What's with the new high-beam headlight thing?

[Irvrobinson]

Over the past several months I've noticed that more and more people are driving with their high-beam lights engaged all the time. Or bright LED driving lights mounted low like fog lights that are engaged all the time. What's up with this nonsense? I'm glad in my daily driver I still have an old-fashioned manual rear-view mirror, so I'm at least not blinded by these fools from behind.

And I've noticed it's not just stupid young men in clapped-out old Hondas who act like this; city buses, commercial vehicles, and especially lifted pick-up trucks. What am I missing?

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Same here Irv. I thought it was just me! Lol. The sad thing is, I give em a “bump” of my brights to say, Hey turn off your high beams. Then they return the favor and I’m totally blinded. Wtf...

 

[KEW]

I know the new projector style headlamps have a bluish light that is more prone to glare issues.
But that doesn't account for everything I have been experiencing.
GA doesn't have an annual inspection to make sure headlights are properly aimed or that they are not too bright. I suspect some cases involve lights that went out of alignment from a fender bender or just someone piddling around with the adjustment screws.
Also, some people buy replacement lights which are sold as "for off-road use only" and have brighter lights than are legal.
When I rode motorcycle, I would use a bulb that had a legal low beam and an illegal high beam. My logic was I would never have the brights on at night with traffic around me, but I primarily used the bright light to catch peoples attention during the day - during the day, motorcycles tend to disappear for the driver looking for cars - at night the low beam headlight works fine.
I was very conscious of using my brights at night. As much of an image as there is around bad-a$$ tough motorcyclists and gangs, any intelligent person realizes you do not want to piss off someone in a 4 wheel vehicle when you are balancing on 2!

 

[Irvrobinson]

Also, some people buy replacement lights which are sold as "for off-road use only" and have brighter lights than are legal.

Yup. I think this is what the fast and furious crowd does with their fog lights.

 

[MR.MAGOO]

Same here Irv. I thought it was just me! Lol. The sad thing is, I give em a “bump” of my brights to say, Hey turn off your high beams. Then they return the favor and I’m totally blinded. Wtf...

In some neighborhoods if you flash your high beams to get some idiot to turn theirs off you could get shot.

 

[MR.MAGOO]

Some guidelines for headlight use!

https://www.dmv.org/how-to-guides/when-to-use-headlights.php

In most modern US cities and larger towns street lights provide more than adequate lighting of the road at night. No need for high-beam use on the car.

 

[everettT]

Yup. I think this is what the fast and furious crowd does with their fog lights.

A boat load of aftermarket LED lights come in 6500k, and it's way too white and too bright. I could drive with just the angle eyes on in my last BMW and those were AC Schnitzer aftermarket.

 

[pewternhrata]

For some reason they make led "replacements" for halogen headlights. Led disperses light differently than a halogen bulb. A lot more goes into engineering a headlight housing than the common person knows, and one designed around a halogen light will not work properly with any led plug and play bulb. Most are stated on the package as off road use only, meaning it will not meet standards. Led is oversold as the best, ignoring the hotspotting that led plug and play bulbs create.

 

[everettT]

For some reason they make led "replacements" for halogen headlights. Led disperses light differently than a halogen bulb. A lot more goes into engineering a headlight housing than the common person knows, and one designed around a halogen light will not work properly with any led plug and play bulb. Most are stated on the package as off road use only, meaning it will not meet standards. Led is oversold as the best, ignoring the hotspotting that led plug and play bulbs create.

Correct, buying just a replacement bulb kit dosent do anything without a correct projection. Most people will not pay for the right upgrade, especially the boy racer crowd.

 

[pewternhrata]

Correct, buying just a replacement bulb kit dosent do anything without a correct projection. Most people will not pay for the right upgrade, especially the boy racer crowd.

My favorite is the diy 'retrofits' that consist of going to Home depot, getting a piece of 2.5" or so pvc pipe and hacking up the housing to extend the mount to compensate for the typically longer led bulb. C'mon really?!

 

[ParadigmDawg]

I wonder if some of this is a poor attempt by the manufacturer to implement Adaptive Headlights. I know that the VW group has had issues with these. It's actually one of my favorite features on my MB. I started to get where I was feeling uncomfortable driving at night which used to be my favorite time to drive. When I purchased the new car everything changed. I honestly can't remember if my Audi's had this feature or not but if the did, MB implements it much better. I love driving at night again and I haven't had anyone blink their lights at me in order to get me to dim the lights, they seem to go to low beam before I even notice the oncoming car.

Active LED headlamps and LED taillamps
Standard
Pioneered by Mercedes-Benz, dynamic LED headlamps generate light that's even closer to natural daylight than the standard Bi-Xenon headlamps. Active Curve Illumination and Adaptive Highbeam Assist continuously vary the beam pattern of the multiple LEDs in each headlamp to help maximize the illumination of corners and straightaways, without creating glare for other drivers. The horizontal taillamps feature a "twin torch" design and LED turn signals and brake lamps.

