It used to be that headlights were pretty okay. They mostly illuminated the road, and unless somebody was using their high beams inappropriately, they wouldn’t cause you any real grief. Humans love making things “better,” though, and headlights were no exception. Today, we have magnificent LED lamps that illuminate the road like the Sun God just drank a quarter-gallon of red cordial. The only problem is, sometimes today’s mega-bright headlights are a real pain in the eyes for other road users. Everybody’s talking about it, and Nissan, at least, is trying to do something about it.
From Nissan’s standpoint, the big problem is that brighter headlights are sending more light into the lane of oncoming traffic, causing excessive glare for people driving the other way. The company is now designing its LED headlights to cut down on this glare while still maintaining excellent illumination of the road ahead. The idea is to still get the benefit of the greater energy efficiency, compactness, and brightness of LED technology, while counteracting the drawbacks.
Nissan’s idea is to create LED headlights with an asymmetrical beam pattern with an “anti-glare notch” cut out where opposing traffic would usually be. It’s not exactly a new idea, as the basic concept has been long applied to traditional headlights, too. In any case, this cuts the brightness of the part of the headlight beam seen by oncoming traffic, enabling the car to still be visible to other road users without dazzling them. The beam pattern is created by controlling how the LED light sources themselves are directed, and by using light barriers built into the headlight housing as well. It’s also worth noting that, due to the asymmetrical nature of the beam pattern, the headlight design would have to be swapped left-to-right for countries that drive on the opposite side of the road.
“We have the ability to carve out that area of the oncoming lane with everything around it being bright and the inside being super dark,” says Brad Chisholm, a Nissan engineer on the Lights, Mirrors, and Wipers team. “We’re able to push the limits using LEDs.” The requirement for anti-glare notches is usually enshrined in road regulations, but it’s possible to achieve better-defined cutouts with LEDs, according to Nissan.
Headlight engineers: take a few years off.
They're bright enough.
Sincerely, everyone being blinded.
— Zack Klapman (@ZackKlapman) December 7, 2023
For what it’s worth, Nissan doesn’t just expect you to take its word as gospel. It notes that in tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, both the Nissan Rogue and Murano scored top marks for their headlights. Beyond their excellent illumination performance, both on straightaways and curves, the headlights never exceeded glare limits. The IIHS measures glare at a height of 3 feet and 7 inches from the ground, to replicate the sight position of a driver in an oncoming lane. Notably, the agency does not adjust the aim of headlights, instead testing the vehicles as delivered by a dealer—noting that most owners don’t take the time to adjust their vehicle’s headlights.
Notably, though, not every Nissan model was so lauded. Models like the LED-equipped Altima and Ariya still secured good marks, and remained inside glare limits. The 2024 Nissan Frontier, however, was rated poorly, thanks primarily to poor illumination, but also due to exceeding glare limits by 1.3% on certain types of turn. The Nissan Titan performed worse, generating excessive glare for oncoming drivers on straights and corners.
At worst, the IIHS found the Titan to exceed glare thresholds by 88.4%. Visibility was also found to be inadequate on curves, even with high beams enabled. In a twist, both vehicles were using halogen reflectors, rather than LEDs. Overall, few drivers would be surprised that a large, tall pickup would fare poorly in this regard. It suggests that the headlights issues we’re all tangling with aren’t entirely down to LED technology, but may have their roots in fundamental vehicle design.
Anti-glare blockers won’t fix every problem with modern headlights, of course, but it’s a start. Obviously, it doesn’t do a whole lot for drivers in lower regular cars that are getting blinded by the headlamps from SUVs and trucks coming up behind, for example. But any improvement is a boon for road safety, and that’s worthwhile to pursue.
Overall, if you stood at a gas station asking drivers to sign a petition to sort out headlight glare, you wouldn’t be hurting for signatures. Proposals from automakers and testing by the IIHS is all well and good, but many would agree that it’s clearly not solving the problem. Better standards and more engineering effort could help cut glare to some degree, to be sure. Whether we’ll ever beat it for certain when jacked-up SUVs and pickups are sharing the road with regular cars remains to be seen.
Image credits: Nissan
Seems like the first step to a solution. I mean it’s great on the straight but if your going around the bend to the left you are blind. Maybe a trip back to an amiable headlight like the, name escapes me but Kurt Russel starred in a movie about it and how the Big 3 forced him out instead of adapting better solution.
Now there is a story idea how have car manufacturers stymied progress to keep their sales up?
Then there’s the problem of vehicles approaching on a curve, when even lights with cutoffs shine right at you. Didn’t Tucker or somebody have lights that steered with the wheels? Let’s try that again.
Or how about this: enough light on the passenger side to see ahead and only DRL type lights on the driver side to indicate the width of the vehicle?
Great if you never turn
A lot of cars offer adaptive/”bending” headlamps. It’s one of my favorite features in family and friends’ various Mazda CX-5s. It was an option on my car but the original owner didn’t get it (darn it).
Almost all 2024 Subarus have LED steering responsive headlights.
Today you could do that “steer with the wheels” thing with LEDs and no moving parts. The car knows how the wheels are aimed, just send that info to a headlight controller.
My wife’s last 2 VW Tiguans (‘21, ‘19), Alltrack (‘18), my previous VW Jetta (‘13), and our current and previous Ram 2500s (‘23, ‘20) have all had adaptive “turning” headlights and they’ve all worked great. The Ram 2500s, even with their headlights being nearly 5’ above the road surface get flashed less than the VWs though.
