Saskatoon optometrist Rachael Berger has seen an increase in the number of patients concerned about their vision when driving at night.
“I’m seeing an alarming number of perfectly young, healthy individuals coming in and saying, ‘I’m having a hard time seeing at night, what’s going on,’” she told The Current guest host Peter Armstrong.
She tells patients it’s not them — it’s the LED headlights increasingly used on vehicles.
When it’s dark, Berger explains, the rods in our eyes turn on to help us see better.
“When you’re driving at night and your rods are activated, and all of a sudden this blast of light comes, it can be very jarring, because our night system isn’t prepared or necessarily expecting that,” she said.
Advocates are calling on the federal government and car manufacturers to adjust their regulations and industry standards around bright headlights because there needs to be a better balance between solutions to help drivers see while not compromising other’s safety.
Bought a used truck recently that had third party LED headlights that couldn’t be adjusted and I couldn’t see shit.
Xmas present to myself was OEM replacement headlights. Now I can see AND others can see. Give me your upvotes!
This is why I had a light yellow tint applied to my glasses last time I got some. Yellow industrial safety glasses also work, for those who don’t have prescription lenses.
The regulations need to change. Iirc, manufacturers are required to cap the wattage/ consumption of the emitter. Only leds have gotten so efficient, their lumens/ wattage is ridiculous compared to halogen/ hid, etc. They should cap lumens instead.
Headlights are regulated and tested by brightness, not power consumption, so it’s already what you suggest. The problem is brightness is tested using a few very standardized tests.
LED arrays make it easier to engineer uneven brightness throughout the area of the light beam, e.g., dimmer in the middle than the outside, dimmer on the left sides, etc. This means manufacturers can make headlights that are overall brighter than allowed but can still pass tests as the region tested by regulators is designed to be dimmer, so the test results are acceptable.
nonsense! my neutron star headlights ArE jUsT MisALigNeD
ThEy ArE nOt ToO bRiGhT tHeY aRe JuSt MiSaLiGnEd
In every comment thread every time this topic comes up.
I used to accept that explanation, but even “perfectly adjusted” headlights become super blinding when an oncoming car approaches at even a slight upward hill, which is super noticeable now that most new cars seem to come with LED headlights as standard.
The factory ones are blinding now. This isn’t a misalignment issue anymore. At one time you could say that and have a good chance of being right.
Nissan Rogue, I think, the lights are up very high on body and just blasting straight forward
I would say it is kinda both. Either people have misalingned lights, they are too fucking bright or they do both at the same time.
I passed LED cars that were great in terms of brightness and those that were not. Same with regular lights.
There is also good number of people who use these lower fog lights every time they drive.
If poor alignment is enough to blind someone when driving then the headlights are too bright. Driving is a very dynamic activity and inclines and bumps change where headlights are pointed constantly. Your headlights need to be dim enough that people can actually look at them without losing all their nighttime vision.
Old folks aging. Get off of my lawn with your bright LED headlights. Lol.
Wait until they get a load of my laser projector headlights.
That’s bitchmade. I have x-ray headlights so I can see through traffic.
