FuckYourHeadlights - A community for people to organise and vent about ridiculously bright lights
(lemmy.world)
from callcc@lemmy.world to newcommunities@lemmy.world on 06 Mar 11:07
https://lemmy.world/post/26408624
from callcc@lemmy.world to newcommunities@lemmy.world on 06 Mar 11:07
https://lemmy.world/post/26408624
A new community where people can just vent about or actually do coordinate action against the pest of ultra bright LEDs.
threaded - newest
That’s so oddly specific but I love it
Oh, it’s bullshit. It’s a bunch of cockfucking bullshit.
You’re sitting, waiting for the bus, trying to look down the street to see if you notice the bus coming. What do you see instead? White. Just an all encompassing blinding white light which just consumes all reality and everything you’re experiencing right now.
NOW how am I supposed to know if I should be getting my bus pass out? Also, 50% chance my retinas were just singed to a crisp.
Kill The Headlights!
Hah, nice. The more the merrier!
And put it in neutral.
Stock car flamin’ with a loser and the cruise control
Baby’s in Reno with the vitamin D
We got a couple of couches, sleep on the love-seat
!fuckyourheadlights@lemmy.world
Also, you might want to use lemmy-federate.com to make sure it federated everywhere
When there’s someone behind me with their brights on, i roll down the window and hold my palm over my left mirror so they can see me blocking the light (it has never worked)
Since you can’t use your mirror anyway, just adjust it so that it reflects back at them.
This is the way
I always try but I don’t think the side ones move that far, and the center mirror has that auto darken thing and rear window is tinted so it’s not that bright
I think in china they have these scary images on backwindows that shine when lights reflect in there for highbeam users
Ooh, tell me more.
boredpanda.com/high-beam-reflective-scary-faces-d…
Thanks!
Just flash twice!! lyricsintosong.ai/…/02a3d10d-b96b-42e4-b839-8d73a…
Install a rear mounted light bar to blind them back.
I disagree with this.
A mirror of the other hand…
One time on a dark road a pickup truck had super bright lights. I flashed my brights at them to communicate that maybe they had left their brights on. They then proceeded to flash their actual brighter brights at me. Unbelievable lol
My car’s headlights blind me sometimes when they reflect off road signs. I tried to find warmer replacements, but it seems like that’s just not a thing
Yeah, I guess that’s one part of the problem. It’s not like most people care that much. But if that’s the only replacement lights you can get… :/
I’mma get some downvotes for this. But is this community also for the headlights of bicycles who like to shine into the face of other road users instead of illuminating the road?
Totally, I’m commuting by bike almost every work day of the year and it’s infuriating how many cyclists have their headlights misaligned.
Yesterday, some idiot on a bike came right at me with a strobing light pointing at my eyes. Fuck you…
What I currently do is to take out my own headlight from its holder and deliberately point into their eyes. At least the message should be clear.
Oh god yes, especially now that all of them use led lights. Mine still uses an old-fashioned light, which is great when you’re alone on the road because your night vision can deal with the rest. But I turn completely blind when an oncoming bike shines one of those led-lights directly in my face.
I’ve already ran off the path twice so far because I couldn’t see where I was cycling (it was at a bicycle path through the park without street lights)
Ugh yeah that’s been an increasing problem too. I had some guy last year just as dusk was starting to set with a bike headlight blinding me on the bike trail.
❤️ StVZO-compliant illumination ❤️
No downvotes from me. I cycle every day, it’s my only mode of transportation, and the number of poorly adjusted lights on other people’s bikes is staggering.
There’s a load of cars with headlights that are overly bright, but there is an even bigger epidemic of idiots driving around with high beams on as part of regular course.
In the city there is no need for those, ever. Let alone always being on.
My problem is that I drive a low car (Ford fiesta) and most other cars are taller, this makes them way more blinding.
Same, and they might even have properly adjusted headlights, but as soon as they tilt up (e.g. due to a speed bump), the flashing lights make it look like they are sending me a light signal. Usually takes a few seconds until I realise they just hit a speed bump.
Our problem is not that we drive small cars (I drive a Focus). It’s that newer vehicles are enormous, usually for no reason.
