They aren’t brights. I mean…maybe some of them are, but a lot of them aren’t.

How do I know? My wife got a new car and whenever I drive it people flash their brights at me, but my brights aren’t on. I used to flash them back to show that they weren’t on before, but that seemed dangerous so I just accept it.

Yes, they are awful. I bought a pair of night driving glasses and they help tremendously.

I have a sedan and already have trouble driving in the dark normally. Now most of the time I can't see what I'm doing. My only solutions are to avoid driving in the dark, or get a giant lifted vehicle so I can be above all of it.

Found a good article on this. Accidents increased by 12% in 2021. That's high. New adaptive systems are coming out, Europe already has had that for a while. Won't help with the bros in giant trucks and illegal aftermarket lights. Also found that the personal injury lawyers are all over this, so that tells you something. https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/02/15/feds-approve-new-headlights-that-wont-blind-oncoming-drivers/

Last night I was seeing spots (like after a camera flash) from the headlights if an oncoming car.

It's not just oncoming traffic. I have a sedan and if a larger car is behind me the headlight hits my sideview mirror and blinds me.

Seriously. I’ve been noticing this too.

It's really bad. On my motorcycle I'm blinded all the time. Can't see more than a few feet after one of these people passes me.

I can’t see anymore at night and hate driving anywhere I don’t know know because of it. These new lights make things 10000x worse for me

I drove an SUV up until February when I bought a much smaller car and I’m blinded constantly now from behind

This is the problem. People buy cheap lights that can’t be aimed . If the diode are at the wrong angle they will cause blinding to others and also dark spots for the driver. But also 80% of new cars come with leds lights. And also the problem is people.. so many drivers like to use highbeams and don’t give a F about anyone(literally talking to a firend who’s a cop said he pulled over 6cars for not turning down highbeams and 2 drivers said they don’t have to because they can’t see 3 had a low beam out so they thought that was ok and one was dui. ) People don’t care about anyone else but them selves on the roads weather it’s speeding, lane hogging , cellphones. You name it

Can’t stand LED lights for this reason and basically every new car has them. And of course everyone and their brother drives either a truck or SUV, so when you’re in a small car you’re constantly getting it from every angle.

There are some models (2019 and later RAV4 for sure, I’m assuming others as well) that have the default headlight focused significantly higher than is preferable. They’re not turning their lights down, because they’re not using highbeams… It’s just that their regular beams are aimed to focus much farther forward and therefore hit eye level on oncoming traffic. I noticed it on my parents car and thought it was a fluke, until I also experienced it riding in two different friends’ new RAV4’s. One of said friends went to the dealer to get the lights refocused, and the dealer reported that they are seeing a lot of the new model RAV4 coming with the lights like that by default.

Last week one night I am driving on a local two lane solid striped road, no passing, typical winding backroad. Speed limit is 35. I'm going 40.

There's nobody behind me.

Then suddenly there is this white light filling my rearview mirror. Its some dick in a big pickup truck with bright headlights, foglights AND a bright LED around his license plate.

The guy then flies by me crossing the solid no passing line.

I don't know how he doesn't get pulled over for the lights.

And I bet on Wednesday he'll be flying Trump 2024 flags.

I've been having a rough time with this too as I suffer light sensitivity from a health condition. It does help to look away from the car with the bright lights. I always look at the white line, that way when I look back at the road when they've passed the blind spot that's recovering from the brightness is top left instead of close to the middle of my vision. That's how I was taught as a teen.

another danger is police cruisers shadowing your car at night... once they have their eyes on you and want to pull you over just to check, since they did all this work they may feel like to write some sort of warning or even a ticket to meet their daily quota just because they already pulled you over for no reason.. you can also get into an accident from the distraction of a police cruiser literally tail gating you in order to induce you to do some mistake under psychological pressure.. at 2-3 am they literally pull over every 3rd or 5th driver on the road just because it is late.

