflector headlights - these seem to be the real problem.

Whilst you're at it you can add-in people driving around on one headlight, usually xenons - because they can't afford the £200-plus labour to replace the unit until its MoT comes round. And the clowms with no rear lights because they think their DRLs are their headlights.

Gatling

I usually find it bad when you have a cross over or something like a transit van taxi behind you and your blinded by your mirror, there should be a standard maximum output on led vehicles lights ,

I have a bigger issue with all the people with one headlight out. Seen 4 or 5 this morning.

Galwayguy35

Well whatever about the modern lights I always hate this time of year because there is always some dickhead who floors it until he is about a foot behind me and all I can see in the rear view mirror is lights blinding me.

Its also very dangerous on country roads because with oncoming cars if there is something on the road it makes it very difficult to see it.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121496396#Comment_121496396

Gently slow down. Then move ahead again. Rinse and repeat. Even dickheads get the message

Padraig Mor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058326836/modern-car-lights-far-too-bright

I have a Tesla and have to admit I was getting flashed at least once every dark journey this winter until I manually adjusted the lights down. I've seen other Tesla drivers saying the same. Funnily enough the pattern (which is very defined) 'looks' like it's the same to me but must be a little lower alright.

buried

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121496612#Comment_121496612

What was the level at before you manually had to adjust down P? From what level did you have to go down to?

Padraig Mor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121496629#Comment_121496629

To be honest I don't know. They were at the factory setting and I just put them down a bit - process is a bit confusing but seems to have worked!

Ezeoul

Then there are the eejits who come up right behind you and blind you with their super bright lights in your rear view mirror.

Lots of cars with what seems to be light bars across the front. Makes the whole front bright

Potential-Monke

I've had to pull in a few times to let other cars pass me by. 99.9% of the time it's a van or crossover ball of dirt. The headlights are physically higher, so they're basically eye level for me. So blinded by the slow cnut in front who is taking his time to dip his blazar level headlights (down to quasar level "dipped" lights), and quasar dipped lights taking over my 3 rear view mirrors while also lighting up my dash, in case I needed to see it as clear as day.

Unfortunately, as more useless cnuts who couldn't drive standard or small cars are making the change to cross overs because... well, I assume because they're idiots who listened to the man who makes more money selling a crossover, we now have hundreds of thousands of useless cnuts driving larger, taller and inexplicably bright balls of dirt. Not content with making it impossible to see during the night, their size alone makes it harder to see what's ahead during the day. Next up, they'll be complaining the street they're parking on isn't wide enough all of a sudden. I honestly think if you live in a city with no specific parking so you've to park on the street, you shouldn't be allowed anything bigger than a small compact.

I'm seeing it in a local village, cars park on 1 side, you used to be able to drive past oncoming traffic except for buses/trucks, now you've to stop and wait for cars too because half the street/road is taken up with pricks and their crossover balls of dirt. The number of kids and teens getting hit by cars in towns/cities will inevitably rise imo, because these parked prick wagons are too tall (I have an extra special hatred for the absolute knob jockey who has a 221 Volvo XC90 as a solicitor and takes up the entire side of the road when "parked").

If I'm not mistaken, a hape of cars in 'Merica are recalled due to being "too bright". So we badly need some proper legislation to control this before it gets too far.

tikka16751

Between bright lights and internet speeds too fast it’s gone to dairy.

Montage of Feck

Think HIDS and LEDS are eyes searing, just wait until lasers become mainstream! The french had the right idea in requiring yellow bulbs which was sadly done away with by the EU.

nullzero

After the clocks changed at the end of October the evening drive in the dark was noticeably worse than previous years thanks to the increase in newer vehicles with said lights on the road.

The month or so since then has allowed me to adjust to it to an extent but as mentioned by numerous others here, the larger cross over type vehicles with greater ground clearance are the largest group of culprits here.

The clown driving behind you with full headlamps on is a daily occurance, mornings and evenings in December, thankfully we'll be seeing the hours of darkness decrease after next week but we still have a few months of this crap to go.

I've been meaning to go online and get some anti glare glasses for driving to see if they provide any relief from being dazzled by these lights, supposedly the jury is out on their effectiveness but I'd try anything to attempt to deal with it.

Potential-Monke

The problem with the modern lights is you need polarised lenses, and they be too dark for driving at night. We need legislation to prevent it from getting worse, which it will as the people of Ireland seem to think they're American and bigger = better...

Packrat

I was driving a brand new Merc V Class with the dynamic self dimmers for 5 hours in the dark this morning. They are really great, - i didn't get flashed once, I noticed that they drop out the sides or the middle depending on where the car ahead or oncoming is.

It's fantastic to still have light along the hedges where the blasted 🦌 lurk. I saw 3 dead this morning. 3 peoples Christmas ruined.

InAtFullBack

Don't see any issues with oncoming car lights in general. An odd one out of focus perhaps, but it's not a widespread problem. I cannot understand why other drivers have to 'look' at the headlights of oncoming traffic - you should be focussing on your own tract of road ahead, not what is in the other lane/side of the road. A huge bug-bear of mine is the idiot who drops speed by 25+% everytime they encounter an oncoming car. There should be night driving tests and your licence marked as passed for night time driving if passed, otherwise get the hell off the road and let real drivers get on with it.

Potential-Monke

I do watch the road, problem is these modern car lights are so bright, even when dipped, that they take up my whole view. Everything else is too dark to have proper visibility. It's an unnatural brightness. We have blue light filters for phones, tablets, tvs, but we decide that superbright blue tinged headlights directly into peoples eyes is not an issue. So when one of these cars passes me, it's extremely hard to see my side of the road, depending on the road. The best I can do in these cases is to watch the side of the road about 10ft in front of my car... I don't usually brake, unless it's bad enough, but I'm already well aware that other people do so I keep a good distance, something else other drivers seem incapable of. A crossover behind me lights up my side mirrors and is even too bright in my dipped rear view mirror. Blinded from both directions now. And the pricks who decide to leave their front LED fogs on with no fog out... I could go on...

Packrat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121507769#Comment_121507769

Yeah, it appears some people ought not to drive at night. Everything stops them from being safe and in control of their vehicle. It's obviously an eyesight issue.

There should be separate licenses really...