I feel like Volvo had a much better solution to this problem 40 years ago. A big part of the problem is that we’ve been outputting the same amount of lumens for a very long time, but the area (in square inches) of the light source has gotten smaller and smaller to where many lights are only 2-3 in2. If instead we could have could spread this light out over a wider area each point you look at would be less blinding. I’m not advocating for us to go back to 8×12 sized headlights, but if you could split the job up from 2 35W bulbs to 14 5 W bulbs, you’d have the same amount of illumination hitting the road, but each light source individually would be a lot less blinding.
I am not an expert but are their any studies on the effectiveness of certain lights. I have these curly light bulbs in my house they are okay at some duties but I can’t read anything to save my life. But no problem in natural sunlight.
This is a significant part of what makes a good vs a bad light at a given perceived brightness. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_rendering_index. If you have a “white” light that’s made up of only very precise Red, Green, and Blue LED’s it will do exactly as good a job illuminating a white sheet of paper as a bulb made of Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Magenta and Cyan, however with the 6 led bulb you’d see orange things a lot more vividly. Ideally, you’d want a light that outputs in every infinitesimally small color difference across what our eyes can see fairly evenly.
Thanks
“headlights are sending more light into the lane of oncoming traffic, causing excessive glare for people driving the other way”
British driver here. I know that regulations are different in our two countries. Do you guys not have headlight beam aiming patterns that are designed to angle more of the light towards the kerb and away from the centre of the road, to minimise dazzling oncoming drivers?
Wild West here in the US. And an arms race to boot.
We do but no enforcement even on brightness on after market headlights.
The average sedan driver’s eye level is 3.5′ above the pavement. The average 3/4-ton pickup has headlights at 4.5′ above the pavement.
No matter how well you aim those lights, they’re going to blind people. And God help you if you have astigmatism — if a truck approaches me on a 2-lane road, I get blinded so badly I can’t even see the lines on my side of the road.
Nissan’s attempts here are noble, but I think they’re going to be enough.
Correction: I don’t think they’re going to be enough.
As a sedan driver in a world of crossovers, I concur. And while we’re on the subject, headlight assemblies where the indicator is on the inside of the headlights boil my piss and all (yes, Nissan, you’re guilty of this, you dicks).
Indicators should go on the OUTSIDE of headlights, as god intended. Then people can see them and like that.
I think that with the exception of having one behind you in traffic, trucks seem to be less guilty than cars. Their lights actually end up being pointed down more to go the same distance so they don’t project super far. It’s the cars with low mounted beams that are really bad because they are basically just aimed flat.
In one of the cybertruck videos the designer was talking about mounting the light low so they could get this effect. Imo a step in the wrong direction.
I’ll add that I mostly get blinded by Honda/Toyota/Subaru crossovers.
Acuras are the worst. By far. Trucks usually aren’t too bad but I’ve noticed Ford Super duty’s are absolutely blinding.
Miata is always the answer to “what vehicle is short enough to get blinded by EVERYONE’S headlights?”
Everyone focuses on pickups but it is increasingly an issue across the board. I was driving my Outback the other night and there was a car in view of my side mirror that looked like the sun and I had to block it with my hand. Eventually we reached a stop light and that vehicle was…a newer RAV4….stock looking.
So there I am in a “taller” vehicle, and getting blinded by a stock RAV4. What can you do about that? When I am in my car, I just wonder if I should be wearing sunglasses at night to avoid getting after effects from glare.
Auto-dimming side mirrors are a thing right? I’m making them a priority on the next vehicle.
I actually use polarized blue blockers at night. It does help.
Auto dimming side and rear mirrors are great. Though some rear view mirrors are being replaced by cameras and screens, so they have their own filtering I guess.
I had a set of yellow-tinted mirrors on my prior car and I am strongly considering putting them on my current beast for this exact thing.
A lot of Toyotas have the issue of not having lights on at dusk. Based on experience with my own, it’s far too easy to overshoot the detent for DRL and turn everything off. The illuminated dash automatically changing brightness but needing the lights manually turned on is a serious WTF were they thinking design decision.
Toyota/Lexus, Honda/Acura, and Nissan/Infiniti have the most frequent lighting mistakes in my anecdotal experience. If it’s not the actual headlights not being on, then it’s the high beams being locked on, or the driver thinking that their DRLs are headlights.
I blame digital instruments, lamp indicators that are too small/dim/poorly located (especially the high beam one, it should be about as bright as the bulbs themselves it seems and turn off after a few seconds unless manually commanded on), and a lack of automatic headlamps, which is something we had figured out – and cheaply! – decades ago.
This is so annoying. Worst part is that drivers are completely oblivious that their headlights are off. I often flash my highs at drivers who have their lights off or flick my headlights off and on. Rarely do they respond.
Same! Or they get annoyed and think I’m trying to blind them or that I’m trying to go around them or whatever. No, fellow motorist, I’m trying to prevent you being in an accident. Yeesh.
My 2013 MINI has DRLs but I changed the settings to just have full exterior lights on all the time when the car starts and off at shutdown. As far as I’m concerned all cars should have all exterior lights on while moving, day or night. There should not be DRLs anymore, as mentioned too many people don’t know how to use them. For the last 3 weeks in a row driving around my local town streets I’ve see cars running with just barely adequate DRLs at night which means no rear lighting at all, other than brake lights. If someone has some genuine need to turn off their lights at night while the car is running, I suppose there can be a temporary “OFF” toggle that lasts a few minutes or something.
