• Jarix@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Hey there. So its probably not headlight alignment most of the time.

    Brightness is regulated by wattage still not lumens. Regulations have not been updated with the switch to newer technologies that are vastly more efficient per watt

    But thats not the whole story either. Even when the brightness of the bulb is not too different, how the light is shaped matters to how we percieve the brightness. Newer technologes (LED and HID) are less reflected and are more direct than older halogen technology and also the colour is whiter and even getting almost into blue, which is much harsher to you when you get hit with it. Red light has long been known to preserve night vision better than other colours.

    The last part is that its more important that the headlights make it safe to drive the vehicle so the light is aligned to the drivers needs primarily at the cost of making it worse for the person driving in front of you, but thats why they invented the rear view mirror flipper so they get a much less amount of reflected light off their rear view mirror.

    But that means with the prevalence of SUVs headlights now sit higher because vehicles are taller which only makes everything else that much for this issue.

    And its because there is pretty solid evidence that brighter headlights makes the driver a safer driver and it seems the trade off of this is still safer roads

    • stoy@lemmy.zip
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      11 months ago

      I mainly brought up the headlight alignement issue as I saw a thread about Teslas headlight’s alignment being reset after a software update, but that is just a specific car (btw, the front indicators on some Tesla models are absolutely shit here in Sweden, but that is a different topic).

      As for the rearview mirror flip, I know what you mean, but I haven’t seen them in moderns cars for years now, even in my 2021 Leon it is an electric system that deals with it and darken the mirror itself.

      I do not argue that the benefit of extra lights improve safety, when used properly, what I am pissed about is that the other driver diliberately flash his highbeams with extra lights right into my car just as he passed me.

      Sure I had flashed to tell him that I got blinded by his lights and it appeard that he had forgotten about his highbeams, feom my perspecive I just saw a car driving towards me with blinding lights on so I tried to get him to help me out, sure I made a misstake, but by absolutely and deliberately oblitarating my night vision on a dark road he could have made me have an accident.

    • Jarix@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Also there’s ADB texhnology coming that is an adaptive beaming texhnology that uses sensors and cameras to turn off components when it detects a situation where the light is shinning into other peoples eyes. Not sure where this at or when it might be rolled out broadly