Nearly every time I get on the highway, I’m tailgated by someone in some newer massive SUV where the headlights are at the same height as my rear view mirror. I don’t understand why those vehicles are allowed to operate on the same roads as me. They aren’t safe. By default, stock, out of the factory, they blind the other drivers in reasonable cars. I can’t imagine what getting into a wreck with one would do to my car (and me in it).
Oh, there is a reason, and it’s the fucking NHTSA. Those absolute fuckrockets mandate proportionally stricter emissions standards on smaller cars than larger cars. They base it on the area of the rectangle formed by where the tires touch the pavement.
If your car can’t quite pass emission standards, just make it a little wider, a little longer, and you get a looser standard.
Repeat the process for a few model years, and now 2025 subcompacts are larger than 1995 sedans.
Fuck the NHTSA with a rusty bayonet.
High beams and fog lights on a beautiful sunlit day.
100% this; I’ll see the same make a model go by, with LED lights, and it will be fine one time the next time I’ll be like 🔥 MY EYES 🔥.
I’ve noticed quite the influx of highbeams in recent years. I simply can’t understand why though. Stupids wanting to see better, by making other’s vision worse? Western Canada here, and I thought it was just me taking notice. Fuckn why??
I mean I guess I’m stupid but I straight up can’t see if there’s oncoming traffic and my brights aren’t on. Doesn’t go for every oncoming car (if its lights are reasonable then I have no issues) but the vast majority of cars have newer, hilariously bright headlights that shine in a way where my normal lights simply don’t seem to cut it.
it's hard to tell the two apart these days because many cars have regular headlights that are as bright as normal high beams. there have been a few times i've been mad at someone behind me with their high beams on, and then they flash their actual high beams because they're mad at me for not also speeding while blind
god, driving at night used to be so fun, now it's ruined
I don’t disagree. There are plenty of led upgrade kits that are way too bright regularly and also probably misaligned causing them to be double bad. Brighter than normal and aimed directly into your eyes.
I’m with you though, driving at night used to be a lot different and more enjoyable than it is today with all these extremely bright lights pointed at your eyes.
You seem to have no grasp of how car headlights work, because almost every single car that has ever been produced has high beams that are as bright as their low beams
Dude YES. 20 years ago driving in the country you see some high beams in the distance and people would go back to low beams as they get around a corner or crest a hill when they see other cars.
My commute is through a lot of schools and parks and pedestrian crossings and it’s somewhat poorly lit, so everyone has high beams on regardless of traffic but as a result I can’t see shit. If there’s oncoming cars stopped and a pedestrian tries to squeak through I literally wouldn’t be able to tell.
It’s gotten so bad, either people have their brights on all the time or they’re not adjusted properly. In either case headlights DONT HAVE TO BE SO BRIGHT.
Meanwhile I’m out here driving a 20 year old car with correspondingly dim headlights and need to have the highbeams on just to be able to see anything when there’s oncoming traffic. My normal headlights are fine when there’s nothing coming the other way, but that’s not really how that’s supposed to work lol. Kinda defeats the purpose of ever turning the brights off! I swear any newer car’s normal lights are brighter than my brights
I don’t see how running high beams held you see when there is oncoming cars with brighter lights. Maybe it has more to do with the fact that older cars are smaller and lower?
I am not disputing new cars have higher brightness on regular lights, that absolutely is true. Though running high beams throws light both forward and up toward the oncoming drivers eyes.
Unfortunately I don’t know the physics, maybe something to do with how lights scatters through the windshield? Idk, all I can tell you is my repeated experience: turning the brights on definitely helps with seeing through oncoming traffic. But you are right, my older car is both smaller and lower, so I’m sure even the modern cars with lights aimed downward are more likely to shine directly at me
Let me get this straight: you are turning on your brights when there is oncoming traffic?
That’s the kind of freedom I love not to have in Europe (it’s regulated).
For the ones wanting proof (fair):
eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2011/48(2)/oj/eng
One such regulation. It’s not perfect.
For me mainly bicycle lights are sometimes brighter than cars but mostly far too high and some on the back blinking too (illegal here, but still seeing it often).