More than anything, I need truckers driving big rigs to turn off the aftermarket LED light bars mounted on the bumpers. And fenders. And grilles. Or more cops to ticket these jackasses.
WTF, truckers? Are you that high on meth that you can’t see without 16 billion lumens spread across four counties in front of you?
Fortunately, I don’t head south as often as I used to. I’ve found that the further south I go, the more this is a problem.
Never seen semis with aftermarket driving lights, specifically because DOT cops will nail you in a second for something like that.
Not in the retarded state of Alabama. We do WTF we want to here. Laws? We don’t need no stinking laws!
You are wrong
Me neither
Agreed, the state troopers would be all over the semi truck with those up here in NY.
Agreed newer semi drivers are fitting their entire vehicles for some type of gay pride parade.note not a slant against gays just very bright and all colors of the rainbow couldn’t think of a better synonym.
Yeah, unfortunately I see that all the time out in Idaho, Utah, and Colorado now.
All I want for Christmas is for trucks to be categorized properly as commercial vehicles, with size parameters, weight and extra tax all included. This counts for SUVs too. Okay, give me manual vehicles too as an extra stocking stuffer.
4500s and other Class 3 trucks already are categorized properly as commercial vehicles. Many states charge even half ton pickups the commercial vehicle registration and tax rates. What are you asking for?
If they can charge me an extra $200/yr for driving an electric car (the equivalent of 770 gallons of gas tax), they can charge a bit extra for bigger/heavier cars that have a higher impact on the infrastructure & environment and that are more likely to cause injuries to people they crash into. They won’t because culture wars, but it’s not an unfair ask given just how massive some personal use vehicles have gotten.
But….. Many states do exactly that. Arizona charges double for registration on a half ton pickup that they do on a sedan.
That’s entirely too logical for these parts!
Since bigger heavier cars, trucks use more gas they are already being charged extre as opposed to an EV not paying for anything .Especially since EVs are so heavy and detrimental to the roadways.
My EV Mini costs exactly as much to register as an EV Hummer. The tax is equivalent to driving 14,000 miles per year at 15mpg. That is obviously not a fair system.
I agree. The Hummer should cost more. However what does your EV Mini cast compared to a ICE Mini, that also pays gas tax? Your EV should also be quite a bit more maybe 5x?
Makes sense why can’t smaller pickups be rated personal and ar a certain size weight hauling capacity commercial? Even hauling a trailer should be commercial so drivers can be tested on abilty.
That’s exactly the system we have now. Class 2 trucks(between 6000 and 10000 GVWR) are personal, class 3 and up trucks(over 10000 GVWR) are commercial.
You’re asking for a system that already exists, but you don’t know exists, because you don’t know what you’re talking about, I guess because you didn’t want to google it? I’m confused.
Well not exactly what I meant. But include a system for pickups and vans and even RVs. If someone buys an F450 whether for personal or business it’s gets charged for heavy weight commercial use or not. And commercial should be charged higher rates.
Well then I really don’t understand what you’re proposing. Under the current system, pickups 10k is commercial. Vans 10k commercial. RVs of any weight personal because RVs have a special exemption.
There are not many(non-RV) vehicles over 10k that normal people would buy, but any 4500 pickup or sprinter van and the Hummer EV are.
Might be a state difference. My brother had a Ram 2500 for business but when business shut down he transferred it to non commercial and saved money. I think all vehicles should pay a certain rate based on weight and multiple based on miles driven. But since gas tax raises money spent based on gasoline bought there should be a additional cost after certain miles. But also a cost for EVs to charge similar rate for EVs to what ICE pays for similar weight and mileage.
Sorry I don’t have an exact plan. But RVs need to pay alot more and require better driver’s.
So the gas tax is a really great way to tax vehicles accordingly to road use, accounting for both the distance driven and the size of the vehicle, and incentivizing more efficient vehicles for bonus points.
I fundamentally object to being taxed for the highway use of my car through the gas tax and being taxed again for the highway use of my car through registration fees. Some states also charge a property tax on cars whether used on-highway or not, but property tax is separate and I’m more okay with that.
RVs usually drive very few miles(1000 or less/yr) and pay a whole lot in gas tax. I’m really not sure RVs need to pay a lot more.
RVs absolutely should have more certified drivers, which is a whole separate debate. But in my state you can pass your driver’s test in a Tercel and that certifies you to drive an 80,000lb motorhome with a 10,000lb trailer behind it if you want. However, it does not certify you to drive an 8,000lb f250 with an 11,000lb trailer, nor does it certify you to drive a 28,000lb truck.
Yes it is tough but you register for use like a fishing license. Sorry if you don’t catch a fish. But if you do get a fish you pay for the replacement of the fish. But additional costs provided for protection law to make sure everyone has a license.
So please provide a fair way to charge for the occasional right to the road VS the charge for driving it some days and then every day.
Well that’s easy. Every safe and highway worthy car has a right to use the road as long as it is burning taxed fuel. That’s the fair and easy way to charge everybody who uses the road, only as much as they use the road.
