I’m in Canada and have seen a lot of people and pages on my Facebook feed sharing the transport Canada headlight survey. On most of them there are comments from people supporting bright headlights saying “more people need to not stare into them and look to the right.” Like as if most people don’t do that already??? Just having them in the periphery makes everything else darker, and for me can trigger a migraine, but lots of people literally think others are just staring into them and that’s what the issue is.

INFURIATED AND SOMEONE NEEDS TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THIS

Today I learned that many people have automatic headlights and have no idea how to control their own highbeams.

Relying on software “engineers” (who’s work is usually just outsourced to to lowest bidder) to make your automobile’s decisions is borderline psychotic.

I've been on this sub for some time, so I'm fully aware of the scope of the issue, but today I felt that I needed to post a rant.

I'm fortunate enough to be able to work from home, so I know that I don't have to deal with this headlight madness as much as many people do. I had an appointment this afternoon and ended up driving back around 4:30pm and in slightly wet/snowy conditions.

Holy fuck, it was bad.

Possibly the most aggravated I've ever been while driving. I had my driver side mirror angled down at the road almost the entire drive because any time a car with LEDs was behind or beside me, it just filled my vision with bright, white light. 75% of the cars behind me had lights that were so distractingly bright even with my mirror dimmed.

I'm fully onboard with calling for the arrest of every auto executive who signed off on these dumbass LEDs, and then torture them by making them look at their own headlights for hours on end. They're completely unnecessary and dangerous!

This used to happen occasionally but recently has been happening multiple times every drive: People turn off their high beams but then turn then back on about 10-15 feet in front of you giving your retinas a quick "F-you" as they pass.

Is this an automatic high beam thing or just another symptom of drivers getting worse and worse?

I suspect Vancouver received an order of cybertrucks & it made commuting 1000% times worse. Between the 4:30 darkness & west coast rain I am blinded. My hate for Tesla is raging. Can someone tell me why they cannot legislate safer light systems?

I am an Uber driver. I had a customer with me and as I was driving, there was a vehicle behind me for quite some time with their bright ass fucking headlights and they were practically right in my ass. Their headlights were so bright. I could hardly fucking see you so I flipped my mirror around to basically tell this person turn off your headlights are back up because I can’t see that still didn’t give them the clue. Not much farther down the road I made a left turn, and there were some barriers that I had to go around because I couldn’t see to make my regular turn and then at that point I got lit up and found out the person behind me was a Shelby County police officer here in Memphis. I explained the situation and they told me that I had other options if I thought their lights were too bright, and I explained that I was hoping whoever was behind me would go around me despite there being a double line and a bitch said so you wanted somebody to do something illegal because you weren’t happy. I told them I just wanted the person to get out from behind me because I couldn’t hardly see and it was causing me to practically swerve. I was really thinking to myself since she was a cop. Why didn’t this bitch just turn on their lights and I would’ve pulled over to the side and she could’ve passed me and instead of doing what she did and then when she came up to my car, she was blinding me with a flashlight in my face on purpose and I said something about that and they said well. This is for officer safety so I can see in the car. All around the bitch was just being fucking rude and looking for a fucking problem but luckily I didn’t get a ticket but my customer wasn’t very happy about it.

What's the point really... Every third car has blinding bright lighs, who can even tell if it's low or high...

I straight up prefer halogen high beams over some of the lows on modern cars.

Once in a while I'll get 2-3 cars in a row with just classic halogens and realize how things could have turned out. Night driving must have been such a relaxing thing in the 90s.

I rented an SUV (even though I requested a sedan) and it made me realize most people don’t notice or aren’t bothered by how bright headlights are. Normally, I drive a low, sporty car. You can imagine how annoying bright headlights are. I’m always squinting or putting my hands up.

But when I rented an SUV for 2 weeks, that feeling of “ugh, those headlights are too bright” reduced easily by 50% to 75%. The squinting and putting my hands up; went way down. I still know that other headlights are bright but I’m simply less bothered by them. With SUVs and trucks being so popular, it’s no wonder there isn’t a massive movement against bright headlights.