Regulations not being enforced is another issue…
It technically is in the US as well, but this is a corrupt, late stage Capitalist shithole, so, no one with power cares.
I’m from Europe and headlights suck here too! It’s spectrum of LEDs and tall cars and probably bad regulations too.
Yes, some specific cars and lights are surprisingly bad, but in general it’s not comparable to the US. Maybe also depends on the specific country, too, of course.
Some cars now even have break lights that shine brighter than the light of a thousand suns. I don’t get it, there ought to be some regulation for this. This is Germany speaking.
What?
Seems heavily country v dependent then.
But there def is regulation (even candles at different distances) & technically a car isn’t road worthy if its blinding oncoming traffic.
I haven’t seen it much enforced by the cops, just by the mandatory scheduled road-worthiness checkups.
Also, how tf is automatic headlight leveling not standard equipment? It has been on the market for like 20 years now (& I think we need it bcs of people, not bcs that lil 1-5 scroll switch of the olden days wasn’t sufficient … do people not see their own lights shining in peoples faces?).
However I do wish cops would regularly stop & fine people (foreigners :)) with misaligned headlights (the needed equipment is ez & smol, tho level ground is needed) … or those fuckers cruising with fog lights “bcs it looks sporty” or whatever.
Regulated? In the Netherlands I can’t tell.
eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2011/48(2)/oj/eng
Not saying it’s perfect.
Now this is a community I can get behind, like a lifted pickup truck tailgating with his LED high beams on.
I recently had a high beam tailgating me. I moved my side and rearview mirrors to reflect it back and he passed me on a double yellow line with him in front of me I just turned on my own high beams. He turned off soon after but I hope it made his day a little more frustrating ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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<img alt="" src="https://lemm.ee/pictrs/image/4a3be2d7-6500-48e3-8490-d8442187f757.gif">
perhaps there could be an automatic mirror to handle this for you. that’d be a good project
I’ve thought about turning my entire rear window into a mirror, but I imagine there is a law against it, so I haven’t looked into it.
The same crossed my mind but that would be hell for everyone around you on a sunny day. Sometimes even just a car with a lot of chrome is annoying 😔
Hah I’ve thought of this maybe I can look into it, I’m an amateur Arduino enthusiast but it might even be more simple than that.
Yes ! I hate these as well!
I drive a van, so I could easily be the culprit. I therefore make a habit of adjusting my beam dip appropriately. Apparently that is unusual enough for them to note they had been adjusted in the service. There’s literally a dial on the dashboard. You’re SUPPOSED to adjust them to the vehicle and road conditions! Apparently not having them set to max is now considered a “fault” to fix!
If you normally drive the van with a load on the rear axle and it went for a service with nothing in the back, that could explain why they adjusted it higher.
The load varies, though I’ve found the suspension is hard enough that it doesn’t shift for a normal load up. I mostly do it because I’ve noticed that, when I hit a bump, my lights can sweep up over the windows of cars in front.
Also, I don’t mind them readjusting it. It’s calling it a fault that bugged me.
As a Tesla driver (yeah yeah) I’ve noticed in my heavily-Tesla area that 80% of the time when I think someone might have their highbeams on but it’s borderline that it’s a Tesla. It makes me uncomfortable about how bright my own lights are to others. My only consolation is that my car is 6+ years old, so there’s a (slim) chance that the new cars that are being rolled off the line are more poorly aligned than my own. Anyway I don’t know what I could do about it regardless.
Trade it for something a little lies swastikar-y.
Honestly I kinda wish I could, but financially it’s not in the cards.
Look through the manual to see if there’s a way to adjust the angle of your lights, or take it into a service center to see if they can adjust it. I’ve never owned a Tesla so I can’t speak on that with any certainty, but all the other cars I’ve driven have had relatively easy ways to adjust the headlight angle.
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Yeah, I’m so morally bankrupt that I am worried about how my headlights might blind other people. At least I’m not so morally bankrupt that I make other people feel bad on the internet.
It’s something I have noticed too. 9/10 times an oncoming car is blinding me, it seems to be a Tesla. And not because their high beams are on. It might be confirmation bias, but it just seems like Tesla headlights have dogshit beam control optics on top of having fairly bright light sources.