No it should pay to use the road and compensate for any damage. Should a motorcycle and a semi.pay the same to use the road? Should a citizen who pays state taxes pay the same to use the road as a out of state resident? Should a person driving the road everyday pay the same as a person who only drives it on the weekend?
A semi should pay much more to use the road than does a motorcycle….. And it does, because it burns at least 10x more fuel and pays at least 10x more gas tax. Out of state drivers who buy fuel in the state they’re visiting pay taxes on the roads they’re driving on. Somebody who drives 7 days a week buys 7x more fuel and pays 7x more tax than somebody who drives one day a week.
I fail to see a need for a less ingenious tax system, this one covers all situations admirably well. Everybody who uses the road contributes tax. Nobody who doesn’t use the road contributes tax. People who drive more miles on the road contributes more, and people who drive heavier vehicles contribute more.
Obviously replicating such a system with electric cars is not so easy. One or two states now are planning on installing GPS trackers in all electric cars to track usage and tax accordingly. This is a horrible idea and a major affront, and is enough reason for me to not drive an electric car. Perhaps a power meter could be installed on electric cars to replicate the fuel tax system, or perhaps they could just utilize the odometer that’s already in every car. Another option would be a tax on tires.
I agree there is no perfect solution yet. Of electric usage is used and you charge from home how do you separate? If tires how do you get internet purchases taxed and the money to where they drice?
You’re mostly right, but semi’s don’t pay anywhere near their “fair share” of fuel taxes.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law#:~:text=The%20load%20on%20the%20road,car%20is%2010%2C000%20to%201.
If semis paid their fair share based on the road damage they cause, we’d have ten times as much rail freight or more. Semi trucks would be rarely seen. We might even still have a canal network in many areas.
No they don’t, especially because semis are at least 10x more fuel efficient than most small cars. Efficient meaning gallon per ton per mile.
Wait until you find out that farm exempt heavy trucks are allowed to run off highway untaxed diesel even when operating on public highways. Those trucks really don’t pay their share.
And of course, that dork with studded tires on his Hyundai Elantra in June is just as bad.
Isn’t this just the sharp cutoffs that ECE lighting has always had?
ECE actually goes up the opposite way to light up street signs.
“Overall, if you stood at a gas station asking drivers to sign a petition to sort out headlight glare, you wouldn’t be hurting for signatures.”
From the very same folks who drive around with their high beams on.
Tall trucks with excessively bright LED DRL’s added to the headlights are the problem. I’ve had to change my route home due to being blinded by the trucks when on a usually dark two lane road.
I can tell the bro dozer driving idiot gets annoyed when I flash my brights at them.
I did that once and the bro turned on his light bar as retaliation…totally on-brand, of course
That’s when you release the 10,000 moths you have stashed in the custom trunk compartment with the spring-loaded release mechanism.
Where I am it seems like every bro truck also has to install a huge LED lightbar on the roof, or if a real asshole on the lower front end. Just annoying as shit to deal with.
I installed a set of LED driving lights a month ago, less than 10 inches above the road, hidden behind my stock lower Scion xB grill. They help, but I am now considering an additional 20 in. LED lightbar in the area between the two driving lights. Not to be cool, but to see well. I even spent an extra hour making sure they don’t blind other drivers.
Aim the headlights you say? Where I live this is a concept, not a reality.
It’s already tough to drive at night without some ignorant asswipe blinding you.
And don’t get me started on the turds who lift their piece of shit trucks just because they can afford it. There are some god damned stupid people out there folks.
I have a confession to make. Used to have a Raptor with LEDs in the bumper. One evening I was using the LEDs to illuminate us packing up at an athletic field and forgot that they were on when I was driving home on the highway. While not on purpose it was a really douchy moment not to mention unsafe. Had to get that off my chest.
Bless you. We all screw up from time to time.
Merry Christmas.
The stock headlights on my Scion suck, even with a bulb upgrade.
The new driving lights have already saved me from suicidal deer twice. Worth the expense and effort.
BTW, the Slyvania brand has a huge choice of affordable styles and the best thing is they have a lifetime warranty.
My only regret is that I did not do this sooner.
My main concern with permanently limiting the light throw to avoid oncoming cars is that deer sometimes cross from the left. In other words, illumination is important. I can remember how much headlights used to suck (it’s recent history), and I vastly prefer the better illumination of modern headlights. And I am no more immune to glare than anyone else.
Fortunately it’s not a zero-sum game. I think matrix-pattern LEDs with smart sensors are the best hope for the future. They can redirect the beam pattern to avoid an oncoming car’s windshield in real time, and then restore the full pattern when the car passes.
I remember a ray-gun-looking thing on the dash of a gf’s high-end 60s car that cut the high beams—but also reacted to 1980s large reflective interstate signs. Now we have sensors and active management which I’m happy for as most aren’t as trigger-happy on the dimmer as I am.
Our mountains have plenty of deer, and I like to watch sunrises from peaks an hour or more away, so I’ve been trying to figure a way to add driving lights to a recently acquired M Roadster without it looking like complete crap. The lower trims have a place for them, but this has cooling ducts for the brakes instead. SMH: it’s definitely a first world problem—but, with that low hood, the thought of a deer in my face is certainly sobering.
If I thought deer whistles actually worked outside of exacting parameters, I would festoon the thing with them 🙂
A young buddy from work ‘upraded’ the headlights on his ‘14 Lancer. As I like cruising the mountains at night, I have looked into this a bit and found that affordable aftermarket replacements are mostly crap as there’s quite a bit of math & engineering involved in getting decent usable lights on the road. I warned him strenuously, but….
