• MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io
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    3 months ago

    It’s not because they’re LED. It’s because they’re aftermarket: illegally colored, and poorly aimed or not aimed at all.

    • winterayars@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      1000% this. Aftermarket, fucked colors, and/or no alignment is the cause of the problems. I would add that a lot of aftermarket lights are also way too bright. Sure, the owner can see (a tiny bit) better but everyone else gets blinded. Even then, it’s not bad unless they’re not aligned properly. (Well, it’ll still blind you if it’s a truck directly behind you but that’s just trucks.)

      • 𝕾𝖕𝖎𝖈𝖞 𝕿𝖚𝖓𝖆@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I own a '97 Honda. The last owner had LEDs in it. The lenses weren’t designed for LEDs, they were designed for halogens. So one of the first things I did was revert the headlights to halogen bulbs. And they work perfectly fine. I drive in a suburb so the streets are already fairly well lit. I don’t need to cast a beam 5 miles out to see where I’m going.

        Also, it’s that soft yellowish white light. Not that harsh daylight bluish light everyone and their mom is obsessed with. I don’t get it. Anyway, the best thing you can do in 99 times of 100 is to consider what equipment you have and stick to OEM spec.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Anyway, the best thing you can do in 99 times of 100 is to consider what equipment you have and stick to OEM spec.

          Or if you do legitimately want to upgrade, consider swapping in something that was OEM spec on a higher trim level/fancier related car model (e.g. Acura stuff on your Honda).

    • Grumbles@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      This isn’t always correct. I have a 2021 Toyota and the lights are factory installed and way too bright. I’ve had the lights lowered by a mechanic, but I still blind oncoming traffic and frequently get people flashing their brights at me. I feel terrible, I don’t want to blind anyone. I had someone yelling at me about my aftermarket lights and I had to tell them they were factory, he was still mad at me. It drives me crazy, I hate these lights too! Replacements are over $1,000.

      • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        Thanks for sharing this. I’ll try to remember there are at least a few people out there like this when my blood pressure starts to rise, and I wish painful deaths upon the presumed assholes blinding me on my way home from working for 14h straight.

        Emissions checks need to have strict headlight inspections and tight regulations on aim and intensity. Permits should be required for all these additional spots and bars that truck owners love to slap on too. It’s too far out of control.

        • Grumbles@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Yeah, I hate them too. When it’s late and I’m on a 2 lane and a sedan is coming towards me I’ve gotten in the habit of turning my lights off to give them a break (not when it’s too dark), but I don’t do it for trucks, we just blind each other.

          I’ll look into a film or something I could try to dim them.

      • Bob@feddit.nl
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        3 months ago

        Can’t you stick some material over the lights to dim them? Or is that illegal?

    • aport@programming.dev
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      3 months ago

      Bullshit, Tesla headlamps blind everyone else on the road straight from the factory.

      • Vivendi@lemmy.zip
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        3 months ago

        “tesla” and “build quality” do not match, even before the cyberstuck

      • helenslunch@feddit.nl
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        3 months ago

        Yes, my Tesla came from the factory with the headlights pointed at the sky. Was getting flashed all over the place. Fortunately they have an easy GUI in the MCU to aim them. But I’m sure many drivers are not smart enough to figure that out or even realize it’s possible.

      • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 months ago

        Unless they were aimed poorly from the factory (with how bad their cars are built I’d lean towards that being very probable) they should not be blinding. I know someone with a very early model 3 that had poorly aimed headlights, but he eventually got it fixed. But the 5 other people I know with Teslas are not at all blinding. My Outbacks slightly fucked up headlight is more blinding than their cars.

      • Mac@mander.xyz
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        3 months ago

        That’s because there is no governance for aiming headlights properly. It’s usually done by dealers who don’t care.

        Most headlight issues are because people have retrofitted improper lights into their factory casings. different light sources project light in different patterns so if you put an LED or an HID bulb in a halogen housing it will blind the fuck out of everyone.
        But at the same time if headlights aren’t aimed properly they’ll just blind anyone anyway regardless of the light pattern.
        On top of that really tall vehicles, even when aimed properly, still aim their headlights directly into your eyes just because of how high above the ground they are.