 

[Irvrobinson]

I wonder if some of this is a poor attempt by the manufacturer to implement Adaptive Headlights. I know that the VW group has had issues with these. It's actually one of my favorite features on my MB. I started to get where I was feeling uncomfortable driving at night which used to be my favorite time to drive. When I purchased the new car everything changed. I honestly can't remember if my Audi's had this feature or not but if the did, MB implements it much better. I love driving at night again and I haven't had anyone blink their lights at me in order to get me to dim the lights, they seem to go to low beam before I even notice the oncoming car.

Active LED headlamps and LED taillamps
Standard
Pioneered by Mercedes-Benz, dynamic LED headlamps generate light that's even closer to natural daylight than the standard Bi-Xenon headlamps. Active Curve Illumination and Adaptive Highbeam Assist continuously vary the beam pattern of the multiple LEDs in each headlamp to help maximize the illumination of corners and straightaways, without creating glare for other drivers. The horizontal taillamps feature a "twin torch" design and LED turn signals and brake lamps.

I don't think so, most of the vehicles seem to be older, with halogen headlights.

Perhaps it's just my eyesight changing as I get older, but for me LED headlights are so bright that if I don't look away from them as cars approach they cause annoying afterimages.

 

[highfigh]

Over the past several months I've noticed that more and more people are driving with their high-beam lights engaged all the time. Or bright LED driving lights mounted low like fog lights that are engaged all the time. What's up with this nonsense? I'm glad in my daily driver I still have an old-fashioned manual rear-view mirror, so I'm at least not blinded by these fools from behind.

And I've noticed it's not just stupid young men in clapped-out old Hondas who act like this; city buses, commercial vehicles, and especially lifted pick-up trucks. What am I missing?

You may be assuming they know that the headlights didn't need to be adjusted when the bulbs were changed or that they SHOULD HAVE been adjusted when they altered the suspension.

 

[j_garcia]

Yes, part of it is you are getting older. I notice the same thing. Today's lights are a higher temp color making them look brighter. Even with projector beam lights on many cars, they are still quite bright to me.

 

[Irvrobinson]

You may be assuming they know that the headlights didn't need to be adjusted when the bulbs were changed or that they SHOULD HAVE been adjusted when they altered the suspension.

I agree. One other interesting note... due to the laws for high-intensity headlights in Europe (I'm not sure about Asian countries), these lights have to have a self-leveling mechanism. Not so in the US. So German cars with HIDs and LEDs are self-leveling (or at least all the ones I've seen). I don't think any German manufacturers are doing US-only lights.

 

[j_garcia]

Some of the Japanese cars have self leveling as well, but not all of them. Only a handful of US cars have that, and those are ones that were designed for the European market.

 

[KEW]

It looks like some people are "upgrading" to HID (projector) light Bulbs in reflector style headlamps. The projector bulbs are prone to glare and headlight designed for HID lights have a projector housing which better directs the light to the road and away from on-coming drivers.

AAA has a pretty comprehensive brochure addressing causes of headlight glare:

https://www.aaafoundation.org/sites/default/files/HeadlightGlareBrochure.pdf

 

[MR.MAGOO]

http://newsroom.aaa.com/2015/05/aaa-tests-shine-high-beam-headlight-limitations/

 

[GO-NAD!]

I wonder if some of this is a poor attempt by the manufacturer to implement Adaptive Headlights. I know that the VW group has had issues with these. It's actually one of my favorite features on my MB. I started to get where I was feeling uncomfortable driving at night which used to be my favorite time to drive. When I purchased the new car everything changed. I honestly can't remember if my Audi's had this feature or not but if the did, MB implements it much better. I love driving at night again and I haven't had anyone blink their lights at me in order to get me to dim the lights, they seem to go to low beam before I even notice the oncoming car.

Active LED headlamps and LED taillamps
Standard
Pioneered by Mercedes-Benz, dynamic LED headlamps generate light that's even closer to natural daylight than the standard Bi-Xenon headlamps. Active Curve Illumination and Adaptive Highbeam Assist continuously vary the beam pattern of the multiple LEDs in each headlamp to help maximize the illumination of corners and straightaways, without creating glare for other drivers. The horizontal taillamps feature a "twin torch" design and LED turn signals and brake lamps.

Our 2017 Nissan Rogue has a similar feature and it works brilliantly. I just have to get used to not turning them off, before getting out of the car...

 

[MR.MAGOO]

It looks like some people are "upgrading" to HID (projector) light Bulbs in reflector style headlamps.

Well, I feel like "upgrading" to a James Bond car, the Aston-Martin with the machine guns in front and oil slick launcher in back. I'd shoot out the lights of those over-bright on-coming drivers, and spread an oil slick in front of all the idiot tail-gaters.