Three weeks after installation, he reacted late to my brake lights rather than seeing the deer and took some damage to the fender. But, the lights look really cool when it’s just sitting there, so he hasn’t swapped back.
(shrug emoji)
Another often overlooked reason for blinding everyone in the oncoming lane is poor alignment. When I got my new Legacy, I had people flashing high beams at me on night one. In a freaking Legacy. Sure enough, took it into the dealer after the first week and they found my headlights to be misaligned. Haven’t had anyone flash me since. Is some of this just poor quality control at factories?
Additionally, people who lift trucks and jeeps tend to overlook the fact that they need to realign their headlights. It’s not a thing most of the install shops recommend to customers and it usually isn’t listed as a step in lift kit installation instructions.
I got a 1.5″ lift in my 2012 Prius v and was asking about headlight reallignment when I got the kit installed, but realistically it was still “your headlights are now very low, instead of exceptionally low”, so nothing was needed. And nobody flashes their highs at me.
If that’s not even on their radar with higher vehicles though…yikes.
Ironically headlight adjustment used to be a required thing at the dealers for pre delivery inspection. Of course it was usually just blown off and not done.
This was before the LED days though.
I had the same experience with my Niro. Should be caught by a basic inspection when they receive the car, but dealers don’t do much of that these days, I guess.
I’ve lost track of how many subarus I’ve had in my shop that need headlamp adjustment. It’s like the factory doesn’t care. Must be the “love” they advertise.
Porsche and Mercedes-Benz have had this tech for years, and it’s available in Europe and Canada (and it’s on the cars in the US, but turned off by software). But thanks to the slugs at NTHSA, we”l all be dead and gone before they get around to approving it here. They’re too busy drooling over their speed limiters that they want to add (that will limit you to the speed limit read by the car off of signs – never mind that my cars with that tech only get it right 90% of the time) and the kill switches that are ostensibly for impaired drivers that will shut down your car if the *car* determines you are not capable of driving. Have Bell’s Palsy and you face droops? Sorry, no driving for you. Camera malfunction? Other electronic glitch? No driving for you. And this will be on 2026 cars. But allow headlights that are *already proven to work at reducing glare* in other countries to be used here? Nah, we need 30 or 40 years to study that.
This sounds like more of a hardware cutout to prevent the light from ever going into ongoing traffic. The luxury brands are using adaptive systems that adjust to road conditions and oncoming traffic.
“They’re too busy drooling over their speed limiters that they want to add (that will limit you to the speed limit read by the car off of signs – never mind that my cars with that tech only get it right 90% of the time)”
That’s far better than all the speeders who get it right 0% of the time.
No, that’s not better. It’s better that somebody goes 90 in an 80 than the camera read the sign wrong and limit you to 30 in an 80. That’s extremely dangerous.
There are multiple redundancies to ensure that such an already extremely unlikely situation will be even more extremely unlikely. Preloaded GPS maps as one source of speed limit information, RFID AND OCR cameras to “read” the signs (bonus points if the road reflectors encode speed limit information as well as position thus giving a constant reference), car based sonar/radar/lidar to measure the speed of surrounding traffic and ground based systems to tell AV computers to speed up or slow down and of course V2X for all the cars to report their speed to other cars. And of course manual ground control override of those inputs to change speed limits to reflect conditions such as weather, roadwork, road conditions, traffic, etc.
Those are just the possible tech I can think of off the top of my head. The nice thing about non visible EM signals is they can penetrate inclement weather better than visible light. With such tech AVs can correctly know speed limits far more reliably than your typical hormonally challenged meatbag speeder who knows the speed limits but chooses to ignore them for *reasons*.
Is changing every road sign and putting $3000 worth of imaging and graphics processing software in 300 million cars really the best solution to speeding, which is itself a minor problem compared to distracted driving?
As always, improved drivers education and licensing and better reasonable enforcement is the answer.
“Is changing every road sign and putting $3000 worth of imaging and graphics processing software in 300 million cars really the best solution to speeding,”…
Absolutely.
…”which is itself a minor problem compared to distracted driving?”
This solves that problem too
“As always, improved drivers education and licensing and better reasonable enforcement is the answer.”
No it isn’t. Speeders gonna speed regardless of those things.
People only speed for two reasons: they think the speed limit is too low and they can safely go faster, or they think the speed limit is a reasonable speed but do not care because they do not understand the real repercussions of their actions.
There is one solution for each of these reasons: raise speed limits(which is absolutely reasonable in many cases) or make sure that people understand the gravity of unsafe driving.
I fail to understand how speed limiters in cars solve the problem of distracted driving.
“There is one solution for each of these reasons: raise speed limits”
And there you make the road even LESS safe by either creating higher speed gradients or forcing people who have good reason to follow a lower speed limit to try and keep up which is FAR more dangerous than requiring lead footed drivers to slow down.
“(which is absolutely reasonable in many cases).”
Well that depends on who you ask doesn’t it? The coked out always in a hurry overconfident BMW driver might have a very different opinion from the Buick driving senior citizen with slow reflexes and poor vision.