I think most of them don’t even have their brights on. I flash my brights at people like that and a lot of the time they flash back then I get to sit there like

“Well fuck you and your $30K modern vehicle”

The lifted trucks are a different story. Wish I could run them into a telephone pole (causing no injuries) with the power of my mind

This is all good to read because I thought I was just getting older.

They are annoying AF

When the lights are too bright look away but not off the road. Look down and to your right and keep your eyes on the solid lane marker. Obviously this is better advice in a rural area without a lot of traffic. And ideally only for a few seconds because of wildlife etc. but it will help you not be blinded temporarily.

(I just realized if you’re not in the right lane the lane marker may be dotted rather than solid. Still, same idea.)

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I notice this a lot too. What I do is pre-emptively use my own brights on empty roads (only on empty roads!) so that when someone turns a corner and blinds me, they see me turn off my brights and then they usually do the same. I'm meticulous about this so it tends to work.

They are coming like this from the factory. I'm an old dude who bought a Subaru Outback. I did nothing to it.

I get flashed that I'm using high beams sometimes but I am not. I can't help it. It is designed that way and didn't even know it until I'd been driving it for a while.

Yea these new HID lamps should be illegal. I've managed to combat it a bit by tinting my side and rearview mirrors. Doesn't help with oncoming lights but it does a lot to help when one of these damn new vehicles is behind you at night. Not legal where I live and I was pulled over once for it but I was let off with a warning after explaining why they were tinted. I think the officer agreed with me about these newer vehicles being dangerously bright. I still have them tinted and havent had any issues since but I'm always nervous about it.

For me it's cataracts starting up. I avoid night driving when I can but when I have to, I cover my bad eye with my hand and situation greatly improves. Fortunately not that much traffic in these parts. Altho now that it gets dark so early, more problematic.

Focusing on the white shoulder painted line helps, but so many of them are completely faded.

Anti reflective glasses help a little.

My 2015 and now 2020 ford eacape have an auto setting. Its very good at turning high beams on when its really dark road, then switches back to low beam when an on coming car comes down tje road

My car's headlights are too bright even on dim. I brought it to both the dealer and an independent shop; borh say there is no adjustment for either brightness or angle.

I hate it. Will never but a car again without checking the headlights.

Everyone thinks brighter is better, but using dimmer LEDs would mKe the lights safer (less glare and sharp contrasts).

It's bad. I cannot drive at night anymore either. The only way to combat it is to also drive with my high beams on, and that just makes me feel like too much of an a-hole. So I just avoid going anywhere unless it's a very short distance or someone else wants to drive that has good night vision.

I should not need sunglasses to drive at night.

My solution is simple. If the vehicle coming towards you have lights that seem like they are on high, I simply turn my high beams on. If they turn their high beams off, then so do I. If instead if they flash their high beams to show me they are using their low beams, then I simply leave my highs on so I can see where I am going. My responsibility is to make sure I can see when their lights make it difficult even if it means using my highs against their overly bright lows.

And some of the other suckers turn on their headlights even in the morning.

Lol Huge 50 thousand dollar truck with triple LEDs driven by a teenager, get fucked, this is mass

It’s not that they’re not turned down, this is how they are. Not only are they mounted higher (on pickups and SUVs), they are also bluer than the halogen lights and this is part of the problem: Headlight strength is measured in how they affect a certain part of the eye and the unit is called Lumens. But this part of the eye is more sensitive to red light than blue, so to get the same Lumen, a blue light must be much stronger. And LEDs are much bluer than the older halogen lights. (Auto makers could make them warmer but have chosen not to).

So if an LED light and a halogen light register the same Lumen value on the light meter, the LED light would look 40% brighter. This is also why LED street lamps look so bright. They have the same Lumen value as older lamps but are brighter.

Congress has passed a bipartisan bill which requires regulators approve “adaptive driving beams” by 2023. Adaptive lights will be controlled by software to regulate the strength of the light based on driving conditions. Hopefully this will lead to some relief from the glare soon!

