You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments
43 points

With halfway decent power stabilization, and the appropriate about of directionality in the lights, plus the lights being somewhere below the typical sedans window frame, the only time headlights should bother you, is when you’re on a hill, regardless if they’re LED or not.

IMO, one of two things is very wrong if you’re getting blinded by anyone’s headlights (highbeams not withstanding): either the designers and engineers that worked on the car are idiots, and placed headlights in a location that was going to blind people, or they used crap optics, etc… Or, the owner of the car can’t be arsed to have their headlights properly adjusted.

Honestly, it’s a little of A and a little of B… Depending on the car and the circumstance.

One the person I knew actually had self adjusting headlights, which somehow were damaged and would not adjust properly anymore. They drove around like that for years before retiring the vehicle.

Can’t fix stupid.

permalink
report
reply
19 points

LEDs legally have to be self-adjustable at least in EU. Your mandatory inspection will usually catch it if that system doesn’t work.

The bigger problem is people throwing LEDs in halogen housings. It’s not the LED’s fault. The other big problem in the US at least I reckon, is having vehicles that are way too tall, so their headlights, while hopefully dipped properly, are above a normal driver’s eye level.

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points
*
Removed by mod
permalink
report
parent
reply
0 points

Well, your first point is great except we don’t have yearly inspections on vehicles in North America or anything. Inspections happen when cars are registered, then never again until ownership changes hands and it needs to be registered by a new owner.

Add that to the fact that inspections are done by mechanics, and they don’t generally give a shit about it, and it’s a recipe for failure. Last time I got a used car inspected, the mechanic looked at the car through the window and said “is that it?” I replied “yeah”, and he went through the list and checked all the normal stuff without glancing at the car again. So most inspections here are void from the get go.

The second point is valid and a design problem which I covered previously.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

Well if you like your mechanic then keep quiet about it, because what you just described is a felony, which carries a fine and loss of inspector’s license. And vehicle inspections are dependent on the state and county in question. Most US states require vehicle inspections. Some don’t.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

Well, your first point is great except we don’t have yearly inspections on vehicles in North America or anything.

I can say that, at least in Texas, we require annual inspections as a condition of yearly vehicle registration. We just don’t test for the impact of headlights on incoming traffic, because… TxDOT (and the Texas legislature/governor by extension) doesn’t consider it worth regulating.

Add that to the fact that inspections are done by mechanics, and they don’t generally give a shit about it

Mechanics test what is on the regulatory code. Add headlight brightness to the list and they’ll test for that, too. This isn’t an unsolvable problem by any stretch.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points
*

Not really, I have factory LED headlights on my 2023 Toyota Yaris and those are manually adjusted the same way halogen headlights used to be. Mind you I don’t have the LED matrix technology.

When it comes to people throwing LEDs in halogen housing, it doesn’t have to be bad. I used to use a pair of OSRAM LEDs instead of halogens in my Citroen Berlingo 2006, but those were homologated for road use with the same lumen rating as homologated halogens. They were not cheap, but the light pattern was the same as with halogens and they blinded oncoming traffic a lot less than halogens (I tested that with my friends and colleagues). Of course using cheap illegal LEDs in halogen housing is a bad idea, but you can’t throw illegal solutions in one bag with legal and sensible solutions.

P.S. I live in the EU

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Interesting. I couldn’t legally drive a car with high output headlights without it having both automatic adjustment and headlamp washers. It’s simply mandatory

Maybe you mean that it’s manually adjustable in addition to having auto-leveling? I think that’s the case for nearly all cars. Or maybe your car manages to stay below some sort of light output limit despite having LEDs.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

It’s not uncommon to see massive trucks with insanely bright LED lights (a certain personality type), which puts the lights just about windshield level on a sedan.

What’s extra fun is now the lights also blind drivers going the same direction as the truck, as every mirror in the sedan is filled with light.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points
*

person I knew actually had self adjusting headlights, which somehow were damaged and would not adjust properly anymore. They drove around like that for years before retiring the vehicle.

Where was that? In Europe this should have been spotted during the mandatory inspection.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Canada. Our inspections are basically a funny joke.

We have them for cars, but unless your car is basically rust with wheels, someone will sign the inspection to say it’s roadworthy.

permalink
report
parent
reply

memes

!memes@lemmy.world

Create post

Community rules

1. Be civil

No trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour

2. No politics

This is non-politics community. For political memes please go to !politicalmemes@lemmy.world

3. No recent reposts

Check for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month

4. No bots

No bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins

5. No Spam/Ads

No advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live.

Sister communities

Community stats

  • 13K

    Monthly active users

  • 3.1K

    Posts

  • 74K

    Comments