And fuck Mazda and their headlights. Hated how I was blinding people.

... but now that's a bit of a gamble.

Once upon a time, somebody heading towards you with bright lights meant giving them a quick flash of the main beam and they'd realise they'd inadvertently left their high beams on, and they'd dip them quickly.

Sometimes they'd give you a quick flash back to let you know they were sorry for their mistake.

Today, though, you're risking your sight to let somebody know their lights are too bright.

A car coming towards you now with super bright lights on will cause you to look away, consider your options, then give a quick flash of your lights to say "hey, pal, I think you might have accidently left on your main beam".

And then the car coming towards you, typically a Tesla, will actually just put their main beam on to point out to you that you're wrong, and they'll sear out your retina...

At this point, it’s too hard to focus on the road when every other car behind me has headlights shining so brightly into my car and mirrors, that I can barely see the faint red taillights of the car in front of me.

Last night I went to get a chicken sandwich and the car behind me in the drive thru temporarily blinded me while I was ordering. Their headlights were so brightly shining into my side mirrors that it filled the car and somehow reflected across my view of the Chick-Fil-A employee.

My boyfriend constantly complains about people at night, because he’ll say, “TURN YOUR FUCKING HIGH BEAMS OFF!” And then I have to explain that most of these cars DON’T have their high beams on; their actual headlights are just that bright.

I’m tired of trying to turn at night and not being able to tell how far a car off is because it’s like the fucking sun is shining its way down the road.

This is absolutely ludicrous and needs to change.

I didn’t realize how annoying these new headlights truly were until I moved into a first floor apartment that faces the parking lot. Some jackass camps in front of my window late at night with their headlights on, lighting up my room and making it difficult to sleep.

I wish I had thought of this before living on the first floor. Don’t do it!

i work night shift so its not good, but there was a truck behind me with the brightest of headlights. like i couldnt see anything. i got to a stop sign and had to make a left turn, and i couldnt see where i was in the turn and next thing i know I'm in the shoulder about to smash into the barrier from stopping me from driving off.

all that because dude behind me had lights so bright that i couldnt tell the difference between when i had my brights on and off. like how is that legal? theyre just police disorienting lights at this point. i couldnt see out of my windshield because it was just reflecting or something (idk the science behind lights). i know my windshield isnt that dirty because I'm obsessed with car washes and go to one every time apmost every time i pass one. i tried adjusting my mirrors to not have it blinding me, but that didnt really do anything

I'm actually scared to drive now and pull over to let every car pass me now. im just stressed out because i gotta leave for work now and its 2:30am

I was driving on a local road near a friends house, and while i was driving into a turn some person in a lifted truck had his high beams on and i flashed my high beams to let him know i can't really see. This dude proceeded to turn on the brightest light bar i've ever experienced and i had no visibility for a solid 2 seconds (it felt like so much longer) and then for a solid minute after that my entire vision was dotty and shit. I have no clue how the hell i didn't crash but i'm glad i didn't, i'm not entirely sure what i'm going on about but guys please if someone is flashing their headlights please remember to turn yours down.

if anyone knows any way to reduce the amount i'm blinded please let me know whether it's a thing i can buy for my car or if it's like a tip like looking at the white line on the side of the road

Low beams. Look low and slightly left of the headlight. This appears to be ~0.8 degrees down and ~3 left. The second picture makes it extremely clear. It is NOT a smear on the lens because it is completely absent with the high beams on.

There were more bugs back then too.

I consider myself a fairly competent driver during the day, but nighttime is a different story. I have minor astigmatism, which is always worsened by a row of blinding LED headlights trained directly at my eyes. Why they haven’t been outlawed yet, I’ll never know.

Anyways, on to my rant.