        Very little of the blinding headlights issues are due to the source of the light.

    • ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      Often this is the case, but there’s also a not insignificant number of times I’m convinced a car with shitty aftermarket bulbs ends up being a new Acura, infinity, or Mercedes when I get close enough to determine the make.

    • Trev625@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      Every car that blinds me is some extremely new 2020-2024 year car. I get blinded by every third car on the road. The amount of people that get aftermarket headlights installed is very much not a third of all car owners. I can get behind poorly aimed by the dealer but you are wildly overestimating the number of people who have aftermarket lights.

      • boonhet@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        Are they all trucks? If not, maybe you need to get your eyes checked if they’re all blinding you that badly. Or do they just not aim headlights properly in the US anymore? In EU, low beams are supposed to have a dipped beam.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I don’t understand how LEDs were ever allowed with the same sockets. What legitimate use could that be.

      … plus this has somehow gotten so popular that my garage, part of a major regional chain, offered to replace my headlights with LED replacement bulbs

      … although I can see the personal motivation. When everyone else seems to be causing so much glare, you need all the help you can get

      • PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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        3 months ago

        On the basic end: because they’re cheaper, use less energy, are more reliable, and last longer.

        On the fancy end: have you seen demonstrations of Audi’s matrix LEDs? They have the ability to dim specific areas dynamically, so that they can track incoming traffic and keep them in a dim-zone while still keeping the road and shoulders well lit.

        Keep in mind that there is nothing special about LEDs that make them brighter; they can make LEDs dimmer and they can make halogens brighter, but the manufacturer has chosen not to.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Sure, but making them with the same socket, so they fit in the same place, despite having different beam shape and reflector requirements, is entirely wrong.

          My car has LED headlights and they fantastic. They also have a very sharp cutoff meant to keep it from blinding others, assuming correct alignment. It also claims to have the hardware for active matrix and will turn that on as soon as they get approval

          My older car that I keep for my team has noticeably dimmer lights. I’d really like to convert to LEDs and I know there are some that fit and are sold as replacements. But I know they’re not. Those manufacturers need to be fined for every kit sold like that

          • PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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            3 months ago

            I think the key part is “the LEDs could be made dimmer, or the halogens brighter, the manufacturer chose not to”.

            It makes sense for plain ol halogens to share the same socket as plain ol LEDs, because they function in the same way and are the same brightness.

            But bulbs of different characters probably should have different sockets, so that high-intensity bulbs of any kind (eg xenon, laser, led) cannot be used in a regular lighting fixture without the necessary hardware to make it safe.

            But here we have another problem - standardizing car parts is very beneficial to the owner because it makes repairing much easier and cheaper; if every manufacturer uses their own connectors for everything, then vendor lock-in would get that much worse and replacement parts would get that much harder to find and more expensive.
            If manufacturer we’re encouraged or forced to use standards, and we’re instead encouraged not to, then they’d all make their own proprietary connectors for everything forcing you to get all maintenance done at official dealership where they can charge extortinat prices.

            So it’s kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario. I think all we can do is regulate the behavior we want to see, and fine manufacturers, garages, and drivers that violate it.

    • Atherel@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 months ago

      That explains it to me. Never understood the hate for LED headlights, they’re great. Aftermarket is illegal here, you don’t see any.

  • Rob@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    In Europe, this is hardly a problem. I’ve recently been on the road more in the US, and it sucks. But I think it’s more so due to cars being ridiculously big and their lamps being way off the ground.

    • rzlatic@lemmy.ml
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      3 months ago

      it is a problem in europe too. all new german SUVs, and many others, have front beams around the height of others drivers eyes so they blare right into internal rearview mirror, car is lit like ufo is here to take us, and when meeting those cars coming from opposite direction, it’s again at the height of eyes to burn the retinas. the regulation of headlights is obviously fucked.