Nope, not just you. I live in the greater Seattle area (nearly the tesla capital of the world) and 8/10 times I’m blinded is a tesla in oncoming traffic.
Rivians are also terrible, and most crossovers in the last 2-3 years have been increasingly bad.
Driving a lowered sports car with no windshield tint has made driving at night a horrible process. I’m debating getting a low % window tint just to take the edge off of the headlights.
You know how solar eclipse glasses allow you to see the sun surface without any glare by essentially reducing the light by like 50,000 times?
You can also point the glasses at a regular light to see the bulb.
I need the same thing that let’s me check really quick if some scrub has their high beams on so I can reflect their blinding light of death back at them because I’m too nice to do the same against morons who threw nuclear bombs into their regular low beam enclosure.
Although I am also very close to buying a rally high beam light array to do the light equivalent of telling people to shut up.
The main issue I see comes from regular headlights being replaced with LEDs and other High-Intensity bulbs. Don’t get me wrong, Bubba with his lift kit is just redneck high-beams, but I get more frequent glare from someone in a Sentra who decided to put LEDs in her stock headlight assembly that wasn’t made for LEDs.
That’s my feeling as well, but it would be great if any data exists. Most of the intentional LEDs may be super tight but also have very sharp cutoffs, no problem
How many of these blinding headlights are
<img alt="1000016232" src="https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/c13bfb53-159e-4224-8a2c-674a82dce05c.jpeg">
I still get mad about this aftermarket center high beam. way more blinding in person than the photo, also makes it impossible to see the plates
That is definitely “please ticket / pull me over officer”
Aircraft approach lights level.
It’s a probably a cop driving it.
I wouldn’t be surprised. After seeing that video interviewing a guy that goes around his town and fixes plate obfuscations, many being on cop cars, I noticed that in my city too. Stuff like muck on just the plates or the colour of the lettering buffed off.
I recently rented a car from SIXT, a BMW SUV - it was one of their rideshare cars, it was nearest to me, just so you know it was not my choice.
It auto-aligned lights to just slightly blind everyone in front of me. It also had tinted rear windows, wonder why. As a cherry on top, the navigation software made it impossible to anticipate off-ramps, so it had you switch multiple lanes at the last moment.
I think I understand a bit more about why BMW drivers suck.
Built in GPS always sucks, except for Stellantis who at least licenses software, maps from TomTom og Volvo who has built in Google. VWs are a dumpster fire.
So I drive an Old car (Audi 80 build 1994) and it’s so annoying when people behind me drive with an automatic High beam. My front and rear lights aren’t as bright as newer cars so their car detects me way to late and blinds me every time there is no oncoming traffic. Sometimes I then start turning my bright foglight (on the back) on to make thier car think I’m closer.
Automatic high beams are a new hell. I thought people were just retarded until I hired a newer car recently. Then I realised what everyone else was doing… trusting faulty technology, and possibly being lazy in the process.
The AHB on my Tucson works great, until it doesn’t. Usually when theres a few widely spaced cars on a 2 lane country road… Biggest issue is some genius decided to program the module to not let you turn the high beams off in auto mode unless the high beams are on. So when the system is doing dumb shit you have to let it flash people or do a hard reset by turning the lights completely off and back on.
I’m just glad the Xenon fad is practically over
I agree, fuck those headlights, but I don’t understand the point of a community for it.
Somewhere for me to go and make myself annoyed?
Welcome to the Internet
Have a look around
Anything that brain of yours can think of can be found
It is like road rage videos. I hate road rage. I hope they lose their license. But I can’t watch them because they pointlessly get me worked up.
The most annoying thing about bright LED headlights is that LEDs don’t have to be bright. Yet because so many are, people view LED headlights as the problem. You can get varying brightness LED bulbs for your home, why not your car?
As a cyclist, please.
The brightness is one thing but also the alignment. These people install new headlights or the manufacturers just do not adjust the lights alignment correctly at all.