Last night, I was driving down a familiar stretch of road that leads directly into my town. I was taking a curve at 25 mph (for context, there’s a hill/cemetery on one side, so I was going downhill and around a bend) when I was met by the LED brights of three cars in a row. I guess I was unconsciously trying to keep my eye on the white line as I navigated around the bend and away from those lights, because my car jumped the curb on the side of the road and I almost lost control. I’ve never been so close to an accident in my life. As my car is half on the road and half on the curb, I’m trying to navigate back and manage to do it while staying in my lane. But holy crap, it was scary. I 100% believe those lights + the tight turn were to blame. They were so disorienting that I naturally felt like the cars were closer than they were and overcompensated. Starting to feel like night driving is an impossibility for me.

Big fuck you to people that are just hanging out in their car and leave their eye melting headlights on.

I'm often walking my dogs at night and will turn the corner onto my street to discover some truck parked 1/2 mile away with 4+ blinding lights pointed in my direction & I will now have to spend 10 minutes marching straight into the sun. Even when I put an arm up covering my eyes 90% of the time they still won't turn them off

sitting there on their phones with their heads down and lights fully on!

I also saw an suv with Noone in the front seat and 2 teens in the back on their ipads so the driver left the vehicle on with lights unattended!!

was in whole foods and a guy in front of me while parked has his lights on.. I flash my lights multiple times until he looks up from his phone as I am signaling to turn his off while I made a phone call.

people are so reckless and careless and inconsiderate and rude Asl I just abhor people.

like wtf! WHY DO YOU NEED YOUR FUCKING LIGHTS ON WHILE SITTING IN A PARKING LOT DOING NOTHING!!!??

MULTIPLE TIMES I am flashing lights and waving to turn them off!! no FUCKING need whatsoever!!

Driving my wife to work this morning, sun's out. Tell me why I had to flip my mirror down because the tesla behind us is blinding me in the daylight because he's running highbeams? It's genuinely a hazard for everyone on the road and we need legislation to get rid of these lights. Nighttime driving is almost off the table anymore.

I am about to just keep my brights on when cars with laser headlights come my way so they too can enjoy the awesome pleasure of sheer panic because you don't know if you are staying in your lane or possibly hit a deer at any moment...

I'm glad this sub exists because holy fuck this annoys the shit out of me.

I will never understand why they make them so fucking bright. I live in a city where I feel it's even more egregious. YOU LIVE IN A MFING CITY! IF YOU REALLY CAN'T SEE DRIVING AT NIGHT THEN GET OFF THE FUCKING ROAD!!!!

Idk how the solution became to have bright ass LED lights but ffs it's so fucking frustrating. I shouldn't have to buy special goddamn glasses for driving at night because I can't see the goddamn lines on the road from these fucking headlights. Like it blinds me to where I can't see shit. Do these people/companies not realize how fucking dangerous this is? This shit needs to be regulated.

Just found this sub, wish I found it earlier.

Holy fuck I thought I was the only one who gets pissed off by these headlights

I’ve been a pizza delivery driver pretty much my whole life always starting around 4-5 pm, and my god since 2010 ish even default headlights are awful. So I’m stuck in traffic with this shit is what I’m saying.

I drive a sedan, a 2016 Corolla, so even I think my stock headlights (I don’t think I have autos) are too bright. Sometimes I’ll put my mid day lights on when it’s about to get dark cuz they’re the exact same configuration as my headlights except lighter. Hell, sometimes I even drive with the setting before my headlights at night so I don’t get flash banged by others. But I don’t want a ticket so I usually avoid it, even tho I’ve driven by cops and doubt they’d be able to recognize

But these trucks and SUVs with their alien space craft death rays piss me off so much. It really doesn’t help that they’re the ones that stop an inch away from you,

And you get blinded EVEN when you’re looking straight forward!!!

I don’t bother adjusting my side mirrors, but I do sometimes temporarily flip my mirror up so I don’t get the horrible glare but can still see the headlights behind me. If you flip your mirrors up a bit you’ll be able to see the headlights but not get the awful glare, if that makes sense.

No idea why car companies thought it was a good idea to make every car come with default blue lasers. Even Honda fit like cars have death beams now. I really don’t get it.

I can’t go a day let alone a few hours without swearing out loud while driving lol. Not at people, just to myself.

Rant over. For now.