Regardless of who you ask higher speed limits will ALWAYS have a negative environmental impact and will ALWAYS increase the forces involved in a crash and ALWAYS reduce the time drivers have to react to unexpected situations and will ALWAYS reduce the ability of drivers and their vehicles to do something about avoiding those situations.
“or make sure that people understand the gravity of unsafe driving”
A message that will continue to be completely ignored.
“I fail to understand how speed limiters in cars solve the problem of distracted driving.”
Because obviously that $3000 of imaging and graphics processing software isn’t just there to be a speed limiter.
https://www.automotivesafetycouncil.org/announcement/volvo-cars-announces-their-entrance-into-autonomous-driving/
I wouldn’t put much trust into those GPS maps. Apple Maps thinks one of the roads near my house is 40, Porsche thinks it’s 55, and Mercedes-Benz thinks it’s 45. And that’s just one small section (where there’s NO sign, so I don’t even know who’s right).
If there is no sign I think the road does not fall under an absolute speed limit but prima facie (At first sight) or basic speed law. If so I’d expect the GPS listed speed limits to be standardized once cars start depending on them (and liability applies) rather than humans who see them as a loose guidelines.
*Supposedly* no sign in Michigan means 55, but it could also mean “whoopsie, it got knocked down at some point and we never got around to replacing it.” I would never consider this stretch to be safe at 55, sign or not, as it has several businesses and medical clinics on each side and only one lane. A lot of vehicles are slowing to turn into these places. It could also be that the sign is on the other side of the freeway; this used to be a cross-street/intersection, but they blocked off the cross portion at the freeway and make you do a boulevard turn to get by. I haven’t been on the other side, but there could be a speed limit sign there, and they never bothered to put one on this side.
That sounds like prima facie so:
“Porsche” it if you think you can successfully argue to a judge it is “safe” to go that fast. I’m guessing the basic speed law would only cover 55 under perfect conditions, no slower traffic, no pedestrians, etc so YMMV.
“MB” if you want to avoid the hassle of “Porsche” and think you can argue to the cop to just let you off with a warning.
“Apple” if you want the cop to leave you alone.
There’s a section on an Air Force base near me where the speed limit is 45. Apple and Google tell me it’s 25. My truck’s GPS says it’s 70. I feel like the Security Forces guys wouldn’t be pleased if I did 70 through there.
I’m generally not happy about more nannies in cars, but I have to admit that the slightly fancy gps I have does a consistently good job with the little warning bell when limits drop. Pretty sure it has saved me from talking to an officer at least twice. So I’m not too concerned with being limited to 30 in an 80 zone.
unless it’s a GM (good ideas poorly executed), but that’s just personal bias 😉
“So I’m not too concerned with being limited to 30 in an 80 zone.”
Especially given the scenario described was a lane next to an exit ramp. Those tend to immediately be next to on ramps so a slower speed may not be a horrible idea.
The solution is already in this thread. Just get a lift kit so the camera doesn’t see the signs. /s
Well, I’d say the car thinking it’s only 25 on the freeway (has happened several times to me after passing an exit) is a lot worse.
Why would the car think its only 25 on the freeway? Was there reason to think so?
When it passed the exit it assumed I was taking it, apparently – GPS said it was an exit so it must be 25, even though I did *not* take the exit.
Ah, that’s fixable. RFID sensors in the roadway to remove all doubt.
Sounds like pretty expensive fix from someone named “Cheap Bastard” <g>.
Well if you’re going to build roads might as well do it right. RFID isn’t so expensive.
It is if you have to tear them up first just to do it! And remember, *nothing* the government does is inexpensive.
“It is if you have to tear them up first”
We are talking US roads here so yeah, that’s already done!
NHTSA already approved Adaptive Headlights in 2022, and some Audis sold in the US have the hardware, but the full feature set is restricted by software. Supposedly the Q6 e-tron will have this enabled at launch. I haven’t heard of a program from Audi to enable these on existing models that have the hardware.
The Adaptive Headlight system is better than this half-assed Nissan approach.
Edit: NEVERMIND, I was confused and commenting on a totally different feature.
Well, yes and no. They were forced into it by the infrastructure bill (after having studied it for years), but came up with much different and more stringent testing procedures than those used in Europe. When they evaluated a Volvo test vehicle from Europe that was OK there, it failed the US tests. So even though commenters specifically noted that differing requirements from Europe would basically postpone the adaptation, that’s exactly what they did. What automaker wants to go through the testing time and expenses when they can just turn them off? And until someone does go through it, no one has an advantage or incentive. So they effectively stopped them anyway.
Indeed, the rental car I had in Scotland had self adjusting LED headlights. It would dim the side lights systematically with oncoming traffic. Brilliant.
The problem of too-bright headlights is the same as the problem of too-high hoods on SUVs and trucks. It isn’t a problem for anyone buying these vehicles. It’s a problem for other people. And most people don’t seem to care about other people. So I don’t see most people buying a car because the lights are friendlier to other motorists.
Until the IIHS advises insurance companies to raise premiums on vehicles that are explicitly more dangerous to people outside the vehicle.
That assume those drivers even have insurance or assets.
This is all well and good. BUt there’s still the issue of huge trucks and SUVs absolutely killing it for small cars driving in front of them. As a guy who mostly commutes in a Miata, I frequently consider ballistic modification of those big honking Uber Todeswagen driving behind me, on my early morning drives to work.