I installed entire new headlight assemblies in my car upgrading from weak stock crap bulbs to LEDs with running lights, but I FUCKING ADJUSTED THEM afterwards.
If I am ~50 feet from a wall there is a hard line where the top of my lights do not shine. That line is purposely placed so it won’t shine until cars in front of me unless I am every far away from them or there is an elevation difference. Sitting behind a car at the lights my lights will cut off generally right below the top of the trunk of most sedan models.
I have never seen a headlight that could not be adjusted up and down with a little screw. Maybe the newest cars need an app or something stupid but I would be willing to bet they can also be adjusted.
You haven’t bought eBay replacement headlights before then! I have never been able to get them adjusted properly to the point where they match even close to the factory pattern. I usually end up pointing them away to low just to be kind to anyone in front of them. The only saving grace is a love in the city and want didn’t need to rely on them for proper lighting.
You would be correct. I buy replacement lights from reputable brands with quality parts and adjustability lol
My dad bought some replacement lights for his car recently and he was so angry about the way they were pointed he apparently sent them a super angry letter. I then showed him I could adjust the beams down with my hands and he went back inside to send them another email apologizing hahahahah
It’s also the height of install. If you drive a subcompact a lot of vehicles will just have lights so high up to you that what’s a reasonable angle for them is directly in your mirror
This is another issue. The ride of the front of certain vehicles. Namely large trucks. I’m 5’11" and there are many trucks sold now that have headlights at my shoulder level. It’s ridiculous.
They need to lower the front hoods of all these vehicles. It’s dangerous for pedestrians and just general road safety but it also would help alleviate some of the headlight woes others experience.
Where do you get those? Or is it just for a few models?
My car has nice LED projectors but my old car that my kids are driving has older xenon bulbs that were bright when new but insufficient in the face of modern glare. I’m tempted to get the glaring ones because then at least my kids could see but if I had a way to upgrade the right way I would
If you want OEM look I would recommend: www.genera.com/Headlight.html
If you want different styling I would go with: www.carid.com/headlights.html
Can we vent about loud motorcycles too?
No. Loud = safe for motorcyclists. Its the only way they can be noticed inside sound proof cars by people on their phones.
I dont ride anymore because bad drivers killed every motorcyclist i used to ride with.
As a fellow motorcyclist I hate this myth. spauldinginjurylaw.com/…/loud-pipes-saves-lives-m…
As someone who didnt have an excessively loud bike. … I’ve almost been killed so many times by people who didnt see or hear me and who switched lanes or pulled out in front of me.
Loud pipes do save lives and no amount of bullshit research about one particular scenario that doesnt factor in everything else will change that.
If you think you cant hear loud pipes if you are in front of or beside a motercycle then your an idiot who probably doesnt even ride.
No amount of anything will prevent headons .
But i dont ride anymore and if you do and you want to cruise quietly then you do you.
This lawyer doesn’t post the actual study referenced anywhere in that blog. After looking for the study, it seems to be referencing a quite limited series of tests in a YouTube video made by the Association for the Development of Motorcycling in Romania.
https://youtu.be/v9QTPyMJGgo
I only know that for me, driving with windows up, radio quiet, I don’t hear most loud pipes until too late. It’s probably not a good idea to startle drivers just as you’re passing them
My man, I watched an accident yesterday in a grocery store parking lot. A raised up truck was backing out and a car was behind it. The car honked. Laid on that horn. It was a loud horn. Truck didn’t even flinch. Backed right into it.
I’ve been passed by “loud” motorcycles many times. I saw them in my mirrors. I have a tiny blind spot, but I tracked them the entire way. What I didn’t do is hear them. Especially at highway speed, they’re undetectable.
Your argument is the equivalent of, “I saw someone get stabbed to death so you shouldnt wear your motorcycle helmet.”
I have no doubt you did see these things but that doesnt mean loud pipes dont add a bit of safety at the expense of noise comfort. Every bit of safety adds up and can save your life. There is no one thing that will do it but if you do enough it can have an effect. Maybe you didnt hear those pipes but a few hours later someone else did and didnt see them and they were saved.
While we’re at it, let’s also vent about cars and trucks with loud modified exhausts.
Argh, hate them!