2018 driving home in the fog we had a massive truck tailgating us, felt incredibly unsafe plus their lights were blinding us so was perhaps the worst driving conditions I have ever been in. If we didn't have a left hand turn coming up in a few miles (thanks CT) we wouldn't have been in the middle lane. I swear the only solution is get LED lights for my car because it's getting more and more dangerous not to have the Angel Eyes

People are just mostly stupid assholes.they prob shouldn't even have a license most likely

There’s a difference between high beams and LEDS. LEDS are not a problem to me. But I have noticed more people driver with their high beams on and that’s been pissing me off. Last few weeks I have had drivers behind me on the highway with their high beams on. And there is a distinct difference in color of LEDS and high beams.

I bought new LED headlights and they are brighter than I wanted them to be. Even without highbeams on they are extremely bright and there’s no way to control that

It doesn’t solve the issue, and the glasses seem like a good idea. A strategy I was taught in driving school was to look at the white line on the side of the road ahead of you as someone with high beams go by. If you look far enough up at the white line, you can basically see what is in front of you, but you are not looking straight into the lights.

My new car has the auto high beam feature..I’m not so sure I’m a fan. Often if I’m in a corner or a hill the car is late to dim the lights. I have gotten flashed a few times already by other drivers..

I feel bad..

A lot of newer cars have auto high beams. But by the time they dim it’s too late. I already see stars.

I don’t think those super bright white LED headlights are even the high beams. I only say this because I was driving to work one morning, around 5:30, and a truck with the super brights was blinding me so I flashed my highs at them….and they proceeded to flash their actual highs at me, which was like looking into the sun. I think what you’re looking at is their standard headlight now

Just has a bunch of other people have said I wouldn’t be surprised if what seems like high beams is actually just the regular headlights. I know for my car they are very bright and there’s just no way to turn the headlights them lower so even though they may look like high beams, they are not. Luckily, some of the newer vehicles have technology that automatically aims the headlights lower when it detects a vehicle. Mine seem to do a pretty good job of staying on the bumper of the car in front of me rather than in the back window

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People not paying attention.

Bright lowbeams...

Cars that are higher enough off the ground than you that make it appear that they have high beams on.

Not always massholes.

What type of car do you own?

It's just the LED lights. I got an aftermarket set for my truck and I didn't realize just how bright they were until people started flashing their lights at me constantly. I don't like it, but there's not much I can do now.

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How the fuck do you "turn them down"? I get it, some lights are bright, but if that's the way the car is designed and they're not using high beams what do you expect?

Thus is why people get into so many road rage incidents. Unrealistic expectations and constantly being offended at their perception of other people's actions.

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I miss the 90's my lifted pickup and the million plus candlepower on the light bar.

In well spaced traffic you see someone not dimming brights and they wouldn't even get to full power before the opposing driver was humbled and complied.

It’s the headlights automakers put in vehicles these days. Contact your local senator if you’re looking for change to be made and stop flashing me because you cannot see. No I don’t have my high rams on sorry not sorry get night time driving glasses.

Stop staring directly into them and crying..

Man you’d hate my truck lol. Aftermarket Morimoto LED lights that are advertised as something silly like 340% brighter than stock. Flash your lights at me because you think I have my brights on and I’ll introduce the sun to your face. They’re quite nice and DOT approved so suck it.

1. Dont look directly into oncoming headlights
2. Use the dimmer on your rear-view

Newer headlights are projected LED/HID which honestly are miles better than halogen but at the cost of being brighter in general. You mentioned being in a rural area, so undulating roads and hills/crests means headlights will sometimes flash drivers, nothing you can do about it.

Now this doesn’t discount the dollar store Edison’s who throw LEDs into halogen housings, lifted trucks/jeeps who dont adjust their lights down or just cracker barrel seniors who drive with their high-beams on all the time.

If you notice super bright lights approaching, look at the road directly in front of you. If they’re behind you, tilt your rearviewmirror. This is better then staring at the super bright lights which makes you so angry you post stupid nonsense like this. Jeez. First time driver over here?

if you get a higher up car you wont be blinded

It doesn't bother me and I love my bright LED headlights.