      • repungnant_canary@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Headlights definitely need more regulation but this issue is very amplified in SUVs which are much underregulated. They have mismatched bumper heights to other cars causing more damage, they drag pedestrians underneath causing more injuries. I personally see no point for modern SUVs existing at all, but let’s at least make sure they are safe on roads.

      • SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        3 months ago

        When an SUV with floodlight headlights is tailgating me, I ask the passenger to use the rearview mirror to reflect their light back into the eyes of the driver. When that fails, we flash them a few times with one of those stupid 5k lumen mega-flashlights. They always seem to back off.

        • Maalus@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          “when an SUV drives with its headlights on I then try to blind them and take away my own rearview mirror so I can’t see behind me. When that doesn’t work we blind them with high intensity flashlights. No, your honor I don’t think I’m a complete sociopath that risks everyone’s lives with careless and petty behavior”

      • Mammothmothman@lemmy.ca
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        3 months ago

        And then the snow falls and all the light not being directly shot onto your retna from the light is now being bounced off every surface in your feild of vision.

    • Tja@programming.dev
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      3 months ago

      Thanks for this clarification. I was wondering about this meme, I have never had a problem with headlights here in Germany. It’s the first thing they check at TÜV. Wrong headlight setting, inspection failure. But getting your car inspected probably will trigger some freedumb people over there.

    • helenslunch@feddit.nl
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      3 months ago

      Probably because Europeans have largely solved this problem with laser/Matrix headlights that can identify oncoming traffic and turn off only the lights that are specifically pointed at that vehicle, but these are illegal in the US.

    • mightyfoolish@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      From what I hear, people who modify their vehicle by lifting it higher with bigger wheels are suppose to recalibrate their headlights (point the headlights toward the ground).

    • Venator@lemmy.nz
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      3 months ago

      Whys it German cars that most often cause the problem then…? Are bmw x5s not as popular in Germany?

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Lamps off the ground aren’t a problem when they’re aimed correctly. The big issue is everyone putting LEDs inside of halogen housings. The light scatters everywhere and blinds everyone.

      • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        You are making it sound like its a user modification problem. There are a number of large vehicles that come stock with headlights that blind people in smaller cars.

      • helenslunch@feddit.nl
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        3 months ago

        They are actually. When your headlights are 5 feet off the ground, there’s no way to light the road ahead of you without also blasting it into the back window of the sensible sedan in front of you.

    • RazTheCat@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      This exactly. They are definitely getting brighter year over year as well. It is noticeable, I just feel like a cop is shining their light in my car every time a truck gets behind me now. I feel like there are just no regulations in the US on the brightness nowadays.

  • barsquid@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    We need regulations. It is dangerous to operate a vehicle if oncoming traffic makes it that difficult to see anything in your own lane.

    • PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      The problem isn’t LEDs though. The technology isn’t what’s making it bright.

      The regulation needs to be specific about what they want the end result to be, not about the specific technology used.

      Like: there should be a mode of operation where oncoming traffic at x distance, seated at y height, on level roads should not experience more than z brightness.

        • NuclearDolphin@lemmy.ml
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          3 months ago

          Going after random people is harder and worse than going after the manufacturers of products.

          Unless you want police shooting black people because their lights were “misaligned”

      • ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I think it is LED technology. LEDs have a very small bandwidth. Even white leds are just three very small small bandwidth emissions.

        The very tight intensity in such a small bandwidth is hard on the eyes. Even when compared with the same power of older lighting technology, which has a comparatively massive bandwidth.

        LEDs could be designed to compensate for this better. They could add more different colours of LEDs to the matrix that makes up white LEDs.

    • OpenStars@discuss.online
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      3 months ago

      If we won’t regulate guns despite school shootings, what hope is there to regulate cars? (Unless someone rich can get a cut?) Apparently someone else’s freedumb to do dangerous things is my own freedom to stfu:-(.

      All Praise and Honor be to our glorious Electoral College, may it forever prevent us from making dumb decisions such as “preventing needless deaths”.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        How? We only read the good things about active matrix headlights, not how they behave in the real world

      • PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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        3 months ago

        This is why regulations should be about the behavior they want to see and not the technology used.