They don’t have to look like point sources that feel like they are burning your retina.
If all LED headlamps followed a new polarization standard, things could be very cool. As an example, let’s say the headlights could only shine horizontally polarized light and the windshields could only pass vertically polarized light. That means that one could see every thing very clearly because you wouldn’t be blinded by the cars coming on the opposite side. Your light would illuminate everything in from of you, which would then reflect non polarized light back at you plus all other light reflections from other sources like street lamps. Houses could be fitted with the same filter film as older cars. Similarly, people could wear polarized glasses and get the same benefit.
In North America we can’t even get signal lights to not look different than break lights. I hope Europe has better luck.
Edit: that sounds like an awesome idea
I agree with you. Our king Elon tried to make our cars automatic. Our felon president trumpfus will be banning electric cars and orange lights because he doesn’t like to be called orange face.
But yeah otherwise not too crazy of a solution.
I didn’t pay attention in physics class, why is the light reflected back not polarized? what happened to the once polarized photons that they come back non polarized?
Also what is polarization? I know that Electro Magnetic Radiation or EMR is made up from pulsating magnetic and electrical fields that propagate through space at a fixed rate or frequency… but what does polarization mean? does it mean the fields are slanted to one side or into one direction or something? or is it like some sort of spin or other sort of modulation?
There’s Horizontal and vertical polarization as well as circular polarization. In a simple explanation , think of horizontal as a fence with horizontal bars so that only the horizontal part of the photons pass thru. Now once those horizontal photons pass, they will meet surfaces, which will reflect back their light so your eyes can see it. However, in this experiment only the vertical photons will pass your windshield. Because polarization depends on the angle of incidence, you will get some of the horizontally polarized light back as vertically polarized light which will pass thru. The effect is psychedelic. I totally recommend you to try it. You need polarized glasses, a flashlight and a piece of polarized film to place on your flashlight. The colors and shapes come back to you without defined form or glimmers so stuff looks normal, but weird as heck.
I don’t want anything about driving at night to look psychedelic or weird as heck
Its just weird. Once you see it, its just like any other thing in life.
I think ‘uncanny’ would fit better, as certain surfaces would fluoresce despite having no apparent source of light, artifacts, or glaring that you could see.
.
www.polarization.com/land/land.html
Yup pretty simple.
But check the date this is a very old idea. Would probably make a very interesting YouTube video or two
I know. It’s not my idea, this is old old. So its amazing how much we seem to like people crashing at night.
I do have some concerns about polarizing the light. If I can get a hold of some cheap filter material I might be inclined to do some tests. Maybe I can rescue the polarizer out of an old LCD TV.
Polarizing’s not completely magic, It does seriously reduce the amount of light coming in. There’s just usually enough light around that it doesn’t affect us, our pupils dilate a fraction of a fraction and it’s no big deal.
But at night when there’s already relatively little light out, It does reduce the overall light amount.
I’m also concerned that any light that bounces off something but maintains the polarization will be blocked, so there will be a higher chance of you not being able to see some percentage of your own headlight illumination, I would think that the average diffraction off everything in front of you would thoroughly destroy the coalescence of polarization but I don’t really know for sure, it’s possible that would make your own headlights less effective to you.
I suspect if we were thinking about this in the '50s if it were viable somebody would have pulled it off by now. But we only have had windshield sized polarizers in TVs for maybe a decades so maybe?
All I can say is that it works. I’ve tested this using a flashlight and polarized film on the lamp and on my safety glasses. It makes everything evenly lit. Other light sources become useful since you’re not blinded by the incoming light.
Yeah but see that would require the government to do something, and right now they can’t even tell their asses from their elbows. Oh and they’re cutting at least half the jobs. Because eFiShAnSeE.
Maybe guns are the solution. Just gotta aim for the LED’s! Lol.
It would add to the price, which would suck, but I’d love to see some sort of HUD assist system. Even if it was a wire frame or something that appears as a HUD on the windshield. Not bright enough to blind you or be in the way, but enough to see. User could adjust the color (within limits to maybe not negate the system). To me, we don’t take enough advantage of HUD tech and different types of vision that a computer could do that a human can’t. Make it come on with the headlights or something. That way it’s not on during the day.
