Asleep at the Wheel in the Headlight Brightness Wars
theringer.com
The crusade against bright headlights has picked up speed in recent years, in large part due to a couple of Reddit nerds. Could they know what’s best for the auto industry better than the auto industry itself?
  • Eager Eagle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    25 days ago

    Vehicle size is another issue that comes up regularly, since NHTSA regulations for headlights don’t include a standardized mounting height, even as cars have ballooned in size in recent years. This means a perfectly aligned headlight in a larger car can still wreak havoc on a smaller car: “Where the [midsize] Civic might not give you glare,” Trechter, the former lighting engineer, said, “that F-350 [truck], if you’re sitting in a [sport-size] Miata, is gonna absolutely wreck your eyeballs.”

    I drive a midsize sedan an I often have my rear-view and side mirrors lit by these trucks. It’s stupid they’re even allowed.

    Taller vehicles need two kinds of headlight: a higher intensity mounted low to illuminate the path, and a lower intensity mounted high to illuminate retro-reflective surfaces like traffic signs.

    • FireRetardant@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      25 days ago

      If a transport truck can have lights at a reasonable height and angle that don’t blind me, so can a standard pick up truck. Many transports actually have their lights mounted lower than pick up trucks and full size SUVs.