I completely understand that pain, I’ve got a lowered NA Miata that I have just full stop given up driving at night at this point. I’ve had trucks turn their headlights off when behind me because they can see me covering the side mirrors, but head on traffic is brutal, and they seem to think I’m invisible despite the car being bright red.
I drive a lifted van for work, and in winter mornings I regularly cut my lights off for people in front of me at a couple of stoplights near the house. I understand the pain as my old Subaru is not tall, and my convertible is Miata-low.
just saying not all of us are jerks
Yes, I’ve started keeping a handkerchief on the passenger seat in my Corvair to cover the mirror at night when needed, the roof is about at the middle of my chest when I stand next to it, so even a standard height (non-lifted) truck towers over it. When one of them decides 55mph on a 50mph dark, winding road with deer all around isn’t fast enough and gets up on the rear bumper with high beams, fog lights, and aftermarket light bar all on, it’s like the Sun somehow landed in the back seat
Don’t forget this is all the fault of the IIHS. They weren’t getting enough attention, suddenly they make up new headlight standards requiring twin lighthouses on the front of every car. Cue a whole bunch of terrified headlines about lights being too dim according to the IIHS, manufacturers respond, and now we’re all blind at night
IIHS headlight ratings specifically take glare to others into account.
This is patently untrue.
As mentioned above, a big part of the problem is that many vehicles now are tall trucks, and headlights are simply positioned higher – often directly at eye level even for other smaller SUVs’ drivers, not to mention smaller “regular” cars.
A truck with lights positionned high can very well burn your retinas while being completely inefficient in lighting the road for its driver.
Have a friend holding a powerful flashlight from 15ft away, at chest level, pointed towards your belt.
Now have him bring the light up at the level of your eyes, while still pointing it towards your belt. See if there’s a difference in how it blinds you.
Is it really the brightness?
I don’t believe so.
It’s the height.
When headlamps on trucks and SUVs are eye level to a person driving a normal car – that’s a problem.
And it’s not just from the front – it’s from the back as well.
Try mounting the lights down low where they are illuminating the road rather than the roofs and interiors of the cars around your oversized 4WD gender-affirming vehicle.
And while we’re at it – lets talk about the height of bumpers as well.
Because the bumper of your SuperHD1OneTon at the level of my trunk lid and door handles isn’t going to do what they’re intended to do.
It’s also the color – yellow tinted light with the same lighting power (lumens) is a lot easier and gentler on human eyes than white or blue colored light, but modern LED headlights are exclusively white or blue tones. They could change them to yellowish and leave everything else about them the same and the issue would improve significantly
Yes, bring back selective yellow!
I thought one of the reasons they went with white/blue is for better color accuracy? ISTR Mercedes or somebody bragging about that years ago. But really, who gives a crap about color accuracy when you just need to be able to see the objects?
There are laws on the books about headlight brightness and height. And bumper height. And entertainment screens in view of the driver. Lots of things. All for good reason.
Problem is automakers have collectively gone the way of the Wild West, so nobody enforces any of it anymore.
Do cars even have bumpers anymore?
The LED headlights on my 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz have a notch in the pattern that lines up perfectly with oncoming traffic. The effect is essentially the same as what is described in the article, only not as dramatic.
Late model Ford F250’s…..the worst. And they are everywhere unfortunately.
It’s a shame, too, because I love how the Super Duty’s look from a distance. But yeah, clear victims of the hood height problem, both for headlights and pedestrian collision safety.
Man, I love a good headlight rant! If everyone would just go the hell home when it gets dark, this wouldn’t be an issue. I mean, I’m just sayin’
That would leave me stuck at home 17 hours a day in December. 🙁
Pennsylvania resident. People would be stuck at their 9-5 jobs overnight for most of December when the sun goes down before 5.
So make those jobs WFH. Problem solved.
Oh believe me, I’m sure making every job that could be WFH, WFH would resolve a lot (definitely not all, but a lot) of current climate, transit, and car concerns. (Spoken as a person who is, in fact, WFH)
The problem is WFH solves problem that are money makers for those who have the power to make WFH a reality. The employees are too cowardly to force the issue so here we are.
Thank Jeebus this is getting some attention!
B/c this place is awesome, I’m hoping there’s an autopian who dailies a Lotus Esprit or similar who’ll chime in “not a problem…the glare’s been going well over me for years now.”
A friend lent me his Miata for a week on vacation years back. The windshield header was so low I couldn’t see any lights. I don’t even think I saw any fog lights.
That’s great and all, but usually my concern is the massive amount of Nissans driving around at night with just their DRLs because those are way too bright, so people constantly forget to turn on their actual headlights. Combine that with the fact that most Nissans these days seem to be some generic Grayscale color, so they blend in and are damn near invisible from behind at night.
Yeah, a simple light sensor on top of the dash could do it. My ’90s Chevy Beretta had this even.
I always thought it was overkill as a quick perception (didn’t even have to look at them) of the gauges would tell me something was amiss, but now with screens that’s impossible. Also, I’ve noticed plenty of people seem to rarely look at their instruments as it is.
That’s the worst part, from what I can tell almost all modern cars period, including Nissans, have automatic headlights, but it seems like they NEVER use them for who knows what reason. A part of that is likely down to a large number of rental cars being Nissans, and rental companies always seem to turn auto headlights off, same with mechanics or any other service type place.