One big challenge with this is that the human eye has not followed all the technological advances… Its still gonna give you shit after the age of 40. So that means you cannot have a simple mirror reflection system where the driver simply focuses on stuff outside of the car and then from time to time onto the HUD. But I think Mamazon and the apple companies have figure either automated focusing or long distance focusing such that the eye doesn’t have to focus on shit up close while driving. So it’s totally doable.
What about overly bright LED signs? Like billboards or business signs? Those things also suck.
Or LED’s in modern electronics. I have a wine fridge that insists on telling me its temperature in the brightest possible blue segmented display. And apparently, I must be informed of the temperature at all times because I cant turn it off. Blue LED on the subwoofer brighter than the sun. I had to put a yoshi plushy infront of it to block the light. Wireless phone charger next to my bed… you bet that puppy needs a bright ass light to light up my sleeping area… FUCK! Electrical tape is my best friend today, I use it to cover up any of these stupid LEDs now.
This is why I have a lot of black electrical tape covering a lot of petty lights throughout my house.
Also noises. A lot of household machines like a microwave are unnecessarily obnoxious with noises, with little to no options or choices for it.
Gaffer’s tape is better, it doesn’t dissolve into a sticky mess.
The real stuff (the kind that doesn’t leave residue) can get expensive as hell though.
My samsung microwave has the need to beep 10 fucking times. Shut the fuck up already. God damn it. Instead of giving us the options to turn off these noises and lights, we are given other functions we never use.
And we drive all LED elements at 100% of their rated value, no matter what. there used to be a Youtuber that rewired electronic things and dimmed all the lights as he was going through them, it’s been ages since I’ve see him tho.
I know this website seems sketchy/scammy AF, but I found that these actually do a good job dimming the LEDs to reasonable levels, but keeping them visible.
www.lightdims.com/store.htm
I imagine (mostly because of all the “patent pending” bs) that this is a film you just just buy from somewhere else way cheaper, I just don’t know what it is.
Ooh a place for the cult of the Honda Fit to congregate
The hell of it is, its even stock vehicles now. So many new models have these crazy bright headlights. I know it can be done right, so how about we start having the safety bodies dealing with this bullshit at the manufacturer level?
I personally think headlight brightness peaked just before LED became mainstream. Through the mid teens companies were installing projector headlights. I had a 2014 Corolla with projector headlights so bright that I got non-stop flashes from opposing drivers.
Newer LED headlights are often matrix headlights. See the entire road like you’ve got high beams on, except the oncoming car’s area is dark. Best of both worlds if implemented well enough. You can still turn off the high beams so that if the system stops malfunctioning, you have something equivalent to normal LED low beams.
Found the euro …. Is that even approved in the US yet?
My car has standard bulbs but with lenses that pivot to achieve the same effect, but I’m dreading the day that one of the servos breaks and my car starts looking like Forest Whitaker
Not just cars, goofy cyclists too. Broad daylight, high noon on a cloudless summer day, somehow, cyclists need piercingly blinding bright little lamps on their handlebars. Or their helmets. Or their armbands. Or all at the same time. Cheap electronics from China make this possible. Backpacks. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing the other day, a guy dressed like a manga-ninja, all black with a face mask, and a backpack covered in LEDs.
Honestly, riding a bike in the middle of traffic is so dangerous that I understand the desire for being visible
Yeah but a single blinding light doesn’t make for good visibility. They’re supposed be much more visible with multiple lights
If you need extra lights in summer, in daytime, on a cloudless noon, you shouldn’t be riding a vehicle. What gives you the right to blind and annoy oncoming pedestrians and drivers because of your misguided paranoia?
And typically, from my observations, the people crowing about biking being dangerous and they need safety … wear earbuds. Sure, seal off one of your senses and then complain about safety. We biked for decades without piercingly blinding Cree LEDs taped on our bodies 24/7.
A quick question for Americans: here in the UK, cars have to pass an annual inspection once they reach three years old. It’s called an MOT test and it’s primarily concerned with making sure the car is safe - they check for rust, seatbelt tension, brake wear, and, yes, they make sure all the lights are not just working but also aligned properly. Do you not have an equivalent?