        The goal is not to blind drivers; companies should be able to use whatever tech they want, but they should get fined every time their tech doesn’t work as expected in the real world.

      • Anivia@feddit.org
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        3 months ago

        Maybe you need to get your eyes checked. I rarely get blinded on the road in Germany, and when I do it’s almost always someone who just forgot to turn off his high-beams. Active matrix headlights are very common here nowadays and never blind me

  • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    With halfway decent power stabilization, and the appropriate about of directionality in the lights, plus the lights being somewhere below the typical sedans window frame, the only time headlights should bother you, is when you’re on a hill, regardless if they’re LED or not.

    IMO, one of two things is very wrong if you’re getting blinded by anyone’s headlights (highbeams not withstanding): either the designers and engineers that worked on the car are idiots, and placed headlights in a location that was going to blind people, or they used crap optics, etc… Or, the owner of the car can’t be arsed to have their headlights properly adjusted.

    Honestly, it’s a little of A and a little of B… Depending on the car and the circumstance.

    One the person I knew actually had self adjusting headlights, which somehow were damaged and would not adjust properly anymore. They drove around like that for years before retiring the vehicle.

    Can’t fix stupid.

    • boonhet@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      LEDs legally have to be self-adjustable at least in EU. Your mandatory inspection will usually catch it if that system doesn’t work.

      The bigger problem is people throwing LEDs in halogen housings. It’s not the LED’s fault. The other big problem in the US at least I reckon, is having vehicles that are way too tall, so their headlights, while hopefully dipped properly, are above a normal driver’s eye level.

      • SSTF@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        It’s not uncommon to see massive trucks with insanely bright LED lights (a certain personality type), which puts the lights just about windshield level on a sedan.

        What’s extra fun is now the lights also blind drivers going the same direction as the truck, as every mirror in the sedan is filled with light.

      • ondra5@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        Not really, I have factory LED headlights on my 2023 Toyota Yaris and those are manually adjusted the same way halogen headlights used to be. Mind you I don’t have the LED matrix technology.

        When it comes to people throwing LEDs in halogen housing, it doesn’t have to be bad. I used to use a pair of OSRAM LEDs instead of halogens in my Citroen Berlingo 2006, but those were homologated for road use with the same lumen rating as homologated halogens. They were not cheap, but the light pattern was the same as with halogens and they blinded oncoming traffic a lot less than halogens (I tested that with my friends and colleagues). Of course using cheap illegal LEDs in halogen housing is a bad idea, but you can’t throw illegal solutions in one bag with legal and sensible solutions.

        • boonhet@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          Interesting. I couldn’t legally drive a car with high output headlights without it having both automatic adjustment and headlamp washers. It’s simply mandatory

          Maybe you mean that it’s manually adjustable in addition to having auto-leveling? I think that’s the case for nearly all cars. Or maybe your car manages to stay below some sort of light output limit despite having LEDs.

          • ondra5@lemm.ee
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            3 months ago

            What you’re talking about aren’t LED headlamps, these regulations (auto-leveling and washers) are mandatory for xenon headlights. LEDs don’t fall in the same category as xenon headlamps. What is interesting is that halogens have maximum allowed lumen rating which is a lot lower than what xenon headlamps can have and LEDs can have even more.

            • boonhet@lemm.ee
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              3 months ago

              So it’s based on the lumens and it’s hard to make HIDs that don’t exceed the limit, but easier with LEDs. I just assumed that your LEDs were bright.

      • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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        3 months ago

        Well, your first point is great except we don’t have yearly inspections on vehicles in North America or anything. Inspections happen when cars are registered, then never again until ownership changes hands and it needs to be registered by a new owner.

        Add that to the fact that inspections are done by mechanics, and they don’t generally give a shit about it, and it’s a recipe for failure. Last time I got a used car inspected, the mechanic looked at the car through the window and said “is that it?” I replied “yeah”, and he went through the list and checked all the normal stuff without glancing at the car again. So most inspections here are void from the get go.