The number of people driving at night without any lights on is horrifying now. Here’s what I wish automakers would do. Put an ambient light sensor in every car. If the sensor determines it is dark outside and the car does not have its headlights turned on, make the LCD instrument panel flash on and off until the headlights are turned on. But since nobody reads the owner manual, they’ll probably keep driving without headlights and complain to their mechanic about a flashing instrument panel. Maybe the audio system could have a voice that says “Turn on headlights.” I guess we can’t idiotproof everything.
And, at least for the ones sold here in the UK, they seem to like lighting up the interior in full even when the headlamps are off and it’s just DRLs, so you lose that cue to turn the lights on. Their auto lights are also badly programmed and don’t come on with the wipers like every other car I’ve had with auto lights and wipers (a Ford, a Seat, and a Polestar).
I firmly believe that cars should not have an ‘off’ position on their headlamp controls, because people are morons and we can’t have nice things. ‘Auto’ and ‘on’ are the only two positions people actually need. I rented a Vauxhall …. something crossovery? Not sure, it was utterly bland and forgettable. But it had no ‘off’ position for the headlight controls. Just ‘auto’, ‘sidelights’, and ‘on’. So damn sensible.
This is the way new Mercedes are – and it makes so much sense.
My old Mercedes has Off, Sidelights, Auto and On.
You can’t get high beams or fogs when the car is in Auto – you have to remember where “On” is (which you can’t see because the control is down around your left knee and you’re trying to see what is ahead of you)
Valets & car wash attendants also have this nasty habit of turning headlamps off (while they are also fucking with seat adjustments and stereo settings) so that I might be driving for a day or two with the lights off before I realize they’re no longer in Auto.
That’s something that pisses me off too. All the controls in every car I’ve personally driven (admittedly as a young’n) are illuminated…except the turn signal stalk and the windshield wiper stalk. Why don’t they put lights in those? Even the luxury cars don’t seem to have lights in those.
In my Prius v, I second-guess myself every time I have to turn on my rear wiper in the dark in the rain, because turning it one way is intermittent and the other way is the sprayer, and both feel like the exact same amount of resistance. If it was lit, it wouldn’t be a problem.
I have a Highlander with this exact problem as well! Good to know I’m not the only one. I’ve finally seemed to figure out that up is intermittent and down is sprayer.
Even weirder when you have different cars: one I flick up, the other I have to twist. So much of life is lived on autopilot for me 😉
Sounds like a 123 or 126. There was always that split second after a few days in a same-era Subaru when I had to reprogram and reach for the switch.
This issue is easily solved with digital headlight controls. I’m not necessarily advocating touchscreen headlight controls, but on my Tesla, regardless of how you’ve mucked with the light settings, upon the next restart of the car, the light defaults back to Auto.
But then you have to deal with collapsing suspensions, waterlogged batteries because car wash, comically poor panel fit, no turn signal stalks/wiper controls/gear selectors – not to mention Elon’s BS.
I think I’d rather drive in the dark.
In concept I agree, but in practice, I hate this. I had a rental 2023 Corolla recently and it had an auto setting, but also the “force everything off” setting, labeled “DRL Off”.
I ended up putting it in “DRL Off” each time I parked it, because if you put it on Auto, the lights stay illuminated for some time after you shut the engine off. I hate second-guessing myself like that. If the car is off, turn off the damn headlights.
Conversely, if I were parked on the side of a road in broad daylight due to a breakdown, depending on multiple factors I might prefer my taillights to be on but not headlights, or maybe none on at all to conserve battery if visibility is good enough, etc.
My 2012 Prius v is a lower trim without the Auto option or DRLs and my muscle memory just has me turning them on and off manually every single time I get in, but I get it…auto is conceptually better, but I’d never fully trust it if it stays on for any amount of time after the car is off.
I don’t know how people can walk away from their cars with the headlights on and just say “oh, they turn off on their own.”
I killed my van’s battery once because I left the headlights on and had to squeeze out the right side door, and you don’t get the beeping “headlights on” reminder exiting a different door. That was in high school, but still…that sticks in my memory.
“I don’t know how people can walk away from their cars with the headlights on and just say “oh, they turn off on their own.”
Because the car has a menu in it’s system where such choices are made – and I made those choices when I bought the car – so I know what it’s meant to do.
It just feels redundant to me that they do that at all. I don’t feel confidence in it until I see them turn off.
I’m an auditor. “Trust, but verify” is in my blood.
I live in a very rural area, therefor very dark at night. Love that the headlights stay on to light my walk and house entryway when I come home after dark.
In my Sienna, you can configure the amount of time the headlights stay on after exiting the car. I have mine set to turn off immediately.
I bet it works the same way on a Corolla.
For many cases yes. But every time I go to a fireworks show, concert or movie in the park… there’s always someone who goes to their car and fires up the AC. On a hot evening who could blame them. But their headlights are shining into the crowd and ruining the show for everyone. And someone has to go up to them and encourage them to turn their headlights off.
There are a lot of dolts in my neck of the woods driving with fog lights on in broad daylight.
Cars with DRLs should just be required to have red rear DRLs as well. Basically just have the taillights on all the time just like the DRLs.
I’ll go one better: a low mounted center brake light on the FRONT of vehicles so you can tell whether a driver coming from the left or right is at least thinking of slowing/stopping. And brake lights with illumination linked to how hard the brakes are applied. Is the car in front just slowing a little or doing some serious stopping?
Modern Volvos do this.