Some states have something similar, but it’s more for emissions I think. Michigan doesn’t seem to care AT ALL.
We used to have inspection in Oklahoma but I think it violated our “freedom” so they got rid of it.
It’s by state. I’ve always lived in states with relatively strict inspections, at least compared to other states, but I’ve never heard of them checking lights or window tint. They’re supposed to
I suppose it’s good that they focus on more urgent things like brakes, emissions, that there be lights, tire treads, and windshield chips/cracks, but I wish they’d do everything
Actually it’s mildly annoying that I have to pay the same for inspections that include the emissions check, with my EV
I’ll add onto the answers already. I lived in both an inspection state (Virginia), and a non inspection state (Washington state). I was in Va for about 2 years. I never saw more janky ass cars on the road and broken down ones. I saw more in those 2 years than the 20+ years I’ve lived here in Wa.
When it came time for mine, all my neighbors sent me to a mechanic down the road. It was a long ass line, but moved pretty fast. No appointment needed. “WTF is this?” I thought. I got to my turn. The guy was in a short stool, like a dr’s one. He didn’t even leave it. I was in and out in 5 minutes. I’m anal retentive on our vehicle maintenance. So I’m not a danger, but man, I know how others are.
One of our neighbor’s friends brought his car by one time. When it was off, oil was flooded into the spark plug holes. I swore it would never start. He cranked it. It turned over right away and all the oil sucked back down into the engine. I’ve never seen anything like it, nor since. I’m still flummoxed by it.
I saw one car where the person cut the roof away from just behind the driver’s seats. Regular old car. They half ass put a piece of plywood and, what I assume, is plexiglass to act as a wall. The “bed” of the vehicle was now the passenger seat area. It also had some janky work going on back there.
Our inspection system is really shitty, even in the states with them. There are so many, “I know a guy”, things going on that they might as well not have them. Then there are exemptions as well. Year ranges exempt. They do no real good if they’re there. Completely defeats the purpose.
Not in my state in the US. Arkansas did away with vehicle inspections. As a result you not only have to contend with bright headlights but severely misaligned headlight housings. Most are done on purpose and the funny part of it, if there is a funny part. When they bright light you its really better than when they are on dim.
I think some states have laws similar to this but in a lot of the country you can basically drive your car until it falls apart unless a cop specifically stops and tickets you for something egregious.
How about a high-vis vest? Doesn’t even take batteries
I thought it was just me getting older and my eyes getting worse, but headlights have really gotten ridiculous in the last 20 years or so. Related pet peeve is people walking at night in dark clothes, not even looking up when they cross the street.
I thought the same, until my teens started driving. Both of them complained they can’t see in the glare and ask me to drive at night sometimes, LoL
Like the sun, if the lights are bright, don’t look at them. Problem solved.
I mean, sort of, but I live in a place with narrow winding roads that all too often don’t have a line painted on the edge of the road.
There’s definitely a strategy to look down at the edge of the road until the perpetrator has passed, but that assumes you have something to look at that will help
So I’m on an undivided highway at night, curving leftward. Oncoming traffic is using bright ass light, blinding me, I can’t even see lane or lines. I’m supposed to look away and hope for the best?
Or even better, there’s divider, about 1m tall and there’s always some douchebag in pick up truck that have their lights just high enough to blast over the divider over to my eyes and I can’t even see lane beside me or where the divider are.
So please, use your actual common sense when posting nonsense like this. It’s a legitimate concern.
Thank you for this useful insight. What do I do when my eyes quickly adapt to this stupidly bright light in my peripheral vision and I now can’t see anything in my own headlights ?
I have tried closing my left eye before, out of desperation. Doesn’t really work and I wouldn’t recommend losing depth perception while driving.
I came back from the mall, they had one of those little trains for kids. The locomotive had two incredibly bright 6000K (blue-white) headlights. What for? You’re in a mall. It’s lit. You’re going 2 km/h. It’s just cheap one size fits all Aliexpress junk. Not a single thought went into the selection of these abominations.