        The second point is valid and a design problem which I covered previously.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Well, your first point is great except we don’t have yearly inspections on vehicles in North America or anything.

          I can say that, at least in Texas, we require annual inspections as a condition of yearly vehicle registration. We just don’t test for the impact of headlights on incoming traffic, because… TxDOT (and the Texas legislature/governor by extension) doesn’t consider it worth regulating.

          Add that to the fact that inspections are done by mechanics, and they don’t generally give a shit about it

          Mechanics test what is on the regulatory code. Add headlight brightness to the list and they’ll test for that, too. This isn’t an unsolvable problem by any stretch.

        • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
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          3 months ago

          Well if you like your mechanic then keep quiet about it, because what you just described is a felony, which carries a fine and loss of inspector’s license. And vehicle inspections are dependent on the state and county in question. Most US states require vehicle inspections. Some don’t.

          • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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            3 months ago

            Oh, I wouldn’t rat anyone out over it. I’m just saying that it happens. I’m also in Canada, but I think the same applies (felony/fines/loss of license for inspection).

            I’m a bit of an amateur mechanic, I’ve done a lot to cars in my time. I’m nowhere near the skill of an actual mechanic, but I know enough to know when something isn’t safe. I see significant rust/rot, I’m probably not going to even try to get it certified/registered until I’m happy that it’s safe enough for me… I know that many are not as knowledge/discerning. They’re not my concern though. I wouldn’t bring it to a mechanic to be inspected unless I felt safe in the vehicle.

            That said, that was a former “beater” vehicle that I no longer have. I kind of killed the motor on it… I think that’s the one that the motor died on me. I was pushing the old beater well past what I normally would because I was in a rush. I got well over the speed limit on the highway. When I came to a stop, the poor thing stalled and would not start again. I never found out what actually went wrong, and the vehicle went to the scrap pile soon after afaik.

            I currently drive an off-lease vehicle, it was about 2 years old when I acquired it and I’ve kept my eye on its condition since then, about 10 years now. I do regular maintenance, and all the things I need to in order to keep it in good condition. There’s a little rust now, but it’s pretty limited. Nothing that concerns me. I don’t have a desire to replace it, as the car market is nuts. How is my 12+ year old car still worth like $9k? It’s a civic!

            Anyways. I don’t have any desire to make anyone’s life harder than it needs to be. I knew the car was safe, so I didn’t have a problem with it. My only concern is that others that don’t know better are going to end up driving around in unsafe vehicles because their mechanic can’t be bothered to actually inspect the cars during an inspection certification.

            I don’t know why he did it, maybe he just knows that vehicle doesn’t really have the problems that would cause it to fail an inspection? I have no idea. I think that one was an older accord. Maybe he knew that car specifically? IDK. I didn’t ask. I took the win and went on my way to register the car. I was a broke college student/grad at the time (I can’t remember if I had graduated at that point or not).

    • hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de
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      3 months ago

      person I knew actually had self adjusting headlights, which somehow were damaged and would not adjust properly anymore. They drove around like that for years before retiring the vehicle.

      Where was that? In Europe this should have been spotted during the mandatory inspection.

  • ThermonuclearCactus@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    3 months ago

    I drove past a car that had its headlights flickering about 15 times every second last year. No clue if it was intentional but it was distracting as all hell. (and probably dangerous to epileptic people)

    • SirHamlin@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      This is typically someone who installed LED lights in a car that was designed for incandescent most DRLs run at a lower voltage than when the actual headlights are turned on. So when you run lower voltage to run those daytime running lights when using an LED bulb instead of filament that wasn’t meant to be dimmable they Flickr or flash.

  • RazTheCat@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    The new trucks in America are all blinding because of how high off the ground they are and the ridiculous number of lumens. It’s like manufacturers just want bigger number, bigger number = better, lol.

    • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I can’t prove it, but I suspect that a lot of people are suffering from having backlit phone, console, and cluster LCD panels in their face while driving. The dim incandescent glow of the speedometer as the only thing illuminating the cabin is a thing of the past. This makes me think that folks actually need more lumens on the road in front of you because your pupils are not at all dilated for the dark.

      Meanwhile the color temperature and spectra of LEDs vs halogen lights could not be more different. I honestly think our eyeballs respond to to these things differently and it just so happened that halogen is/was easier on our eyes in a lot of cases.

      BTW, I’m not excusing anyone for blinding other drivers where it can be helped, especially manufacturers. That shit drives me up the wall.

  • mlg@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Congress could easily pass a lazy maximum brightness law but we’re too busy stalling a mostly approved daylight savings law because some asshat party leader(s) is waiting to slap 200 riders onto it like another morbillion dollars of tax money to Israel.

    It’s so bad people put here are getting illegal windshield tint just to reduce the insane glare.

    Of course a real solution would be a proper regulation with tickets for anyone running incorrectly adjusted headlights or anything that is basically acting as a high beam.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Of course a real solution would be a proper regulation with tickets

      That would require a municipal government with any real legislative authority, a state government that wasn’t the wholly owned subsidiary of big business, and a police force that considers “driving with overly bright headlights” more worthy of their time than “driving in the wrong neighborhood while black”.

  • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I’d say this ‘chat’ should go to GM and their stupid ideas to point fucking headlights straight into the mirrors of cars ahead of them. Only one of the few hazards they cause on the road today.

  • Fox@pawb.social
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    3 months ago

    There was nothing wrong with the halogen and I’ll die on that hill. Ever since they abandoned it, it’s been an arms race, and the aftermarket drop-ins are the worst offenders. I’ve resigned myself to never seeing anything on the highway shoulder because of the intensity of oncoming traffic’s headlights.

    • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      I like LEDs over halogens because they’re more energy efficient. I just wish they’d said “Cool, we can use fewer watts for the same number of lumens” instead of “Cool, we can get more lumens out of the same number of watts”

        • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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          3 months ago

          That too, the ridiculous lifespan of LEDs, to the point where it didn’t even occur to me to mention it.

            • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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              3 months ago

              Realistically, on an ICE vehicle, the power efficiency gain from halogen to LED is negligible, but still. Electric vehicles, that difference becomes important.

              • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                3 months ago

                Very true! Thought I had no idea how ridiculous the battery capacity was on some electric cars was until Technology Connections ran vehicle-to-load to his kitchen and powered his phone, laptop, and all his cooking stuff for 24 hours straight, simulating a power outage. I think it drained like 17%.

                Still, when driving, every bit of efficiency helps!

        • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          That’s good because now the heights have integrated LEDs so you’re replacing the whole lamp unit.

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    3 months ago

    It’s mostly the color of the light that’s the problem right? Our brains register the cooler light in the contrasting darkness as blindingly bright as opposed to warmer incandescent light, despite both lights having the same measured brightness (lumens).

  • Saledovil@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    You can’t go and kill the guy at a point where you know he has events in his yet. (A person’s “yet” is what is known of their personal future). You have to attack him at a point where you he doesn’t have any events in his yet that you know about. This also means no killing Hitler before April 30th 1945.

    • Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 months ago

      Lucky for us my super power is that I’m completely incompetent at remembering dates and events. Even after reading your comment I couldn’t tell you what date you said or have any idea what it is referring to.

  • gedaliyah@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I’m surprised nobody has mentioned the horribly distracting flicker that they make.

  • limelight79@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    Man I want to put LED bulbs in my 1999 model year car, but I don’t want to start blinding people. The last thing I want is for someone to hit me because they were blinded. It seems many LEDs do intend to have similar beam patterns to halogen bulbs, but I’m not sure how well they actually do.

    Our 2020 Mazda has LED headlights, and I gotta admit, they are much better for seeing. We live off the beaten path, not a ton of traffic, but plenty of deer and other animals.

    On the other hand, my headlights in the 1999 had gotten really hazy, and I recently did one of those headlight restoration kits to it, and it worked stunningly well. Since then, I haven’t driven at night very much to get a feel for how much it helped. So maybe I won’t need LEDs. (The halogens in there are relatively new.)